Nick Saban says spring college football would be ‘JV’ due to opt-outs.
As the fate of the college football season, which is still slated to occur in the fall for some teams, hangs in the balance, the possibility of floating the season into spring, when the coronavirus will seemingly pose less of a threat, is being seriously considered.
Both the Big Ten and Pac-12 have canceled their respective fall sports seasons, including college football, and Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren supports playing football in the spring, along with officials from the Pac-12.
But the ACC, SEC and Big 12 are all still planning on proceeding with their fall college football season. It is possible that these conferences will cancel fall sports and then look to move football to the spring, but one prominent head coach in Nick Saban has come out against that possibility.
Nick Saban thinks many top players would opt out of a spring season
On Tuesday morning, Saban appeared on ESPN’s Get Up! and explained his reasoning for being against college football in the spring.
He pointed to the fact that a spring season is incredibly close to the NFL Draft, saying that top juniors and seniors who are considered good NFL prospects will not want to risk hurting themselves and then jeopardize their NFL future.
"“If you’re a junior or a senior and you have an NFL grade, are you going to play in the spring? Or is that going to become sort of a JV season with a lot of these juniors and seniors opting out?”"
Saban’s point has already been noticed by numerous players, including LSU senior defensive back Kary Vincent Jr., who opted out of his senior season in order to prepare for the NFL combine.
Although Saban makes a good point, and many top players most likely will opt out of a spring season, most fans and players would appreciate a spring season without high-level talent rather than no season at all until fall of 2021.