The highly anticipated home-and-home matchup between college football goliaths Alabama and Ohio State is still on!
Then again, the first game in Columbus, Ohio, isn’t scheduled until Sept. 18, 2027, so both the Big Ten and SEC conferences have the luxury of time on their side to make sure they can actually pull it off.
Anything leading up to that point?
Nothing is promised.
Thursday was just a reminder of that.
The Big Ten, and according to sources soon the SEC, plan to “pause’’ the nonconference contests with all sports, including football, for this fall, looking to eliminate all the extra long-distance travel that some schools were planning to take.
In a follow-the-money business like college football, if the Big Ten and SEC dip into that conference-only pool, expect all of the Power 5 Conferences to throw the swim suit on and dive in.
The unknown in all of this is what happens to the non-league annual rivalries like Florida-Florida State, South Carolina-Clemson, etc., and also how many league games will be added?
There were multiple reports that both the Big Ten and SEC would like to make sure each football team has at least 10 games, but the logistics of scheduling would still have to be figured out.
What doesn’t need to be figured out? The economic fallout for the smaller conference teams that counted on big paydays in traveling to places like Tuscaloosa, Alabama, or Ann Arbor, Michigan, to take on powerhouses. It will be monumental.
Not just, “OK, we can recover from this next fall with a few fraternity car washes and team fundraisers’’ monumental, either.
The economic hits that the coronavirus has wreaked havoc on college sports is already changing the landscape moving forward.
Need evidence?
Take a quick glance over to Palo Alto, California, and what Stanford University announced on Wednesday, cutting 11 varsity sports programs. This on the same day that the Ivy League suspended all fall sports, and the ACC announced no fall sports starting up before Sept. 1.
Colleges across the country have been cutting lower revenue sports the past few months, and it’s only going to get worse.
Just the Big Ten alone folding the non-conference tent up affects 36 scheduled opponents, including 28 from the FBS. That little scrimmage that Ohio State likes to run every September against a MAC school? Gone. This year it was Bowling Green.
A double smack for the Falcons, who were also scheduled to get a payday from Illinois and take on the Illini come Sept. 19. Same goes for Ball State, BYU, Central Michigan, UConn and Northern Illinois, who were each scheduled for two Big Ten games this fall.
Truth is it’s not a good day to be a Bowling Green swimmer. By tomorrow, the pools might be indoor skateboard parks.
As far as the marquee Big Ten football games that are likely off the schedule, how about Michigan at Washington on Sept. 5, and the Buckeyes heading to Oregon on Sept. 12.
Nationally, cross Alabama-USC off the docket, and say goodbye to Oklahoma-Tennessee.
That’s where the collateral damage starts.
Where it ends for college sports? Well, 2027 in Columbus can’t come soon enough … if it ever comes.
