Now that it seems to be a done deal that there will not be any football at Ohio State and other Big Ten programs this fall, the page has turned to looking towards the spring.
And while that’s better than an all-out canceling of football totally, there are still a lot of questions and hurdles that will need to occur in order to pull it off. In other words, Cloak and Dagger, meet college football extreme makeover.
But what are the main questions that need to be answered to get this truly extraordinary and unprecedented effort off the ground? There are more than a handful, so this is not all-encompassing, but here are five of the biggest things that will need to be addressed to have a “spring” football season at Ohio State.
Next … What does spring mean?
What is the timing of a spring football season?
I think when everyone starts talking about a spring season, the assumption is that it’ll fall somewhere around the traditional spring calendar somewhere around March or April. But that might not necessarily be the case.
On a call with reporters on Wednesday, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day stressed the need to begin a spring season in January so that everything can fit neatly before the NFL draft and also give any player that’s going to play two seasons in a calendar year (including the next traditional fall one) time to recover physically.
However, we’ve seen others layout some initial plans for a bit later. The Big Ten will need to start planning and jump on the framework of the timing first and foremost like — yesterday.
Next … Where will the games be played?
Where will the games be played?
If the season is going to begin mid-to-late winter, or even earlier in the spring, the schizophrenic weather in the midwest will need to be accounted for. You deal with a little bit of that at the tail-end of the traditional fall calendar where sweet tea and grits aren’t served ad-nauseum, but it’ll be a bigger factor in a so-called spring scenario.
If there are going to be some semblance of fans allowed in the stands, you can cross this off the list because programs will thirst and yearn for ticket and concession revenue to help soften the blow. If not though, it doesn’t really matter where the games are going to be played. You could play them on the moon as long as the weather cooperated (talk about breaking field goal records).
So, to not let the weather level the playing field more than it should, indoor venues could be in the mix. In the Big Ten footprint currently, there are enclosed stadiums in Minneapolis, Detroit, and Indianapolis. Perhaps Miller Park in Milwaukee could be configured for football as well. That’s only four venues so creative scheduling would need to occur unless we’re using home venues no matter what.
Next … How many games will be played?
How many games will a spring schedule consist of?
Okay, this one’s pretty important — at least that’s what I read in the Dummy’s guide for scheduling. How many games will a spring season consist of? Will it be ten games like the fruitless efforts put forth for the fall?
While it might be an assumption that you would use the same schedule and just slide it to whatever timing is agreed upon, it’s not that easy. Again, there are some considerations as far as the 2021 NFL Draft goes, as well as attempting to squash seasons from a high impact sport too close together..
Because of that, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that each team plays less than nine or ten games. It’ll be interesting what number of games the league decides upon — again, given that this is all a real possibility in the first place.
Next … Will incoming early enrollee freshmen be eligible?
What about the incoming 2021 class?
There is a pretty special 2021 recruiting class coming in for Ohio State, and the silver lining in a move to a spring season for them is that it appears they may be able to get the benefit of two so-called seasons in one calendar year.
And right now, the way the NCAA rules read, one year of eligibility consists of one calendar year. So yeah, unless there is further clarification or recommendations that come down, the four-and five-star recruits coming in for any team that holds a season after January could get a two-for-one deal.
We’ll have to see where the discussions go with this, but Day said that incoming recruits are pretty excited about this possibility. Not all would get on the field, but that’s the case anyway. The kids would still get to enjoy a real, live big-time game environment immediately instead of grinding through workouts in some pretty miserable weather conditions.
Next … What about the College Football Playoff?
Will there be a shot at a national title?
I don’t know how you work out any potential shot at a national championship if conferences are working off of far different timelines. Right now, if the ACC, Big 12, and SEC continue ahead and play in the fall, the College Football Playoff will have to make a determination on its timing.
You have to believe that the CFP would have a hard time moving the date of the game all the way into late spring, so that likely means teams not playing in the fall would have to root for a split-national title. However, that will be difficult to do fairly if teams end up playing a drastically different amount of games.
Now, if everything gets pulled back and the three Power Five conferences end up postponing as well, that’s an easier nut to crack.
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