Mark Story: There is a rationale for trying to play college football in 2020

Some weeks back, Louisville Athletics Director Vince Tyra said something about the intersection of sports and the coronavirus pandemic that seems especially relevant to the debate over whether college football should be played this fall.

Tyra was asked about college athletes in any sport who might prefer to redshirt during the 2020-21 school year rather than burn a year of eligibility competing under what seems likely to be less than optimum conditions.

"I'd warn that there is no definitive end to this virus," Tyra said. "We may be facing the very same thing this time next year. There's no guarantees. I'm not naive (enough) to believe that a vaccine just shows up."

Since the coronavirus rocked the United States in mid-March, the fervent hope has been that a vaccine will be developed to counteract the virus and allow all our lives to return to "normal."

That may happen, but it would seem to behoove us as a country to prepare as if the way out of a vaccine will not occur.

If we have to live with the coronavirus for the foreseeable future, how can we go about that _ mitigating as much risk as possible and doing all possible to protect vulnerable segments of the population _ and still get done what we as a society need to get done?

In the context of college sports, searching for a way to play football while managing the pandemic may not only be a dilemma for this fall. For several years going forward, a choice of similar nature may be required.

Over the weekend, with stunning rapidity, 2020's college football season seemed to arrive at the brink.

First, the Mid-American Conference became the initial FBS league to formally announce it would not play football in fall, 2020.

What followed were so-far unconfirmed reports that the Big Ten and the Pac-12, two of the sport's five most powerful conferences, may also soon pull the plug on the pigskin for this fall.

One suspects that the fear of being held legally liable if players/coaches were to become ill _ or die _ after catching the coronavirus while competing may be driving an administrative decision that a 2020 football season is not worth the risk.

Yet, as Tyra pointed out, there's no certainty that the virus will be more sufficiently contained by the spring or by next fall.

For college administrators, the decision of whether to play or not to play football this year amid a pandemic was destined to be fraught.

With the cash cow that is the NCAA men's basketball tournament having already been sacrificed this year on the altar of COVID-19, the financial impetus for playing college football this fall is acute.

Yet that puts college football decision makers in the uncomfortable position of asking their players _ whom the universities have long insisted are not "employees" _ to assume potential health risks in the name of repairing the bottom line.

Had the NCAA been more proactive in adopting the so-called "Olympics model" _ meaning college players would have been able to accept compensation for doing commercials, signing autographs, making personal appearances etc. ... _ the optics of asking the players to play during the pandemic might have been less toxic.

If the Big Ten and Pac-12 opt out of football this fall, it is going to be fascinating to see what the other three Power Five conference leagues, the ACC, the Big 12 and the SEC, do.

In many walks of life, a trial-and-error approach is going to be required to figure out what can and cannot be sustained in a coronavirus world.

For that reason, I hope at least one major conference tries to play football this fall. Just to see if it can be done safely.

On a video news conference Monday, U of L football coach Scott Satterfield pointed out that one cannot play football under any condition without assuming risk.

The U of L coach noted that, for the college-aged, the danger from COVID-19 has so far been far less than for more-seasoned age groups.

Reports that the Big Ten and Pac-12 seemed poised to close the book on college football in 2020 before it ever opened left Satterfield riled.

"That's not leadership," Satterfield said. "We had months to plan out how we're going to come back (and play college football), how we are going to do this. And we've been doing it, our kids have been doing it here.

"All of a sudden, we get negative talk coming in here this weekend, and again, it's hurtful, actually. It really is. We had players crying this morning in our meetings. They're crying because they want to play."