The optimism of having a college football season this fall is starting to wane, and so too is Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith’s. Just a short month ago, things looked promising. The COVID-19 pandemic seemed to have leveled off, teams got back to voluntary workouts on campus, and the NCAA approved a six-week preseason plan that would put teams in position for an on-time start to the college football season.
Heck, some colleges were even discussing the possibility of having some fans in the stand to take in the games as long as social distancing and local protocols were followed. Gene Smith was warming up to that idea.
Now, things are headed in a different, less promising direction. Just over the last couple of days, the Ivy League made the decision to cancel fall sports. Ohio State suspended all voluntary workouts for fall athletes after COVID-19 testing results, then the Big Ten announced that fall sports would follow a conference only slate of games if they were able to be played.
It’s that last few words that put the whole college football season — and other fall sports — in jeopardy. In fact, when appearing on BTN, Smith made it known that there’s is a real possibility that this thing goes a step further and that the cancellation of fall sports is a real possibility.
“I can’t reiterate enough the fact that we might not play,” Smith said when being interviewed on BT. “We just might not. And I think that people need to understand that.”
There is more to the interview, but that’s the main takeaway. People need to start preparing for the real possibility that Ohio State and many other (if not all) programs have to shelve the college football season.
You can watch the rest of the interview below thanks to it being posted by BTN.
There’s still time to turn this thing around, but it’s clear at this point that the COVID-19 pandemic is headed in the wrong direction. And with health and well-being of student-athletes being the priority here, things are not looking good.
Let’s hope we can come together as a country and punch this ugly pandemic right in the teeth.
