Would Trevor Lawrence be all in for spring season? Don’t count on it, ESPN pundit says
There are still plenty of options being discussed by athletics directors and league commissioners around the country in regards to playing a college football season during the coronavirus pandemic.
One thing that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told ESPN Tuesday night is on the table is moving the college football season to the spring as the spread of COVID-19 remain high across the country.
Sankey acknowledged that moving the season away from the fall is not at the top of the list of options, and ESPN’s Rece Davis pointed out that doing so could lead to a number of issues. The biggest potential hurdle, according to Davis, would be the health risk for players.
“We’ve talked so much about player safety, concussion protocol. Game collisions are far different from the controlled environment in practice,” Davis said. “You’d be asking some players to play a spring season, then turn around without the customized length of time to train to get ready for a season and play again [in fall 2021]. ... I see a multitude of problems with the spring.”
While Davis pointed to the health risk of players who would play two college football seasons back-to-back in the same calendar year without much break, ESPN colleague Joey Galloway expressed concern over players sitting out games to prepare for the NFL.
“We already have guys not playing in bowl games because they’re getting ready for the draft, and that’s a couple of months later,” Galloway said. “Now we’re talking going right into the draft. It would be very interesting to see how many guys actually play.”
Galloway mentioned Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State QB Justin Fields in particular as players who could opt to sit out if the season is moved to the spring.
“Does Trevor Lawrence play? Does Justin Fields play? ... They’re not going to have a chance to prepare. They risk injuries and things that may take away their ultimate dream of playing NFL football,” Galloway said. “If I’m one of these guys that is going to be a top 5, top 10 pick in the NFL draft, and you’re asking me to play in the spring, and I know the draft is in April, I don’t think I’m playing.”
The Big 10 and PAC 12 have already announced plans for conference-only football seasons for 2020, and other Power 5 leagues are considering following suit.
Decisions from the ACC and SEC regarding the fate of their schools’ college football season are expected as soon as next week. Both have said “late July” as the probable time frame for announcing a decision. The SEC presidents and chancellors will meet July 30 and discuss the fall football season, according to 247Sports, so it’s possible that’s the day that conference could formalize a decision.
There appears to be at least these options under consideration:
▪ play the season as scheduled;
▪ play only conference games;
▪ play only conference games but preserve non-conference rivalry games such as Clemson vs. South Carolina;
▪ move the season to the spring; or
▪ cancel the season all together.
The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel told The Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday to expect the start of the college football season to be delayed, at least a few weeks.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
