While baseball and basketball bumble their way through the return process, professional and collegiate football have had time to prepare for their regular kickoffs. But just like some reopening policies across the country, college football conferences and the NFL are not really sure what they are trying to accomplish.
The Big Ten conference just announced that it would be eliminating all out-of-conference games, and the other major conferences are considering this option as well. For some, this makes sense; the conference is made up of teams in the North and Midwest, and extended travel to opponents in the South or on the West Coast could be unnecessary.
But some of the resulting cancellations are head-scratching. Iowa loses two in-state opponents, while Northwestern can play Michigan State but not Central Michigan. The other conferences could also end up axing traditional rivalries of schools in-state, such as Clemson-South Carolina, Georgia-Georgia Tech, and Florida-Florida State. Meanwhile, those universities would still have opponents in their own conference who are in separate states.
The NFL, thus far, appears to be on the best track of any sports league to return, but it isn’t without its own foolishness. The league has decided that the post-game jersey swap between players will be banned, despite the fact that the players will spend the three to four hours before it in the locker room, in team huddles, and in close proximity to the other team. The move drew backlash from NFL players.
Unlike the move by the Big Ten, the NFL’s rule change doesn’t have a material effect on the season, but it illustrates a larger problem. Both of these moves are completely arbitrary, and neither is consistent with the rest of the plans in place. This has been a problem with state governments’ reopening as well, as arbitrary rules are made up as we go, and no one really knows the standards that are being used to reach them.
We’re learning with each passing day that the coronavirus has very little effect on younger people. According to Dr. John Ioannidis, the disease prevention chairman at Stanford University, the mortality rate of the virus for those under the age of 45 is almost 0%. While many coaches come in above that age range, that wouldn’t affect the NFL jersey swaps and still doesn’t explain the inconsistent travel schedule on which the Big Ten is planning.
College football is looking increasingly unlikely for this fall, with either a spring season coming later or no season at all. The NFL is the giant of American sports and will likely pull out all the stops to get going, but ridiculous rules have the potential to snowball into bigger substantive changes. If the multibillion-dollar industry of football can’t figure out a return, we may be in deeper trouble than we thought.
