Unrivaled: College Football Needs Its Own Moonshot

PROVO, Utah – It seems like every day there is some not so good news about the upcoming college football season. BYU pushed back media days to an unspecified date and the ACC is doing the same.

The news is mostly bleak for the sport but specifically BYU t- who has lost five games due to the Pac-12 and Big Ten going to league-only slates.

Then there are reports about the independents, minus Notre Dame, looking at playing each other in a home-and-home this upcoming year.

The one bit of good news comes from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey who is still moving forward and would like to play a 12-game schedule. With BYU having Missouri on the schedule that bodes well for keeping that Power 5 program on the schedule, at least for now.

ICYMI: SEC Commissioner @GregSankey tells @AdamSchein playing a full schedule is still on the table for SEC Football & breaks down a timeline of when a decision could be made pic.twitter.com/Yvy3CZjAfR

— Mad Dog Sports Radio (@MadDogRadio) July 15, 2020

Plus, Texas A&M athletics director Ross Bjork mentioned BYU in passing on the Studio 12 podcast by saying the Cougars need games. Nothing is for certain but the Aggies are aware that the Cougars need some games on the schedule.

What Is BYU To Do?

KSL Sports’ Alex Kirry is not surprised at all of the continuation of league adjustments, postponements, and cancelations. However, what comes next and can be salvaged for BYU to have at least a semi-regular season is still to be determined.

“I knew that was coming. Here are a couple of things that happen on Media Day. They start talking about the season and then you start to ask questions that they don’t have the answers to,” Kirry said. “I mean, you would ask all these questions about so the rivalry game question goes away, all the Power Five teams that you were going to be playing, minus a couple.

“I mean, the reality is, is your Power 5 schedule is gone and those are the most important games in your schedule. Now, you start looking at what exactly the rest the season looks like. So those questions couldn’t be answered. The reality is BYU doesn’t have any answers right now.  Not their fault. It’s that everybody’s trying to scramble and figure it out. I mean, I saw Hawaii, added Robert Morris, to their schedule.”

There are so few teams that are out there that can be added to the schedule. The Mountain West lost 15 total games with the Big Ten and Pac-12 dropping them so there are some teams to consider. Yet, there is some bad blood from BYU when they left the conference, so will many Mountain West teams be willing to add the Cougars to their schedule?

College Football Needs A Miracle

All signs are pointing to no season this year but that announcement, if and when it comes, will come in stages and not just one quick pull of the bandaid. Basically, for even a reduced schedule of eight to 10 tames, there needs to be some sort of miracle.

“This is a disastrous scenario right now. Media day is not going to go off. And the Pac-12 is saying they’re gonna play a conference only schedule and I feel like they’re not going to play even that, at least in the fall,” Kirry added. “I feel like that this is going to be pushed until the spring.”

Will #BYU and other Independents form their own version of a conference this fall? Anything is on the table.#BYUFootball #GoCougs https://t.co/flsG06x774

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) July 17, 2020

The Big 12 is also in a wait-and-see mode but that might be just be delaying the inevitable but it will take some extraordinary to get through and play a season.

“Let’s just sell out big time and do all the crazy things to shut down right now before Labor Day, so that we can get to we can restart everything again. This isn’t a slowdown. This is like a full-on, no doubt sell out. We don’t do a thing until Labor Day. Basically, they call it a moonshot. You know, essentially, like just like it’s a crazy idea. We’re gonna try for it anyway. For football to happen we need a moonshot.”

One thing that no one knows yet is how COVID-19 will spread once full practices start-up and there is actual contact on the football field. That is the next thing to navigate.

There is little precious time left to figure out a season but we are now sitting in the middle of July and just six weeks until the first full week of the college football season is supposed to start.

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