Palpable Buzz College Football Moves to Spring 2021- Impact to Nebraska?

[seaofred92]

 

So I’ve been thinking about this- I think it would be awesome. I do think in-person attendance will suffer even if it’s ruled to be “okay” to be in the stadium, but spring football could be pretty exciting. There’s potential for SO many snow games. 

 

How will it impact your willingness to attend games? 

 

I think it has a chance to be pretty significantly negative for us on the recruiting trail. We use Gameday visits pretty frequently and had such a high number of early enrollees this past year, not exactly the same thing having kids up from Miami in early February to watch us play Central Michigan in 10 degree weather

 

[runningblind]

Weather wouldn't affect my plan to attend whatsoever.  If there still is no vaccine and/or widespread antibody testing, that most definitely would as my decision still may affect my family/friends/fellow humans and not just me being cold for 4 hours.

[HuskermanMike]

I wonder if you could play early enrollees? Maybe they would only be able to practice? If so, play them 4 games and give them a red shirt and by fall they would have in game exposure. It would be interesting for sure.

 

My thoughts are that they have a shortened season with one out of conference game and all 9 in conference with no bye week. They might move back CCG one week as well, but this depends on when they start. This is a way too early prediction but it would probably be with limited or no fans.

 

The only problem with moving it to Spring(if that happens) is the season would conflict with the money maker for the NCAA and that is March Madness. They would have to schedule around that for sure and wait until mid April for the CFB playoff. They could potentially have games played on Monday night during MM as opposed to Saturday to not conflict but who knows. 

 

I like the idea and discussion, but it is too early to move it to Spring just yet imo. 

[Red Five]

8 hours ago, seaofred92 said:

 

 

 

Lol.  Random sports talk radio guy in Oklahoma has the scoop on when CFB is going to be played.  No decision on the college football season is going to be made "soon".  They are not going to decide anything before June 1 imo, and the key is going to be if campuses are open or not.

[Decoy73]

Assuming this is not BS..If we have widespread testing that is both highly sensitive and specific, then a spring season is possible.   They probably figure there’s no way we’ll be at that point this fall.  Seems too early to be announcing something like this though. 

[seaofred92]

I really disagree with people saying its "too early" to determine this:

 

Reality is every single FBS institution has to be back on campus this fall for a college football season to start. In places like NY, NJ, CA, LA. etc that possibility is looking more and more remote. Universities have to make decisions on that long before June/July and they're already planning for what a fall semester virtually would look like. 

 

In addition to the games, this impacts the recruiting calendar, draft considerations, eligibility for folks that are grad transfers, etc. Then you get into TV rights and trying to schedule CFB, CBB, etc around other obligations for networks (CBS has golf on the weekends, ESPN/ABC have NBA, etc). Then there are team logistics like reserving hotel space, arranging and coordinating chartered flights, modifying existing game contracts, etc. For bowls and the playoff, you have to secure dates at neutral shared event venues that could potentially have conflicts. Then you have to think about how it impacts the offseason for the 2021-22 season and when you start camp and if that season start date is impacted by this. There is a TON of moving parts here, the earlier you can determine when exactly your season will be played, the better. 

[JJ Husker]

Like @Red Five said, I doubt this guy has the scoop. But, as a purely academic discussion, I don't like it. I suppose the argument could be made that football in the spring would be better than no football at all. I don't necessarily agree with that. I'd rather see games in the fall without packed stadiums if the alternate is spring with crowds. I'm a bit old fashioned. Football is a fall thing, if that can't happen, then so be it.

[Red Five]

If you are curious how a winter/spring football season might work, here is a guess.

 

Training camp starts Monday after thanksgiving

Games start New Year's Day

10 game season (8 conference + 2 non con), no byes

Games in northern climates could be played at nearest dome (NU playing at the Dakota Dome or UNI Dome?)

Regular season ends before March Madness starts

Bowls still played late March/early April

CFP semis on Final Four Sunday Apr 5

CFP championship on following Monday Apr 13

 

Problems are that many top NFL prospects might skip season (assuming NFL finds a way to play and draft is held in Apr/May).

What to do with early enrollees?  Kill 85 rule for 1 season?  Kill 4 game redshirt for 1 season?

Scheduling issues trying to fit northern teams into limited domes.

And finally, readily available testing and/or vaccine

[Red Five]

14 minutes ago, seaofred92 said:

I really disagree with people saying its "too early" to determine this:

 

Reality is every single FBS institution has to be back on campus this fall for a college football season to start. In places like NY, NJ, CA, LA. etc that possibility is looking more and more remote. Universities have to make decisions on that long before June/July and they're already planning for what a fall semester virtually would look like. 

 

In addition to the games, this impacts the recruiting calendar, draft considerations, eligibility for folks that are grad transfers, etc. Then you get into TV rights and trying to schedule CFB, CBB, etc around other obligations for networks (CBS has golf on the weekends, ESPN/ABC have NBA, etc). Then there are team logistics like reserving hotel space, arranging and coordinating chartered flights, modifying existing game contracts, etc. For bowls and the playoff, you have to secure dates at neutral shared event venues that could potentially have conflicts. Then you have to think about how it impacts the offseason for the 2021-22 season and when you start camp and if that season start date is impacted by this. There is a TON of moving parts here, the earlier you can determine when exactly your season will be played, the better. 

 

I am not saying that they shouldn't be looking into contingency plans (they absolutely should be), but I am saying they can wait a month or so before they determine if they are going to cancel for the fall (not just cancel football, but cancel on campus classes).

 

[seaofred92]

I was talking about this with someone on the UConn board and figured I'd post the info here as well since its pretty interesting stuff. 

 

NBA regular season ratings in 2018-19 averaged 1.99mm viewers across ESPN and ABC per SMW

Can't find regular season ratings but the World Series averaged 13.91mm viewers last year which is less than watched the Alabama v Michigan Citrus Bowl.

NHL ratings are a joke comparatively but it's hard to find consolidated regular season averages. Per SMW NBCSN looks like it averages 200k-600k viewers for their primetime regular season hockey games. The Stanley Cup finals averaged 5.3mm viewers last year

 

The largest watched CBB broadcast of the 2019-20 regular season was UNC v Duke on Feb 8 with 2.67mm viewers. For comparisons sake to CFB in 2019-20, there were 106 college football games at or above 2.67mm in viewership.

Last year's CFB had 27 games at or above 1.99mm viewers in the bowl season alone, and 36 above $1mm. If the average NHL game averaged 600k viewers (and that appears to be generous), it would've been the least watched bowl game in 2019-20. For comparison's sake to CFB, 600k is less than the amount of people that watched Indiana v Purdue on ESPN2 on the Saturday after Thanksgiving directly opposite of Michigan/Ohio State on Fox. UConn v Navy in an awful game on ESPN November 1 last year averaged 742k viewers

[seaofred92]

Aaand boom goes the dynamite 

 

 

[seaofred92]

https://amp.idahostatesman.com/sports/college/mountain-west/boise-state-university/boise-state-football/article242171486.html?__twitter_impression=true

 

Quote

Boise State coaches will be required to take furloughs as the university deals with funding shortfalls due to the coronavirus pandemic.

University President Marlene Tromp emailed faculty and staff about the furloughs on Monday, saying events that have been canceled stretching into summer have contributed to nearly $10 million in losses. A university spokesman confirmed Monday night that coaches are included in the furloughs.

Per the school’s announcement, all employees who are paid more than $40,000 a year are required to take furloughs.

 

[Decked]

Trouble for non-revenue sports that depend on football money. Difficult decisions regarding mid-tier programs who might have to cut some sports to stay afloat loom. Especially ones at smaller schools funded by student dollars. 

[Decoy73]

5 hours ago, seaofred92 said:

 

I really disagree with people saying its "too early" to determine this:

 

I get the importance of planning ahead, but all of those sports having any sort of salvaged season would be predicated on the widespread availability of accurate testing.  I would say that presently, no one can predict with a high degree of confidence when that will happen.  So if it were me in charge I would want to wait as long as possible for any announcement in hopes that more could be known about future testing capabilities. 

[Mavric]

1 hour ago, seaofred92 said:

Aaand boom goes the dynamite