OK, perhaps my latest concern about college football is unfounded.
Rattling around in my brain has been this question: When (or if) it comes time to decide whether there's going to be a college football season, who exactly is going to make the call?
Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos had an answer Wednesday that made perfect sense.
"I feel that's going to be dictated by the big picture," he told the Journal Star. "If there are still mandatory shutdowns, social distancing and everything else ... I mean, in my day as a player (late 1960s and ’70s), when you put your hand down to block a defensive end, you were almost rubbing noses."
Seems we're a ways away from strangers rubbing noses, regardless of setting.Â
At any rate, Moos pointed out that the decision on whether to have a football season essentially will be made for the college game, in that it will in many respects have to fall in line with what's occurring on campuses and society in general. We're talking about real-life factors tied to containing the spread of the novel coronavirus. The most critical factor of all, at least in terms of this discussion, is a rather simple one: the clearance for students to return to campuses.
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Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby painted a clear picture last week when asked by Yahoo Sports if college games could be played in the fall without students on campus.Â
"No," he said. "The participants are students."
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be delivering courses online this summer after opting to cancel in-person classes April 3 due to the pandemic. That decision followed the cancellation of summer travel, internship and other opportunities for students. Yes, students — not just student-athletes. This particular discussion ranges beyond football and athletics in general, as it should.Â
"We, first of all, have to be careful and thoughtful and intelligent citizens during a pandemic," Moos said.Â
Moos' comments came on the heels of Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy on Tuesday telling reporters that his goal is to return to the football building on May 1 because he hopes that tests for COVID-19 will be available in a few weeks to clear both employees and players. Oh-so-predictably, a statement by university leadership quickly made clear the decision on when to bring back players wouldn't be up to Gundy.
Yes, Gundy's comments went a bit too far. For one, they ignored Big 12 directives on when in-person team activities can resume (May 31). But I genuinely appreciate his optimistic tone.
College coaches often have a recruit on their radar from stages as early as junior high. But a late-bloomer still comes around from time to time.Â
"I'm not taking away from the danger of people getting sick," he said. "You have the virus, stay healthy, try to do what we can to help people that are sick. And we're losing lives, which is just terrible. The second part of it is that we still have to schedule and continue to move forward as life goes on and help those people."
As for Moos, he remains optimistic there will be a full season, but only if people comply with guidelines to help stop spread of the deadly virus.Â
"We won't have a season if we don't adhere to what we're being asked to do as a population," he said. "It's in our best interest to follow protocol, get this thing as far behind us as possible, and then start looking at when we can resume some kind of normal life, including sports.
"I think we're in a crunch time right now, but we've got to pay attention to the bigger picture, and that doesn't mean starting football on May 1," Moos added, referring to Gundy's goal. "I'd love to start getting back then, but the worst thing that could happen is jumping the gun. Then you could be right back to having severe problems once again.Â
"It's kind of like going back to work before you should have returned after having the cold or flu -- you get hit with it again, only worse than the first time."
The difference, of course, is COVID-19 can be deadly. That sobering reality obviously isn't lost on Moos, whose overarching outlook seems to mix optimism with a healthy grasp of cold truth. Â
To wit: He holds out hope that Nebraska can make up the 13 practices it lost this spring when the Big Ten shut down all organized activities. He originally hoped those practices could perhaps occur in June, although he now acknowledges that feels like a "perfect world" scenario.Â
"If we have to give up the 13 practices we missed to get back into full swing and ready to go for the fall — starting in early-to-mid July — then so be it," he said.
So, we wait and hope the proverbial curve flattens. The coronavirus discussion in our country is multi-layered because cases are occurring at different rates in different states. In the Big Ten, the rate of cases in Nebraska is much lower than, say, New Jersey (Rutgers) and Maryland. So how do conference decision-makers weigh those discrepancies when deciding how to proceed as a group?
Now, ponder that question for the college game in general, with 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision alone.Â
Go back to my question: Who exactly is making the call as to whether there'll be a season? How would it be made?
"We're so different, obviously, from any other sport entity in that you've got individual conferences, individual schools who all have to come together in some form or fashion to figure this out," Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Monday on the "Paul Finebaum Show."
Or, perhaps Moos is right: The decision essentially will be made for them.