What will CBB look like in 2020? Poll / Predictions

[ArmyVet]

Stealing this poll from another site, but interested in the thoughts of this very educated group of fans. I think college football being played this fall is a pipe dream. Maybe it gets moved to the spring or radically changed at the last minute as games should begin in less than 2 months.

College hoops, on the other hand, still has time to figure things out. I believe that after March Madness being canceled in 2020, the powers that be will do everything imaginable to play this year.

Vote and share your thoughts below.

[GoldenWarrior11]

There is a hybrid answer that is not one of the options, but I'll explain below.

I believe there will be college football, college basketball and all college sports this year - on-time and with regular schedules. However, I also think there will be many schools and institutions that will inevitably choose that they cannot, or will not, be participating. For college football this Fall, I think there are many institutions that are hoping the season gets canceled (for a variety of reasons); however, no one wants to jump off the diving board first - they will be waiting for someone else, or another group, to go first. Similarly, there are many schools that need (and want) football to go on this Fall - and will do everything they can to ensure that it does happen (within the given parameters). I do think many of the cross-country road trips for football will get cut (i.e. Washington/Michigan). The NCAA will not come out and cancel a season again - they simply cannot afford to.

For college basketball, the "luxury" of preseason tournaments certainly does not seem like a necessity right now. I think schools/programs can definitely do a better job of securing more regional or in-state matchups to help with travel and create more de-facto bubbles, per se. Basketball, administratively, is much easier than football.

The biggest problem is the negative PR and perception of schools making that jump, however, not to play. Any macro decision will need to be made in conjunction and in unison with the other larger powers-that-be; I just don't see another full-fledged shut down or elimination of sports again. The P5 already sound committed to playing football this Fall; for many G5 programs? Maybe there are teams within the P5 that choose not to move forward. Who knows. A variety of businesses/schools/corporate systems would crash and never recover. Difficult to see any of them signing their own death certificate though.

[Omaha1]

I can see some of the early-season contests being canceled or rescheduled to local games. I highly doubt that Creighton will end up in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving, but maybe those games get played stateside instead?

[sju88grad]

I was much more hopeful a few weeks ago but things are trending poorly right now.....here in LA county, it feels like it did back in March/April.....USC announced a few days ago that they are going to be online for the fall semester.....I'm sure other schools will follow suit.....testing is still a big problem.....i had to get tested last thursday and i'm still waiting for my results......the summer was supposed to be a "quieter" period for the virus but that hasn't held up.....just a bummer all around......

[gtmoBlue]

Hmmm. Great topic for our enlightened discussion. This board is well suited to handle such a conundrum.

Let me mull this one over a bit. I'll get back to ya on this.

[kayako]

I can't see how non-conference games get played without a vaccine.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Here’s what I wrote back on April 2:

What I see? Next to no chance we see stadiums full of people in 2020 at all. Maybe college FB televises closed games, but I don't think we see stadiums for any event until there is a vaccine and it's been widely distributed.

College hoops will follow what happens with college FB. Either games in front of no crowds, or no games. If tests are readily available by then perhaps every player will have to be tested a couple days before a game, basically quarantined until game time and repeated weekly. Anyone not tested is not allowed to be a part of it--refs, trainers, players, coaches. But even that is probably a pipe dream. Our best case is a limited conference season starting late and a modified tournament. An entire cancelled season wouldn't surprise me.

The problem is that places in the middle of the country are where NYC was a month ago. They'll think social isolation is overkill and it will spread slowly and 2 weeks will become 10. This spread isn't going to end unless the entire country--with the lone exception of healthcare workers--just stays at home. Nothing, and I mean nothing, open for 3 weeks. People indoors, staying to themselves (not having Covid neighborhood parties), for 3 weeks. Full stop. Until that happens, we'll be half-assing it as a country and this will continue well into the Fall.


A broken clock I guess...

[gtmoBlue]

Your April response is on target Gumby.

Ditto.

[DeltaV]

I could see early non-conference play, especially the buy games, getting nixed.

However, unless the season really gets pushed to not start until 2021, I wouldn't be surprised to see the holiday tournaments. Think about it, they're at a remote location (usually), and often don't get a lot of fans anyway (and the fans that would go will probably stay away). It will be easy to quarantine the teams for the duration, assuming they can show up healthy/negative.

ESPN will be dying for the content...I bet we see them, even if the November ones get pushed into December. Football season and bowl play is likely in more jeopardy, and if they lose that they'll need something fresh. Seems like a lot of colleges are looking to try and end the fall semester at Thanksgiving anyway, so it becomes less of an issue for finals/classes.

[ArmyVet]

Sounds like the Big East has had some discussions about ditching non-con for this year's hoops season already.