Riley’s ‘ridiculous’ comment may end up being just a little off the mark

Bob Bowlsby managed Tuesday to grab a couple of headlines by once again appearing to wait until the bandwagon gets rolling before jumping under it, most people missed the fact we’re probably going to have football.

The Big 12’s man in charge too often sounds like a politician instead of a leader.

With everybody expecting the NCAA to announce Wednesday that players can return to campuses in June for those “voluntary” workouts, Bowlsby was trying to hedge his comments.

“If we’re not, we’re looking at probably having to delay the season a little bit,” he told ESPN, “but it’s too early to know if we’re going to be able to make that or not.”

You’ll notice he’s not saying — or even hinting — that there won’t be a season. It’s looking more and more like as common sense begins to return to some folks that we’re going to have college football.

And it won’t be shut down if there’s a few positive tests.

As Laura Rutledge pointed out on ESPN, the question of IF there will be football is fading fast as the questions now are starting to focus more on how schools deal with all of the safety precautions they’ll have to take.

Teams are going to handle it much the same way they’ve handled the flu. The disclaimer here is nobody is saying it’s the same thing, but that’s the way they’re going to handle it which is where I’ve kinda figured this whole deal was going to end up being handled.

Exactly what the facts are appears to rest with what scientist you want to believe.

Everything on this is moving fast. The facts are vaccines and treatments are being fast-tracked unlike anything I’ve seen.

And I’m old. I was born during the Asian Flu pandemic (that killed over a million people worldwide) and was in junior high during the Hong Kong Flu pandemic (another one that killed over a million people) and there wasn’t this sort of widespread panic.

Certainly no coaches said anything like Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley did last week.

“All the talk about these schools wanting to bring players back on June 1 is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard,” Riley said in a Zoom chat with reporters. “We’ve got to be patient. We have one good shot at it.”

Considering he’s had a team in the College Football Playoff every year has given him the confidence to wax poetic on the fast-moving target this whole coronavirus thing has become.

Shoot, even Notre Dame announced Tuesday it’s opening up the campus for fall classes, which means — at least in theory — the game with Arkansas on Sept. 12 is still on go.

The SEC is expected to make an announcement Friday they are allowing workouts to resume sometime in June with safety precautions and restrictions.

And Riley shows that even the best coaches are better off staying in their lane.

Which, apparently, doesn’t include gazing into a crystal ball to predict future events in the real world.