As everyone is trying to read tea leaves and make predictions about whether there will be football or not this fall any decision from the Southeastern Conference likely won’t be affected by other leagues.
No, it’s probably not going to be any sort of joint agreement, even among Power 5 teams.
“I would never make a blood agreement with the Pac 12 or the Big 12 and say we’re all going down together or we’re playing together,” said Nashville Sports Radio’s Bill King on Wednesday talking with Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis (Halftime) on ESPN Arkansas. “The hell with that.”
Yeah, that’s pretty much the feeling here, too.
Don’t start. The covid-19 virus is real, but if you test positive in Arkansas you statistically have a 98.8% chance of living, regardless of age. If you’re under the age of 35 your chances of survival are almost 100%. There is virtually zero risk of death for youngsters.
Those are the raw numbers. There will be exceptions so this is not an argument about it.
But don’t expect Hunter Yurachek’s recommendation to be based on what’s happening in the Ivy League or even Northwestern.
“If the south feels comfortable with playing, you’re not going to cancel because Northwestern isn’t going to play,” King said. “To a certain extent you’ll be in communication but I’m not shutting down operations based on some other league and some other geography.”
It’s also difficult to make predictions in early July on what to do in September because the odds are the positive case results are going to continue to rise.
“If I feel comfortable I’m going to try and play,” King said. “I think the SEC is going to try to do that and do what’s best for the SEC.”
Now that doesn’t mean scheduling won’t go haywire. Everything on that is on the table and there may be some surprising matchups come out of the chaos.
And it’s highly doubtful there will be spring football. Talk about chaos.
“The only thing worse than that is catastrophe,” King said.
He’s right about that. It’s almost a logistical nightmare. Imagine on a spring weekend in Fayetteville trying to manage two basketball games, a football game and a baseball series all going on at the same time.
The guess here is they will be playing football. Whether fans will be able to attend or not is anybody’s guess.
Make your own decision about whether that’s correct or not.
