University of Arizona president Robert Robbins said this week that he doubts the college football season will start on time, and said one option is to push all fall sports to early 2021.
ESPN reports that Robbins made his statements on a local radio program on KVOI-AM in Tucson, Arizona.
“I’m really concerned about whether we’re going to be playing football in the fall,” Robbins said. “My sense, right now, I just don’t see that happening.”
Robbins suggested that one option is pushing fall sports – football included – to the winter season, which would overlap with college swimming & diving. Robbins mentioned running both basketball and football (the two major money-makers among college sports) in January-February 2021, though he characterized that suggestion as his own “personal reading of the tea leaves.”
That comes in the same week as a Stadium poll found that 75% of college athletic directors at Football Bowl Subdivision schools expected the college football season to be delayed, though only 1% predicted that the season would be fully canceled.
The college football season could have major impacts on the college swim & dive season, not only because of the potential for both to be played in the same season, but because football is one of the NCAA‘s most lucrative sports, and often helps fund non-revenue sports like swimming & diving. Even for schools that don’t make a profit on their football programs, the loss of ticket sales and television revenues could put athletic departments further behind financially.
Last week, several mid-major conference commissioners asked the NCAA to temporarily relax its minimum sport requirements, allowing schools to conceivably cut sports to help offset financial losses sustained during the coronavirus pandemic.
