The ACC should postpone its 2020 football season

Just four days ago, the Atlantic Coast Conference released its updated 2020 college football schedule, splashing it across social media and on the conference TV network. It was part hype and part giddy, a grasp at normalcy when those moments are hard to find. But now, like much with COVID-19, that schedule is in doubt. On Tuesday, the Big Ten voted to postpone fall sports, including football, until the spring. The PAC 10 appears ready to follow. The ACC should do the same.

It’s time to postpone college football, at least until the spring. The sport doesn’t have the widespread testing infrastructure and protocols necessary to protect players and staff. What it does have is a history of mistreating and undervaluing players, a dynamic that was on display again just last week.

On Friday, Colorado State University suspended activities in its football program after players and university athletic department staff said that coaches told players not to report COVID-19 symptoms, threatened players with reduced playing time if they quarantine and claim CSU is altering contact tracing reports to keep players practicing, according to the Coloradoan. The program also was rocked with allegations of racism and verbal abuse.

With big-time college football, the story is the same as it always has been – the well-being of the players is too often secondary to the bottom line of the programs they play for. That tension has been apparent the past few weeks as Power 5 football programs plowed ahead with practices and scheduling while smaller schools and conferences - which don’t make the same money from football - bowed to the reality that playing is too risky right now.

The most recent football postponement - the Mid-American Conference - came Saturday. “This is one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make in my life,” said Northern Illinois athletic director Sean Frazier, who helped spur the effort to postpone. “We had to make a decision to protect lives.”

The same should be true at every ACC and Power 5 athletic department. But at schools where football brings in millions in revenue and invaluable name recognition, those programs and their coaches often have outsized power. And while there certainly are many coaches who act with their players’ interest at heart, the NCAA has historically had to rein in coaches who don’t. A recent example: concussion protocols made necessary by coaches who too often sent players back into games or practices after a hit to the head.

Now, it’s up to athletic directors, presidents and chancellors to protect players from COVID. Beyond the issues of testing and travel, conference commissioners are becoming increasingly concerned about long-term heart damage that the virus inflicts on young and healthy patients, including athletes, Sports Illustrated reported Sunday. That risk might be what it takes to push conferences to hit pause on football.

We don’t dismiss that postponing or canceling college football comes with financial consequences that go well beyond revenue to schools and conferences. College towns from Chapel Hill to Blacksburg benefit from the tens of thousands who flock to campus for football Saturdays. The loss of almost two months’ worth of such revenue could devastate local businesses and economies this fall and beyond.

But as with so many COVID calculations, safety shouldn’t be secondary to dollars. College football players - many of whom want to play - need to be protected from themselves and, sadly, from some of their coaches. The ACC, and all of college football, should look to the spring.

This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 10:10 AM.