Not having a season will be devastating to the entire athletic departments of us and most schools in America. However, before we go full steam ahead I would love to hear four questions answered. I have scoured the internet and have yet to get definitive answers to them.
1. Will there be enough tests readily available for ALL the student/athletes. I would think we will need thousands of readily available tests. That takes into account the coaches and other support staffs. And keep in mind that we are not talking just fall sports. Basketball starts in October too along with other "winter " sports. Are we ready? I am hoping that the answer is yes and so we go to question 2 which is the biggie.
2. What happens if/WHEN an athlete is tested positive? Is he/she quarantined for two weeks? How about their teammates? And coaches? When do we administer the tests? Thursday before Saturday games? What if every qb tests positive? Play without one? I am having trouble believing that in a contact sport like football that some of these scenarios will come up. Hope we have good answers to this because we will probably only have one chance to get it right.
3. Do we have kids in school in August? It is hard to believe that having 25,000 kids on campus, coming from all over the world , that somebody will not have the virus. And how do we keep the student/athletes away from the other students. Their will be, kids being kids, PLENTY of intermingling. The truth is the best chance to pull the football season off this fall is for the kinds NOT be on campus. All classes virtual and the athletes would be the only ones on campus. This would be devastating to Blacksburg so I don't think that will happen. Still have no answer to this question yet.
4. Fans in the stands The stadium holds 66,000. Do we have it 25% full? 50%? Open up the entire stadium? If we go with the smaller percentages who gets cut? Seems almost cruel to not let the students with season tickets go to the games but they are not paying nearly the same as the Hokie Club members. Any scenario except a full admittance policy will result in large decreases in revenues. Can the athletic dept adjust to what could be decreases in revenues of $10 to $25 million? I feel for Whit who will be in a no win situation.

So my solution? Spring football. It has plenty of problems but it also is the safest way to go. First of all, there will be more time for the scientists to come up with a readily available vaccine or at least a treatment. We have vaccines and treatments for the flu and that is why people risk going out during flu season. We do not have that for Covid-19. By delaying the season till Feb-May we are giving ourselves and our medical personnel more time.
We also could make the season ticket package non refundable. I am assuming we can have full stadiums and if you do not want to come see Tech-Penn State in late February thats fine but your seat is awaiting you. By playing a full schedule we are saving the income that the football program brings in. And I think watching football in March, April and May in Blacksburg would be a blast. Basketball and other sports would have to run concurrently with football and I would suggest actually starting it in mid January and cutting the schedule to 26 games-6 out of conference and 20 in conference. The season could conclude by early April and we would have "April Madness". Football would conclude by May 9 and conference championships by May 16. National championship game on June 6. Only bowls to be played would be the biggies-I don't think AD's would be too upset about that as most are actually drains on the budgets.

I know this is tough on the NFL prospects. No plan is perfect. But combines and the draft could still be done in June and their would be no spring/ summer camps-just like this year. And the NCAA would have to allow a medical redshirt year to any player that is not ready to come back for August 2021 practice.

Anyway, thats the best and safest way I know of having football during the 2020-21 academic year, in the safest way possible, and without dire financial consequences. That said i would miss my Hokies terribly this fall but will have to do watching NFL being played in empty or half empty stadiums. Being Redskin fan, that is no adjustment at all. LOL