The Florida Gators football team returned to the practice field this week, their first organized team practice since concluding the 2019 season. Due to the global pandemic COVID-19, media was not allowed to be in the facility for practice in person. So we called an audible and set down to examine the Florida Gators practice film with you. There is only so much that schools include in this film, but we wanted to share it with you the fans so you can see everything as well. GatorBait TV's Kassidy Hill goes through both Monday and Wednesday's film, watching it for the first time with you. She offers insight, commentary and notes from Head Coach Dan Mullen's two press conferences this week. Additionally, here are some Mullen quotes of note about different players and units: On the progress of the O-Line: "I think they're coming along pretty nicely, obviously one of the hard things you go against each other, you don't know. You know, I mean some of us were talking about that today, 'oh this, you know, this looks really good. Is it because we're good at one spot or not good at another spot?' You know, and you don't always figure that out to the season starts. But I do think—I will say this on the offensive line, obviously you know they were a really young group last year experience wise. There's a lot more veterans and a lot more experience in that group. And I think that you see that in the confidence in what they do on a daily basis, their communication how they work together, that experience. I see a lot more confidence now. What that what that leads to and we got to play against other people we're going to see but I think they're doing pretty good job right now.” On where defensive back Trey Dean is playing most: "We're doing the same deal with the secondary. He's playing all over the place a little bit for us back there. The great thing, he's had experience at multiple positions, so when you have that it creates the opportunity to always keep certain guys on the field and create positive matchups." On tight end Kyle Pitts: "We run a pro offense, right? Now you’re seeing all these guys in the NFL that are getting huge deals at the tight end position.They run the same offense we kind of do of utilizing a guy like Kyle Pitts. I think he is a tight end and one of the things that makes him such a great weapon, when you’re trying to create mismatches on the field. You’ve a guy that is sitting there. A lot of old, old school people may be looking at tight end. Is this guy just going to be an extra offensive lineman in the game? He can come in and block up front and you can create. … knock people back at the point of attack blocking. Then they say, ‘ Let’s get some bigger guys in there to stop him.’ He’s such a great athlete he can take advantage of that in the pass game. He’s a mismatch. That’s what I’ve always seen the tight end position to be. Is somebody you can get in there to create mismatches on the field.” On quarterback Kyle Trask: “Well, I mean, obviously, decision making is going to be a huge one of how fast you process things. We’ll end up putting a lot more on him this year: checking within the game plan of him getting us into specific plays. But I think your comfort within the offense allows you … we give you a lot more freedom at that point because he’s put in the time and he has experience. You have a lot more freedom to do different things.” On QB Emory Jones: “Emory’s done a great job in preparing in this season. I think his comfort and his knowledge of the offense, obviously, coming into his sophomore year on the field. I think he’s much more comfortable with everything going on that’s out there. I think we have a lot of confidence in him. Playmaker. Certainly what’s kind of fun is you see Kyle in there, and he’ll run a play a certain way. And Emory, it ends up being a little different play with Emory in there. They have different skillsets and bring a little something different to the table with certain plays and certain packages. It makes it a pretty good 1-2 combination for us.” On linebacker Brenton Cox and the significant of him wearing No. 1: "Well I would think the player makes the jersey, not vice versa, so I think, um, but I have high expectations for him no matter what jersey number he's going to be in this year. We'll see. We'll see if he stays the No. 1. I haven't done a roster yet, so we'll figure it all out as we move forward. But I do have really high expectations for him. I think he's worked hard. He's done a great job for us. He's done a great job in the classroom since he's been here, had over a 3.0 GPA every semester that he's been here. Really worked hard in the offseason program and I've seen him, I mean, gives last year was unfortunately didn't get his eligibility, the waiver from the NCAA, which, you know, I mean that's a question. I mean, love to see some transparency on how all those things go through, the why and what causes it. But he did nothing but work, worked hard on scout team. Missed a spring ball but has worked hard all during going through our walk-throughs, learning the defense in the practices every day, works hard. "He could go everywhere. Yeah. He's a good player. We play guys at a lot of different positions. You've got to cross-train a lot of different guys. Especially a season like this you don't know how things are going to shape up, so you better have the depth and versatility. But I think he's a guy that wants to play after college as well, and have the opportunity to play in the NFL. And so in the NFL you want guys; the more versatility you have the better, so he's a pretty versatile guy." On linebacker Mohamoud Diabate: "Well I mean you know I mean he's, he's a really athletic guy, you know, and he's great pass rusher. And so—but again—like you said, I mean it's flexibility. We want guys who can play multiple positions. So he's the guy that we're moving around to different spots on the field to try to create mismatches against the, the offense, and you know when guys have that position flexibility and the ability to do multiple things. The key is making sure they do those things very, very well. Find out what they do well and keep putting him in that position to do well and he's done a great job of that.” Examining Monday's Film Examining Wednesday's Film

In a survey by the Gainesville agency Make It Happen, respondents were asked to answer three questions. The survey was open to the public, fans and members of GatorBait Media.com. STAFF REPORT The first phase of introspection by GatorBaitMedia is complete and readers, customers and fans say they favor no change in the name “GatorBait” even though the cheer has been dropped by the University of Florida. In a survey by the Gainesville agency Make It Happen, respondents were asked to answer three questions. The survey was open to the public, fans and members of GatorBait Media.com. Here are the percentages of their votes: 1. In light of current events do you believe GatorBaitMedia should change its name? 93 percent said “No.” 2. Would you like the “Gator Bait!” cheer to return to Gator football? 94 percent said “Yes.” 3. Do you support the University of Florida’s decision to have the band stop playing “Gator Bait” cheer at football games? Only 10 percent said “Yes.” The issue was raised when UF President Kent Fuchs announced June 18 that the cheer would be banned because of “the term’s reported racist history.” According to The Sporting News: “… which includes printed images and unsubstantiated accounts of black babies being used as hunting lures.” GatorBait Owner/Editor Buddy Martin said management was “taking those numbers under advisement,” but that this was only one of a three-step vetting about the cultural implications surrounding the name of the publication. Next up, he said, will be a focus group of former Gator athletes who are African-American, headed by star tight end Ben Troupe and GatorBait Lighthouse Builder member Loren Meadows, who have agreed to pick an “Orange and Blue Ribbon” panel for future discussions. At the conclusion, the Troupe-Meadows team will submit their findings in the form of a resolution to GatorBait Lighthouse Builders, which serves as an ex-officio board for the organization. The board’s investigation will be headed up by two prominent attorneys. Martin said when all the research is in he will weigh it closely and make a final decision later this fall. “We are in no hurry,” said Martin, “and we want to make sure we get it right.” The original publication Gator Bait was given the name by owner David Stirt 41 years ago when it was founded. Stirt has said he had no knowledge whatsoever that the term had any alleged racist connection. Martin’s group purchased Gator Bait and changed the name to GatorBait in August 2019.

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Amid the chaos of the Big Ten and Pac-12 eliminating all fall sports including football, a voice of reason from Atlantic Coast Conference medical advisor Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease specialist who says, “Can we safely have two teams meet on the field? I would say yes. Will it be tough? Yes. Will it be expensive and hard and lots of work? For sure. But do I believe you can sufficiently mitigate the risk of bringing COVID onto the football field or into the training room at a level that’s no different than living as a student on campus.” Duke’s hospital and medical school is world renowned. Dr. Wolfe is not one of these guys who couldn’t get into a reputable med school so he got his diploma from a school on some island somewhere that nobody really knows about. His statement says plenty about why the ACC, SEC and Big 12 are moving cautiously ahead with plans to play football in the fall. After all, the NBA is playing. Major League Baseball is playing. The National Hockey League is playing. The National Football League is forging ahead. Obviously, those people rely on doctors of the caliber of Cameron Wolfe in making their decisions. Meanwhile, Tuesday saw cancellation of all fall sports by the Big Ten and Pac-12, this on the heels of the Mid-American Conference and Mountain West electing to do without sports for at least the fall months. What these conferences did is tantamount to a financial Waterloo but the ripple effect goes far beyond and is liable to overwhelm the pea-sized brains of the bumbling bureaucrats who work for Mark Emmert at the NCAA. Good old Mark Emmert. He seems like a captain determined to go down with the ship, doesn’t he? Mark Emmert has been noticeably silent as two members of the Power 5 have called off fall sports. At a time when leadership starts at the top, Emmert seems to be hiding in half-bath in the basement, perhaps deep in prayer that when he climbs the steps to emerge into daylight all the problems will have magically disappeared. His silence has very well set in motion the secession by the Power 5 schools and perhaps some other leagues as well. At a time when leadership is necessary, the NCAA offers none. When Emmert does emerge and wipes his eyes so they can focus in the daylight, he’s going to face a host of other issues. You could say this will be the sports equivalent of an avalanche because you can expect athletes in every sport from the Big Ten, Pac-12 and other conferences that cancelled fall schedules to enter their names in the transfer portals. Once in the transfer portal, athletes are free to make contact and be recruited by other schools. If Emmert isn’t prepared to subject the NCAA to lawsuits on a massive scale, he’s going to have to grant the waiver requests of everyone whose sport got cancelled that transfers to a school in a conference that forges ahead. If the flow of players leaving is a Noah building an ark flood of Biblical proportions, then the NCAA is going to have to seriously consider expanding rosters from their current 85-scholarship limit. Expanded rosters is something the NCAA has already had to deal with since cancelling all spring sports. Spring sports rosters will be expanded to accommodate the players who lost their 2020 season so the NCAA already knows how to deal with this issue. Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators are likely beneficiaries when the floodgates open. Now that Big Ten athletics are shut down, there is no reason why Penn State wide receiver transfer Justin Shorter won’t be declared immediately eligible. Shorter is a former 5-star recruit blessed with the kind of size (6-4, 225) and speed (sub-4.6) that make him a nightmare matchup. He’s got tight end size but too fast for a safety to cover and too big for your conventional cover corner. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining and his presence adds experience to a receivers room that has to make up for the graduation loss of four who will be playing for pay in the fall including second rounder Van Jefferson (Los Angeles Rams). There will be plenty of other transfers. SEC, ACC and Big 12 schools in need of a plug and play guy at a position of need should have a chance to add a missing link in the next couple of weeks as players from the Big Ten and Pac-12 elect the option of playing immediately rather than face the possibility of playing two seasons separated by three months. Take a moment and think about that. The Big Ten and Pac-12 claim to be so concerned about the health of players yet they’re willing to play a spring season followed by a full fall schedule separated by two or three months at best. There is far less chance of a player suffering a permanent disorder or death from Covid-19 than there is of a serious injury from the physical stress of two football seasons in one calendar year. When the spigot of transfers begins to flow to the portal, no one should expect a big name like Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields to go anywhere. He knows he will be a top five pick when the NFL drafts next April whether he plays or not. He won’t play in the spring because that would subject him to an injury that could affect his draft status just weeks before Roger Goodell starts announcing who’s going where. There are, however, plenty of players out there whose draft status could be seriously altered if they don’t have a chance to show pro scouts what they can do on the field in real games. Don’t forget that heading into the 2019 season, the scouts had Joe Burrow pegged as a sixth or seventh rounder. If he hadn’t had the opportunity to light up all those teams while leading LSU to the national championship he certainly wouldn’t have been selected with the first pick in the April draft. You can be assured there are many, many players from the conferences that have eighty-sixed their seasons whose decisions to transfer out to play football this fall will be influenced by what happened with Burrow. At Florida, Mullen has close to a full roster, but he could be looking for a plug and play guy at middle linebacker or right tackle. If Indiana middle linebacker Micah McFadden (6-2, 235, JR) tests the transfer waters, you can bet the farm that Mullen and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham will be interested. McFadden is a quality player who was in on 61 tackles last year (two interceptions) and was a preseason third team All-Big Ten pick by Lindy’s. Throw in the fact that McFadden prepped at Tampa Plant and the Gators might have a big body in the middle who could possibly replace the graduated David Reese, who left UF with 322 career tackles. Expect Mississippi State coach Mike Leach to have an active interest in what goes on with players at Washington State. Now that the Pac-12 has postponed football, there could be a flood of transfers from Washington State, Leach’s former outpost. Without the benefit of spring football to install his Air Raid offense, Leach could definitely use some players who already know the system. It just so happens Wazzoo has three returning starters on the O-line and Leach just so happens to need three. Leach could also use a couple of experienced wide receivers and there are three at Wazzoo who probably would be happy to play for Leach once again. Davontavean Martin (6-3, 186) caught 43 passes for 564 yards and four TDs last year at Wazzoo (138-1,615, 18 TDs career). He’s from Houma, Louisiana so Starkville is an easy drive from home. Also available is Travell Harris (5-9, 180), who has 64 catches for 845 yards and six TDs in his Wazzoo career. He’s a Tampa native so getting back to warmer weather and closer to home might have serious appeal. If there is a healthy outflow of players from the Big Ten and Pac-12, you can expect their coaches will sell hard to 2021 recruits the need to early enroll so they can play in the spring. Of course, this is another potential dilemma that the NCAA will have to address if Emmert ever comes out of the basement. The NCAA might need to waive scholarship rules to expand or replace depleted rosters. Of course, the schools that play in the fall will have a real advantage over the ones that don’t when it comes to recruiting. The schools that play have a product on the field and potential recruits will be able to gauge how they will fit in as well as know which players have exhausted eligibility or who leave early for the NFL. Up in Big Ten territory, the idea of early enrollees playing football immediately might be a hard sell. How can Ohio State coach Ryan Day, for example, assure kids there will be football in the spring? If the Big Ten cancelled fall football for “health concerns” it stands to reason the league will consider the health of players before embarking on a spring and fall season that will greatly enhance the possibility of injury. No spring football? That might be a greater possibility than you can imagine if the Big Ten and Pac-12 are serious about “health concerns.” This could create a string of decommitments for the recruiting class of 2021 as kids committed to schools in the Big Ten and Pac-12 hedge their bets and look to the SEC, ACC or Big 12 as a viable alternative. Ohio State, which has the consensus number one class for 2021 has already lost 5-star defensive end Tunmise Adelye (6-4, 255, Katy, Texas/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy) decommit amid news the Big Ten would cancel. Smart money has him going to either Oklahoma or Texas A&M now. Will 4-star pro style QB Jake Garcia (6-2, 195, Valdosta, GA) remain committed to Southern Cal? How about 4-star running back and Ohio State commitment Treyveon Henderson (5-11, 190, Hopewell, VA)? Before he committed to Ohio State he seemed headed for certain to Alabama. Colorado isn’t playing so 4-star defensive tackle commit Tyas Martin (6-4, 315, Jacksonville, AR) could be looking for a new home. Four star outside linebacker Junior Colson (6-2, 215, Brentwood, TN) was being heavily recruited by half the SEC before he committed to Michigan. The list goes on and on but you can know that every single kid that was committed to a Pac-12 or Big Ten school is filled with doubts and reconsidering his choices: Stick with the commitment or go with the surer thing, a team from a league that is playing football this fall? * * * Remember that show on TV “The Biggest Loser”? This week’s biggest loser is The Big Ten Network followed closely by whatever passes itself off as the cable broadcast home for the woefully weak Pac-12. By eliminating all sports including football not only do all the schools in those respective leagues take a serious financial hit, but their networks will need tourniquets and emergency surgery to stop the bleeding. No sports in the fall means these networks will be replaying old games. There are only so many replays of the 2019 UCLA-Cincinnati game (UCLA lost to their country cousins from the American Athletic Conference, 24-14) that a fan can stand before he cancels his subscriptions and calls his cable operator to demand the SEC Network. The SEC Network is going to thrive and will probably see the largest surge in subscribers since the launch date back in 2014. The fledgling ACC Network might get past the break even point and the Big 12 will thrive too even with its weird deal with the Longhorn Network. Live sports will do that for you and once subscribers get a whiff of sports being played once again, they won’t look favorably on networks that have gone dark. Perhaps with the SEC playing a conference-only slate and being the greatest show on turf this fall, CBS might rejoin negotiations to continue with the SEC after the 2023 season. CBS balked when the bidding for future contracts went beyond $300 million per year, but the page that holds ESPN’s bottom line looks like someone slashed his wrists and bled all over it. ESPN’s brand has taken a real hit with the NBA and Major League Baseball. Things could get worse in the fall with the NFL if fans react to players taking a knee the way they did when Colin Kaepernick first introduced the practice four years ago. Another big winner will be the American Athletic Conference, which has elected to play in the fall rather than cancel. With Fox Sports losing its college football bell cows (Big Ten and Pac-12), it’s going to need replacements for games and the AAC could be just what the doctor ordered. The league plays a wide open brand of football and it doesn’t have a huge TV contract. If the AAC could get picked up by Fox or even NBC, then it could get paydays that it has never experienced. What the AAC earns in TV money per school qualifies as tip money for Power 5 athletic directors. Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference have also announced plans to keep on playing. They won’t command the money the AAC can but they can pick up a lot more television revenue as ESPN, in particular, looks to fill out its schedule. * * * This quote comes from a Yahoo Sports column by Charles Robinson, who reports mostly on NFL matters. Robinson takes a rather cynical view of the NCAA, school presidents and conference commissioners: “They’re operating in their own best interests while painting the actions as what’s safe and best for their captive labor. And all the while, they’re preserving the status quo of how NCAA schools work collectively — through a cynical process of control and inhibition disguised as education as amateurism. A familiar process that keeps a very small few at the top dictating what’s best for the vast numbers down below.” Robinson said this before the Big Ten and Pac-12 called it quits for the fall. Had he waited until Tuesday it would have been the perfect, scathing indictment of Big Ten rookie commissioner Kevin Warren and the inept Larry Scott, the Mr. All Promise and No Deliver commissioner of the Pac-12. If the SEC, ACC and Big 12 thrive as they should this fall, then it wouldn’t be surprising if both Warren and Scott are shown the door. And what happens if effective medicine against covid-19 is announced sometime in September with a vaccine to follow? Wall Street has been on a roll this past week with the expectation that medicine and a vaccine aren’t that far away? The SEC, ACC and Big 12 are well prepared since their start dates for football begin on September 26. It will be too late for the Big Ten and Pac-12 to crank up football if that happens. If effective treatment against the virus is announced, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey will look like the second coming of Albert Einstein while Warren and Scott will strongly resemble the kids who sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap. * * * The first conference that axed sports this fall was the Mid-American Conference, which cited “health concerns.” The real health concern might not have been for the players but for the bank accounts of the league’s 12 members, all of whom had at least one paycheck game axed when the Power 5 schools went conference-only, conference plus-1 or eliminated football this fall altogether. Here is a list of the schools and their paycheck games that went the way of the 5-cent cigar: Buffalo: 9/5 at Kansas State (Big 12); 9/19 at Ohio State (Big Ten) Miami (Ohio): 9/5 at Pitt (ACC) Toledo: 9/19 at Michigan State Western Michigan: 9/19 at Notre Dame (ACC); 9/26 at Syracuse (ACC) Ohio U: 9/12 at Boston College (ACC) Central Michigan: 9/12 at Nebraska (Big Ten); 9/19 at Northwestern (Big Ten) Ball State: 9/12 at Michigan (Big Ten); 9/19 at Indiana (Big Ten) Northern Illinois: 9/12 at Maryland (Big Ten); 9/26 at Iowa (Big Ten) Kent State: 9/5 at Penn State (Big Ten); 9/19 at Kentucky (SEC); 9/26 at Alabama (SEC) Eastern Michigan: 9/5 at Kentucky (SEC); 9/26 at Missouri (SEC) Bowling Green: 9/5 at Ohio State (Big Ten); 9/19 at Illinois (Big Ten) Akron: 9/19 at Clemson (ACC)

What a year this week has been. What a decade this year has been. After what felt like a March that lasted approximately 9,210 days, we hit April 1 and turbo sped to August. Then we hit another roadblock. Have you noticed those have coincided with sports shutting down? That was the case again this past week as college fall sports tripped all over itself with plans made after what seemed to be shotgun decisions and more finger pointing went on than anything. It was the result of absolutely no leadership from the top and everyone left to fend for themselves. There is still a lot we don’t know about the coronavirus COVID-19. Science and medicine is continuing to evolve everyday and teaches us something new each morning it seems, the latest being the risk of later heart trouble related to the disease (that admittedly is common for all viruses, but does appear to be especially true for COVID-19). Each lesson is proof that the dangerous, contagious respiratory virus needs to be taken seriously. But the last part of that statement? That at least we knew back this spring. The NCAA had already lost it’s cash cow, the March Madness tournament, due to the virus but instead of protecting it’s baby, college football, Mark Emmert and staff elected to sit back. See what happens. Hope it goes away in warmer weather. And, most importantly, let the conferences fend for themselves. What a disaster that was. Not surprisingly, when billion dollar businesses (and that’s what Division 1 college athletics largely are) are left to fend for themselves, they’re going to look out for only themselves. Among the Power 5 conferences in particular, there was little to no coordination as the Big 10 whispered at the table to other conferences in what can only be described as an attempt to cover their butt—“you do this with us and we’ll take the heat together”—and then when that didn’t work, just made one sweeping decision after another and expected other conferences to fall in line. That worked for a while, but when the Big 10 and Pac 12 used the same tactic to cancel all fall sports, including college football, the SEC, ACC and Big XII finally said enough is enough. The latter three conferences, as of print, are still planning on playing games—albeit conference only—this fall. These decisions don’t affect just football though. They affect every other sport that is able to exist and be played because of football. They affect student applications, they affect small businesses in college towns. They affect jobs like my own. There are millions of people that will be touched by whatever decision each conference makes. And those decisions are having to come at the 11th hour because each conference has been in a standoff in which no one can escape with anything that can be considered a win. The SEC, for now, will push forward and play football and ideally all fall sports. They're able to do so for now largely based on the decision a month ago to delay the start of the season to September 26. Teams have returned and are practicing. The Gators are set to begin football fall camp on Monday. On Tuesday’s Dan Patrick Show, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said of the advice the league is receiving from medical experts, “were that advice to change, it certainly would be a stopping point. The indicators are we can right now do what we’re doing in a healthy way.” While Sankey has said he doesn’t think the SEC standing alone as the only Power 5 team to play should the other four opt out, if the SEC, ACC and Big XII are able to continue their plans to play this fall, we will effectively see a paradigm shift in not only college football but college athletics as a whole. Nebraska and Ohio State coaches and players have already spoken out about their displeasure with not only the decision by the BIG 10 but also the way in which it was made, i.e. letting teams continue to practice and releasing a schedule all while those at the top were discussing canceling. If the SEC, ACC and Big XII play, and more so prove they can play safe fully, the BIG 10 and Pac 12 will have seceded any leverage they had in future decisions as a whole. Related: Greg Sankey strikes even tone as SEC Commissioner despite current division There is a chance it all backfires on the three left standing. Positive tests could explode, players and coaches could get sick and that would be bad enough on it’s own, but it will also diminish any leverage those three conferences had. We don’t wish for this to happen primarily because we want everyone to stay safe and healthy. But it can’t be ignored that this is a risk for the SEC, ACC and Big XII. How that turns out though will not change that the shift in college athletics is coming. While the NCAA is not the U.S. Government and therefore not responsible for the entire country’s response to the pandemic, the governing body of college athletics could have at the very least, governed college athletics. Thursday afternoon, Emmert announced the cancelation of all NCAA Division 1 fall championships. That excludes FBS football which plays in the College Football Playoff already, which is not a NCAA sanctioned event. When announcing the news, Emmert said the following: “We cannot now, at this point have fall NCAA championships because there’s not enough schools participating. The board also established, the board of governors said ‘look if you don’t have half the school playing a sport, you can’t have a legitimate championship.’ So we can’t in any Division 1 NCAA championship sport now—which is everything other than FBS football that goes on the fall—so sadly, tragically that is going to be the case this fall, full stop.” He spoke as a man with his hands tied, having to make a decision he didn’t want to make but was out of his power because, well, so many of the schools had canceled their fall sports. It wasn’t his fault, it was the school’s fault for pulling out. This completely ignores the fact that the conferences and some individual school’s (such as UCONN) had to make that decision because there was no uniformity and oversight from the NCAA in the first place. Instead, they did nothing, as we’ve examined above, and it will lead to one of two possible outcomes, neither of them good for the NCAA. Fall sports and possibly even winter and spring 2021 sports are completely canceled. Or played and there are outbreaks of the virus. Conferences acknowledge that the NCAA never established any uniform safety protocols, leading to different testing and monitoring. Conferences acknowledge that instead of taking the summer months to develop some sort of plan or possibly a bubble, the NCAA hoped the conferences themselves would figure it out. As a result, the conferences decide they can’t trust the NCAA any longer to take look out for their best interest (spoiler: they never could) and elect to pull their schools out of the national conference and form a new governing body. The SEC, ACC and Big XII pull it off, realize they can handle all of this better without the NCAA looking over their shoulder and elect to pull their schools out of the national conference and form a new governing body. All of this is arguably enough to shift how college athletics are governed, but there’s one massive brick building that also dropped and broke the camels back…the players spoke up. The NCAA, if nothing else, had power over the players. It was the arrow in their quiver and it could be dangled at any time; step out of line and we shut you down. It was an intimidating enough threat that it worked for a long time. Players would speak out here and there, but most fell in line. The past couple of years we’ve seen more and more peek behind the curtain in Oz and find nothing there, tarnishing some of the illusion. But there had yet to be one voice boldly calling out for change. Before we go into the players request this week that could potentially bring the NCAA to its knees, let’s stop and explain one vital part of this entire situation. The reason pro sports are being played right now while college athletics are in such question is because pro sports have been able to “bubble.” That means the NBA, for example, was able to put all of their players, coaches, trainers, media and now even family members into the Disney World sports complex. They eat together, practice together, play games together, hang out at the pool together. Everything is done in that bubble. The NFL has a little more of a logistical issue pulling this off thanks to the sheer number of people in question here as opposed to the NBA, but teams are able to do it individually. Some are choosing to put their entire team in a hotel during training camp and others have talked about sequestering a quarterback during the season like a designated survivor, should he be needed. MLS, MLB and NHL are all doing the same to some extent. We saw an outbreak of cases at the onset of each of these bubbles being initated, as teams traced and quarantined the positives. Once that was completed—typically taking around two weeks—the new positive cases dropped to virtually zero. The same has happened with college football teams by and large. Upon return to campus for summer workouts, there was a spike in cases as players and coaches were tested for the first time. Once quarantined and eradicated, few have seen new positive cases of late. Moving from the locker room to the practice field to the training room, football—and other fall sports—have been able to create their own little bubble. The general consensus has been that once students return, that bubble will pop quicker than one being chased by a rambunctious toddler. However, more and more students are finding out that even though universities as a whole aren’t canceling in person learning, teachers are. UF in particular, has had a multitude of classes voluntarily elect to move online for the time being. In other words, a bubble could be created—or in most cases, just continued—in college athletics. The reason the decision can’t be made though is because it would shatter the illusion that these athletes are normal students. If all 50,000 UF students are being put up at the Hyatt and kept away from the general population, then doing so with 100 football players would be admitting they are different. And that hits at the very foundation on which the NCAA has come to stand in recent decades. Related: Parental Roundtable: Being a Florida Gator Parent During a Pandemic A committee that was founded on protecting the student athletes has evolved into one that seems intent only on keeping them in line. And the moment they admit they’re not normal students but instead a billion dollar investment worth keep safe, the argument for amateurism goes out the window. All of a sudden the players would have a legitimate case for being compensated with revenue. Before you rush to the comments to scream, “but what about Title IX”; 1) If the only time you care about Title IX—a game changing, crucial and needed piece of legislation—is when its an argument against paying players, stop using it. 2) I don’t know how it would all work with Title IX. I wish I had answers because someone needs to, but I don’t. I know that would be the first and most important discussion that would have to be had. But I also know sweeping it under the rug and hoping it will go away isn’t working anymore. Instead people are tripping over that rug and bringing down everyone around them. The Name, Image, Likeness legislation will be a huge help towards solving this reasonable request from players. But it’s not being passed in every state. Congress is working on pushing it through at a national level, but if we don’t want politics in our sport, at some point we have to stop and ask ourselves in government if our sports would be any better? Do we really want to set that precedent? Back to discussing the players request. Realizing that the NCAA clearly wasn’t going to look out for them and that those making decisions for conferences were doing so out of liability worries more so than anything, the players decided they could take care of this—this being their future—better than anyone. They began to reach out via social media and in the course of 24 hours, over 100 from every Power 5 conference found themselves on a Zoom call together. They came up with a comprehensive, simple set of standards to play and reiterated their desire to do so. They did more in two days over Zoom and Twitter than people making six figures had managed to do in five months. The one demand that understandably received the most attention was one addressing the desire to form a College Football Players Association. I know that union can be a dirty word for a lot of people. And make no mistake, this would be a union. But at their core, they exist for the betterment of those they represent. College athletes were able to look around at pro sports and see their respective player’s association, made up of current players, fighting for the leagues and returning them to (safe) play as a result. And they asked themsevles, why can’t we have that? The fact that this movement was led by Trevor Lawerence and Justin Fields—two guys that could not play another down of football and still go in the Top 5 of next year’s NFL Draft—gave it the weight it needed to be taken seriously. Other players, like Florida’s Kyle Trask and the Gator leadership committee, began chiming in. At the top of each list is a request for extended medical coverage due to the still yet unknown parts of this virus. They ask for standard protocols and testing. And more than anything, they ask for a seat at the table. The request for parts of the revenue is a whole additional conversation. And having a player’s association may very well lead to it; but it’s been brewing for years. It was coming to a head anyways. At the end of the day, it’s hard to justify making sweeping decisions that affect hundreds of these athletes, and not give those same athletes a voice in the matter. That, more than anything, is all they’re asking for…or at this point, that’s all they’re demanding. With a collective and powerful voice—that now includes the President of the United States—they very well may get just that. Something will come along to replace the NCAA. It will inevitably grow to a point of power that proves carcinogenic. It’s Lord of the Flies and it’s a vicious cycle. But to quote the Declaration of Independence, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” In other words, the athletes have felt absolute despotism—not just with revenue but with what they’re allowed to say and wear and receive as a gift from their girlfriends—and they feel it is their duty to provide new guards for their future security. And the conferences know they can help provide that security without the oversight of the NCAA. Until the cycle repeats itself, it could be a glorious few decades. And it’s necessary to save college football and athletics. With the athletes having muscled their way to the front of the conversation and speaking for themselves, in conjunction with the conferences making decisions independent of the NCAA, we’re seeing the beginning of the end of the National Collegiate Athletics Association.

"Barring our inability to stem the Covid-19 surge in the next 30 days – at least to within a manageable number – I think this can become a spectacular opportunity for the teams that chose to stay and play. If there’s a season played, they’re never gonna catch the SEC again." Our problem is that nobody seems capable of making a decision that resonates with us all. That’s because the sport is leaderless and fragmented by state and region. One size does not fit all – it doesn’t even fit every state, let alone conference. So right now we have 3/5ths left of the Power Fives. Where do we go from here? Well, think SEC! I think I see one possible path. Let’s not get distracted, however. Here’s why I’m a little bit optimistic (Thank you for hanging in there Commissioner Greg Sankey): Barring our inability to stem the Covid-19 in the next 30 days – at least to a manageable number – I think this can become a spectacular opportunity for the teams that chose to stay and play. If there’s a season played, they’re never gonna catch the SEC again. Like I’ve said all along, the SEC is the only conference capable of becoming a stand-alone partner with a TV network. If the ACC and Big 12 want to come along, great. Better yet, they could merge to form part of the New SuperConference. Forget the NCAA. Imagine a new league with teams like Texas, Oklahoma, Clemson and Notre Dame joining up with the SEC. Otherwise, I don’t even know where to begin today, because none of us knows where, how or when to begin anything, including football season – should there be one. Lately it has been more like a survival course, or a serious, hyper-competitive Demolition Derby/Musical Chairs where nobody knows the rules – and if they did it wouldn’t matter because they change almost by the hour. The carnage of college football has left me confused, conflicted and contentious. What to do? How in the hell can we make the right choice on whether to play college football when some places can’t even agree on whether to wear a mask? We want the players’ physical health to be considered first, but right behind it their MENTAL health. It would be nice to follow a visionary if we had one. At the very least we have a vision from SEC Commissioner Sankey for a flicker of hope. May we keep The Dream alive. (Note: Is that Greg Sankey we see out there on the ledge?) And I promise to stay on the high ground, so right now let me stiff-arm all of the wedge-busting, cheap-shotting naysayers who accuse us of sweeping the health risks under rug and get right to the matter: NO POLITICS PLAYED HERE! It’s about the physical and mental state of the players and coaches, but also the future of the game. This Covid-19 could not only knock us out of the fall, but the spring as well – and maybe longer. The conference with the most to lose? The SEC. No wonder Sankey wisely delayed the opening to Sept. 26. Wait a while. And if needed, it can be pushed even later. How much safer are the players who remain in the program than those who would be forced to return to their homes? There is already an outcry of many parents who want their sons to remain in their football environment because it’s safer than anywhere else. Some doctors are pointing out that there is a much lower infection rate for athletes than elsewhere. As Florida Gators Team Physician Emeritus Dr. Pete Indelicato says: “There is no way you’re going to play without the virus anytime soon. So you must determine what’s an acceptable rate for your program.” Two critical health questions: 1. How susceptible will players be to the dangerous life-threatening myocarditis (heart inflammation) that has reportedly already impacted a reported 10 Big Ten players? 2. Since there is no guarantee how long this Covid-19 will impact college football and other sports, how do you know the infection rate won’t be worse next year? As Nick Saban pointed out the other day, his football “semi bubble” has only a 2 percent infection rate. Why leave Tuscaloosa? It is also about the future of the game. The packaging of TV for our living rooms/dens/man-caves is critical as we transition them into our new “stadium experience” and they could become a possible pandemic panacea for those of us who need the dopamine to get us through the fall. Don’t talk to me about spring ball right now, I need my rites of autumn first. And if not, then if there should be no Thanksgiving, I can wait for Plan B at Christmas. The newest heroes on campus will be the doctors, nurses and health care workers. However, there is no empirical evidence on which way we can lean. “So many things have changed in the last four or five months,” said Dr. Pete Indelicato, Florida Team Physician Emeritus. “There’s lots of things we didn’t know and 18 different ways of interpreting what we do know. It’s like looking at the world through rose-colored glasses ... but with 18 different tints.” Dr. Indelicato subscribes to the idea that with proper mitigation, a relatively safe environment could be created that could be safer than where the players would encounter elsewhere. “A semi-bubble,” he said. He wasn’t speaking for Scott Stricklin or Dan Mullen or President Ken Fuchs. Just an opinion. It’s just a hunch with no science to back it up. There are still too many medical unknowns, however, including the one introduced by the Big Ten recently: An inflamed heart. According to the AP: Dr. Colleen Kraft, another top NCAA medical advisor, on her concerns with myocarditis: “I think we’re playing with fire. One case or myocarditis in an athlete is too many.” When asked about myocarditis, Dr. Indelicato said, “I really don’t know enough about it.” So I’m rooting for fall football, better health, the new vaccine and just a little bit of joy. Incidentally, for those who read down this far and still think I have an agenda that chooses football over the health, my wife and I just began our sixth month of semi-quarantine, have hardly even left the house or had family and friends over, but will be making a decision soon as to when to stick our heads out like Punxsutawney Phil to decide if we are going to have five more months of isolation. We could use a little joy around here. C’mon football! Dr. Pete Indelicato wonders about "accceptable infection rate."

Despite five months of a sports hiatus, there is still rivalries to be had and smack talk to be talked. All of that was put on full display last week as Florida and Miami battled for three of the best recruits in the state – all of which hail from Miami-Palmetto High School. To say Miami fans were optimistic about hauling in all three blue-chip recruits is an understatement. Though the negatives of a global pandemic significantly outweigh the positives, in terms of college football recruiting, we’ve seen more and more prospects opt to stay closer to home. Because of this, Miami’s momentum on the recruiting trail appeared to be a force to be reckoned with. That is until a Dan-Mullen sized road block emerged. Florida made the short list for all three of the coveted prospects. Five-star defensive tackle, Leonard Taylor, was set to decide between Florida and Miami. Four-star defensive back, Corey Collier Jr., would be making his decision between Florida, Miami and LSU. And Jason Marshall Jr., a five-star defensive back, had his list narrowed down between Alabama, Florida, LSU, Miami and Oregon. Florida and Miami were the common denominator for the trio of Palmetto products. It’s no wonder it gave Gators fans and Hurricanes fans an opportunity to do what they do best – banter. Former Florida defensive back Ahmad Black took to the fire on Twitter to point out that the Hurricanes didn’t have a player drafted in this year’s NFL Draft until the 140thpick. Meanwhile, schools like FAU and FIU had players taken before pick No. 140. But for Palmetto’s Leonard Taylor, that didn’t seem of concern. In an exclusive broadcast with CBS Sports, Taylor announced his commitment to Manny Diaz and the Hurricanes – a decision that didn’t come as a surprise. Of the three recruits, Taylor presented the strongest crystal ball. And it was a crystal ball that was trending heavily towards the hometown Hurricanes. Nonetheless, Taylor’s pledge to Miami packed a punch. Taylor, who ranks as the best defensive tackle in the country according to 247Sports, helped lift the Hurricanes to No. 8 in the 2021 recruiting rankings – jumping Dan Mullen and the Gators. Being that the three studs are all teammates, the concern of a package deal was strong. Especially considering Brashard Smith, another Palmetto teammate, had committed to Miami prior to. Unlike his teammates Taylor and Collier Jr., Jason Marshall Jr. hadn’t disclosed a date in which he planned on committing. So when he did, it shocked the recruiting landscape. Like Taylor, Marshall’s crystal ball was trending south. But on Sunday evening, in an understated Tweet, Marshall announced his commitment to the University of Florida. Marshall’s five-star ranking makes him the highest rated recruit for Mullen and staff in the 2021 cycle. Marshall’s commitment also paved the way for more Twitter bantering to take place between restless college football fans. Corey Collier Jr., the third and final of the trio, was set to announce his commitment in a similar fashion to Leonard Taylor. CBS Sports had secured the exclusive announcement with Collier Jr. and his family for Monday. Though Collier had shortened his list to Florida, Miami and LSU, it’s important to note that both of his parents were athletes at Florida State. His dad played linebacker, and his mom was a track and field athlete. However, as encouraged by his parents, Corey Collier Jr. elected to pave his own path – even if it meant playing for a rival. And though both Florida and Miami are considered rivals of Florida State, Collier picked the rival. After announcing his commitment to Florida, Collier’s dad joined him in the Gator Chomp – something that came as a surprise coming from a FSU alum. With Collier’s commitment, not only did Florida possibly convert a ‘Nole to a Gator, but it also fended off Miami from winning the battle for the Palmetto trio. The competitive nature of society makes it so that we find a winner and a loser in everything. But it’s been hard to identify a winner in the midst of a global pandemic. But last weekend, Florida won.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday afternoon: As I contemplated the potential of a college football season cancelled this morning I flashed back to the black and white televisions and Saturday afternoon movie matinees of my youth. I vividly recalled pirate movies when someone was made to walk (or was pushed off) the plank into a dark ocean below and movies when a call from the governor to the warden came just seconds before the switch was pulled to light up the electric chair with thousands of volts of electricity. When I thought of walking the plank, I thought this is what the presidents and athletic directors of Power 5 schools should do to NCAA president Mark Emmert. Of course, if Emmert is made to walk the plank, who leads? With college football facing a disaster of Biblical proportions leadership is essential but that isn’t exactly Emmert’s long suit, is it? Since he cancelled all spring sports back in April, Mark Emmert has had five months to consult with experts to figure out what to do about college football. Other than a few directives about “health concerns” we’ve seen next to nothing from him. College football – all college sports for that matter – need a leader who is willing to stand up at a time like this to make hard decisions. Emmert’s attempts at leadership invoke the childhood vision of the ostrich burying his head in the sand. In the absence of leadership from the top we have chaos that accelerated over the weekend when the Mid-American Conference cancelled all fall sports. The MAC cites “health concerns” for the decision but what might be more revealing is the fact that every one of the 12 teams in the MAC has at least one paycheck game with a team from the Power 5. Take away those paycheck games and it’s hard to balance the athletic department checkbook. I might not be a banker but I do know that when you have more outgo than you have income you’ve got trouble right here in River City. You’re talking about a league whose largest stadium (Buffalo) seats 30,270 and the average attendance at a game in 2019 was 15,530. There is no big television contract so take away those paycheck games and the potential of playing in empty or stadiums with less than half last year’s average and axing the 2020 season probably made sense. “Health concerns” made for a good excuse. But now that the MAC has walked the plank (the water below the SS College Football might get crowded here), we see the potential of lemmings rushing full speed to the cliff, led by Kevin Warren, the rookie commissioner of the Big Ten. In the past couple of days, Mr. Warren has let it be known that he would prefer college football to be played in the spring, citing, of course, the global pandemic and “health concerns” for players. If that’s the case then why hasn’t Mr. Warren taken into consideration the thought that playing football in the spring and then again in the fall could be catastrophic for the health of players. Football is a brutal game and not many of us are even remotely aware of the physical toll playing a 12-game schedule takes on bodies. A bowl game adds another game. If your team is good enough to make the conference championship game and then the College Football Playoff, the possibility of playing 15 games is very real. Yet Mr. Warren and the Big Ten folks tell us they are so concerned about the health of the players. Did you know that since March 1 (stats provided by the Center for Disease Control) a little more than people between the ages of 15-24 have died from covid-19, pneumonia and influenza COMBINED nationwide? This isn’t to downplay the seriousness of this virus, but the numbers tell us that the kids who play college football (usually age 18-22) aren’t nearly likely to die as someone past the age of 70 (the CDC reports 8 of every 10 deaths from covid-19 are above the age of 70). And why isn’t Mr. Warren listening to Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, who says that playing a conference-only schedule with mandated reduced attendance is going to set his school back $60-70 MILLION? Alvarez says that cancelling the fall schedule to play in the spring will set Wisconsin back $100 MILLION. Or more. This is one of college sports’ most fiscally sound athletic programs that raked in more than $50 million last year from the conference from bowl games, the Big Ten Network and other television revenues. Wisconsin has a $190 million surplus so it can survive this kind of hit. How many other schools can take the hit? Meanwhile, we’re waiting until Tuesday for the other Power 5 conferences and schools to add their voices and votes. Someone needs to step up and lead here. Desperately so. Where are you SEC commish Greg Sankey? There are all these reports out there that you’ve been head and shoulders ahead of everyone else in leadership among the Power 5, but we have yet to hear something definitive from you as some athletic directors predict cancellation of college football. No college football in the fall in the south? Oh my. I’ve talked to my share of fans who all tell me the same thing – they’ll accept a made-for-TV season this fall while we wait for some sort of vaccine or other medication that can eradicate covid-19. Unless Greg Sankey is the strong silent type who is consolidating his power base behind the scenes there has been a lack of leadership on his part. The same could be said about Bob Bowlsby, the commissioner of the Big 12, other than Sankey considered the most experienced and powerful voice among the Power 5 commissioners now that Jim Delaney (Big Ten) and John Swofford (ACC) have retired. Bowlsby’s voice hasn’t been heard either. Maybe he and Sankey are burning up the phone lines to come up with some sort of plan. If so they need to have a plan ready Tuesday that the other commissioners will be willing to follow. If they have no plan, the season will be axed. In the void of this leadership from the so-called adults in the room, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields have spoken and their voices are being joined by hundreds of players who have one very simple message: “We want to play.” These kids aren’t dummies. They can read statistics. They understand that age doesn’t prevent you from contracting the virus, but the fact they are young, strong and healthy means the odds are slight that they might assume room temperature if they are diagnosed positive. They also understand that football is a developmental game and they’ve already had spring practice taken away along with summer workouts. Take away the football season in the fall? That’s huge. Lawrence and Fields have nothing to worry about when it comes to their NFL futures. Whether or not they play won’t affect their draft status one bit. They are all but assured of being a top five pick in 2021 and they might very well go 1-2. Numerous other players who have established themselves as bona fide future pros have nothing to worry about even if football isn’t played. However, there are hundreds of kids out there who need to play so that scouts can evaluate them. Take a year away and that very small window of opportunity – less than 2% of the players ever make it even one year in the league – shrinks considerably. Who is to say that the kid who was poised to make a leap up the draft charts in the fall of 2020 will have the same impact if football is cancelled. I remember one particular Florida offensive lineman who arrived out of high school with NFL written all over him. During an injury year he ate himself out of a scholarship and a pro career. For some kids, the personal economic impact of no football could be huge. And, who is to say the same “adults” making the decision to cancel football in the fall might make the choice to X out football in the spring after they consider the physical toll playing a spring and then a fall football season might have on the kids? The wait until 2021 to resume college football might eliminate entire athletic programs. Consider also that a fall and a spring without college football would be a financial Waterloo for the networks who pay much of the freight for the Power 5 programs. Now I do not claim to be anything remotely close to a medical expert. I know this is a very contagious virus but is there a greater chance to catch the virus playing football than there is being exposed to the regular student population on any campus? And what is the fatality rate of those in the student-age population who contract covid-19? It’s actually pretty low. What are the odds that a whole bunch of college athletic departments go bankrupt without football? That’s probably significantly higher than the fatality rate for the 15-24 age group that contracts the virus. How many college athletic programs will be discontinued if football isn’t played? We might be surprised by the number because there might be only 20-25 programs that have the financial wherewithal to take the kind of hit Barry Alvarez is talking about. Back to Lawrence, Fields and the kids who say, “We want to play!” We’ve given an empowering voice to the players in all collegiate sports ever since the tragic death of George Floyd. We’ve seen an attempt to unite football players with a list of demands that, if not met by institutions and conferences, will result in a boycott. Some of the demands make perfectly good sense while others aren’t well thought out and unreasonable. The fact that players are making these kind of demands begs this question: Is the threat to cancel the fall football season less about “health concerns” and more about shoving the demands under the rug, hoping they go away with time? The way the NCAA goes about things, you have to think there is this core belief that these very loud voices will lose some of their power if there is no fall football. The emergence of a second front – this one players saying “We want to play” sends a shot across the bow of the presidents and athletic directors who are going to make this decision. The kids have awakened to the fact that the game is all about them. They understand that they sacrifice their bodies to not just follow a dream about one day playing in the NFL but to fund scholarships and travel budgets for the equestrian, rowing and water polo programs among others. College sports is a multi-billion dollar train whose engine is football and the players are the fuel that drives the train. Two things need to happen in a hurry: (1) The Power 5 schools need to secede from the NCAA; and (2) someone with a vision for the future needs to emerge as the voice of college athletics. The NCAA is the Titanic. It has hit the iceberg and it’s sinking in a hurry because Mark Emmert can’t lead and he’s surrounded himself with buffoons. The Power 5 schools need to form their own organization and they need someone capable of leading from the front instead of waiting for the next shoe to drop. Is there a leader among them? Is there someone capable of telling the presidents, commissioners and athletic directors, “I’m the one who’s telling you the way it’s going to be”? If there isn’t then the Power 5 will go down with a ship they didn’t have to be on in the first place. I keep thinking about pirate movies and walking the plank. I also think about the last second call from the governor ordering the warden to halt the execution. I wonder which one will be the prevailing vision in my head on Tuesday.

The Florida Gators 2020 football schedule will now include the Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas A&M Aggies, the SEC announced on Friday. The change comes after the league shifted to a 10-game conference only schedule to protect athletes and staff against the spread of the pandemic COVID-19. Each team received two additional cross-divisional opponents to accompany the eight that were already on their schedule. In a release by the University of Florida, Athletic Director Scott Stricklin said, “The SEC office and Commissioner Sankey have worked tirelessly to help its member schools and our student-athletes move forward given unprecedented circumstances; from putting together detailed medical plans, guaranteeing scholarships for athletes who wish to opt-out, to plotting a course for what seasons and schedules could look like. “Given all the unknowns we face, today’s announcements regarding the SEC initial COVID-19 management requirements, along with the identification of two additional opponents in football, provide a solid framework with a goal of giving our teams the opportunity to compete in a healthy environment during the 2020-21 school year.” Dan Mullen and team will travel to Texas A&M to play in College Station for the first time since 2012. The Razorbacks—and former Gator quarterback Feleipe Franks—will travel to The Swamp. The Gators and Razorbacks last met in 2016 in Fayetteville, where Arkansas earned a 31-10 victory. Florida leads the overall series, 9-2, with UF downing Arkansas, 30-10, in the last meeting in 2013 in Gainesville. Speaking of Franks, he makes a relatively mundane game suddenly rife with storylines. The former Florida starter was famously injured in the third game of the 2019 season. While he received surgery and recovered, Kyle Trask took the reigns and became one of the greatest stories in the sport as he helped Florida finish with an 11-2 record and their second New Year’s Six bowl win. With Trask in control, Franks said “thank you” to Gator Nation and transferred to Arkansas. Less than a year later, he’ll travel back to Gainesville to face his old team and teammates. As we wrote in this week’s edition of GatorBait Magazine when contemplating the possible games, “This [Arkansas game] is the dream. This game would pit Kyle Trask and the Gators against the Arkansas Razorbacks and their new passer, Feleipe Franks. It’d be an opportunity to truly see them compete on the field. Franks didn’t lose his job to Trask but Trask performed phenomenally once taking over the reigns last season. Trask did so well that he finished as the assumed starter for next season, leading Franks to hand over his team and transfer, but it took Franks becoming injured for Trask to get the chance since he never beat him in training camp. In other words, neither have a grudge to exorcise over the other, but both have something to prove. And between two competitors that hold eons of respect for the other, the matchup would prove to be fun. The Razorbacks are also coming off a season in which they finished 2-10 (0-8) with little improvement in talent other than the Franks transfer. Under a new head coach and a rebuilding team, it should alleviate some of the tough parts of the schedule like against LSU, providing the fairness Stricklin mentioned. Additionally, Florida and Arkansas haven’t played each other since 2016 meaning they’re a team the Gators and the fans haven’t seen in a while, providing it more notoriety. They also won’t play again until 2023, meaning that if the schedule goes back to normal next year, Florida won’t be facing the same team again right away.” The Gators will travel to Texas A&M to face the Aggies and Head Coach Jimbo Fisher. Florida was 7-1 against Fisher when he was coaching the Florida State Seminoles. Fisher is 17-9 (9-7) in his two years in College Station. He will return quarterback Kellen Mond, who finished 2019 with a 61.6% completion record and a 20-9 touchdown to interception ratio. As we wrote in this week’s edition of GatorBait Magazine when contemplating the possible games, “This is the most likely scenario to join Arkansas on the Gators docket. Florida is scheduled to face the Aggies in College Station in 2022, which isn’t that far away, but still has a one year buffer in between the rotation. It’s also been three years since Florida last faced TAMU. Great, now we’re thinking about those hideous alligator skin uniforms. Let’s move on quickly before our night is completely ruined. The Aggies and Jimbo Fisher are going to be tough, led by passer Kellen Mond. There hasn’t been quite the world shaking play from Mond that pundits like to think there has been, but he’s still a formidable threat who was the potential to take over the conversation around college football this fall. Every SEC team—and especially every SEC West team—will be tough. But if the Birmingham office is evaluating the fairest way to split the schedule like Stricklin mentioned, then TAMU and Arkansas could be the best bet for the Gators. The Aggies provide a decently difficult opponent to accompany LSU. Ole Miss is a wild card and the Razorbacks should be a relatively easier opponent this year.” Kickoff for the truncated season has been pushed back to September 26 and the SEC will announce official dates for each team’s 10 games at a later date.

"I want to see college football. The best way for that to occur is for us all to realize is that wearing a mask, as irritating as that can be—and I promise I hate it more than anyone watching—is critical." —Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves after issuing statewide mask mandate. Since March 13 I have missed several family birthdays, every Sunday of church, virtually all celebration of holidays and, except for a couple of loosely organized cookouts with four or five family members and one at a neighbor friend’s house where we were socially distanced, we’re pretty much locked down. So we’re a bit serious about this. I was reminded of that this week when Ocala ratified a semi- mandatory mask ordinance. It also hit me when I was asked to help eulogize my friend Carey McDonald, who passed away at 95 after a long illness. Carey has been a lifelong force and strong advocate/coach of high school sports on a national level. He and I have been friends for more than 60 years. Sadly when his son Dale, the mayor of Maitland, asked me to speak over Carey at a small gathering Saturday in Ocala’s First Methodist Church, I had to decline. I’ve even had to skip a funeral of a cousin in recent weeks. Faith and health above all. But it's sad. And it hurts. “Oh nooooo! Not another commentary on health care!” some of you no doubt are saying. Nope. Hear me out. Don’t judge. This is a no-spin political zone. And I’m tired of arguing political viewpoints and health issues. Do what you must do, but please be considerate. As for the semi-quarantine, is it a bit of an overreaction? Perhaps. But we have chosen not to be overly concerned with what people think and just pray that we have the resolve to do the right thing. This is not going to be yet another one of those columns or forums where I try and sway you over to my way of thinking, or vice-versa. There WILL be sports discussed here today and nowhere will you find the “V” word. At the same time, life has changed for us all. These are some of the ways it has changed ours. This is our reality for now. To our friends and my professional colleagues, The Martins have become Casper the Ghosts. It’s been something like 145 days since we first started our self-semi-quarantine. Punxsutawney Phil has nothing on us in the Martin Household. And that’s OK. We’re good with our decision not to tempt the fates. We believe health protocols override political agendas. So we stay home, wear masks when we go out for an hour of the week and stay socially distanced on those rare occasions when family or friends come to visit. Even before the ordinance was passed we did this. Yet we remain vulnerable. Don’t feel story for me. I’m one of the blessed ones. I’ve been working at home for almost 10 years. For three years I’ve been streaming Buddy Martin Show out of my home four nights a week. It almost reminds me of my CB Radio Days in St. Petersburg (see the Don Addis cartoon), which I once did a story on for the St. Petersburg (Now Tampa Bay)Times. These days I even edit the magazine at GatorBaitMedia.com from the same office. As I admitted to my wife Joni the other day, “Aside from our Friday night dinners with friends, church on Sunday, your bridge group and maybe a lunch out once a week, we’ve not missed out and our lives really haven’t changed all that much. What could be better than being Home Alone with you?” It has been a very busy, productive 144 days. Broadcasting over 50 versions of The Buddy Martin Show. Originating a podcast with Urban Meyer that will be forthcoming in a few weeks. (See below) Starting and cancelling a book with two coaches. All the while reaching a one-year anniversary of for owning and operating GatorBaitMedia.com. And coming up: Celebrating well over a half century of marraige Aug. 12. Remember, though, we haven’t missed a football game – yet! Just SEC Media Days. Many years ago in 1952 a country boy from North Carolina recorded a brilliant satire called “What It Was Was Football.” Andy Griffith’s hit comedy record was described by one writer thusly: “The monologue was from the perspective of a country bumpkin, who witnesses his first football game.” Today, we need Andy around to do a sequel almost 70 years later: “What it IS IS football.” We’re starting all over this year. It’s a different game in a different time. Even the conferences are not scheduling the same and have different opening dates. But in a way, it’s new and exciting, and some of the changes will be for the better. Even permanent. As listeners to my show know, I have been "Buddy One Note" for providing consumers with a better product by getting rid of Cupcake Games, shortening the season, expanding the playoffs, improving the stadium experience and tightening up budgets with trimming of overspending on recruiting, bloated coaching staffs and travel. So some good can still come out of this – maybe. With health care costs expanding, even the rich SEC Schools must sharpen their pencils to offset those expenses and the loss of ticket revenue. And as for improving the stadium experience, there will now be plenty of room around your seats and no long lines at the restrooms or beer taps. I have no crystal ball, but I did agree with the aggressive way Greg Sankey and the SEC went to an all-league only, 10-game schedule. Of course, there is also the possibility it could all shut down in a week. But contingency plans were imperative. Sankey did it right. Our lives have been altered forever, but not all of it is bad. Coming soon: The chance to talk with one of the best minds in college football every week is a huge opportunity for me and I am very excited by the prospects of sharing the mic with Urban Meyer on The Urban Meyer & Buddy Martin Podcast: “The Best Friday in Football”: Celebrating college football with shared insights and intelligent conversation by and about people with a common appreciation and passion for the tradition and splendor of America’s greatest game. Check in later, but look for it where you normally get your podcast. Here are the Rules of the Urban & Buddy Podcast: Rule #1: No Coachspeak. Truthspeak? Rule #2: No Politics, but … Maybe a Prayer? Rule #3: Spin a Yarn. Have a chuckle? And going back this original headline: Dear God, please help us stay healthy – and give us football!

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: As we wait with bated breath for the SEC to release its schedule for all 14 teams in the SEC, the Amway Coaches preseason top 25 poll was released Thursday. Even though no one knows who will play whom in the SEC, the league still nailed down three of the top five spots, four of the top eight and six of the top 13. To no one’s surprise Clemson got the top ranking with Ohio State ranked second. The SEC came in at third, fourth and fifth with Alabama, Georgia and LSU. Florida was ranked eighth, Auburn 11th and Texas A&M 13th. The Big Ten tied the SEC with six top 25 teams while the ACC and Big 12 landed four each, the Pac-12 three and the American Athletic Conference two. The top 25: (1) Clemson; (2) Ohio State; (3) Alabama; (4) Georgia; (5) LSU; (6) Oklahoma; (7) Penn State; (8) FLORIDA; (9) Oregon; (10) Oregon (11) Auburn; (12) Wisconsin; (13) Texas A&M; (14) Texas; (15) Michigan; (16) Oklahoma State; (17) Southern California; (18) Minnesota; (19) North Carolina; (20) Utah (21) UCF; (22) Cincinnati; (23) Iowa; (24) Virginia Tech; (25) Iowa State TOO HIGH, TOO LOW, JUST RIGHT: Now that we have a top 25 here is an opinion on the rankings. Who is ranked too high? Too low? Which ones did the coaches get just right? (1) Clemson: In his two years as Clemson’s starting QB, Trevor Lawrence has lost only one game and that was against LSU for the national championship back in January. He beat Alabama for the national championship as a true freshman and beat Ohio State in the semifinals last year before losing his first collegiate game against LSU. All-Interplanetary running back Travis Etienne is back (4,038 yards, 56 touchdowns, 7.8 yards per carry) and the defense returns eight starters. JUST RIGHT (2) Ohio State: Justin Fields (41 TDPs, 3,273 yards; 10 rushing TDs) is back from a team that took Clemson to the wire in a CFP semifinal and while there is no shortage of talent in Columbus, Ryan Day has to replace running back J.K. Dobbins, stud DE Chase Young and three of four starters in the secondary. Despite losing 11 starters, the Buckeyes are really, really good, but can they beat Penn State in Happy Valley? A LITTLE TOO HIGH (3) Alabama: Offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian just got a raise to $2.6 million and why not? There are four starting offensive linemen returning including the best pass blocker in the league in Alex Leatherwood. They will be blocking for the league’s best running back (Najee Harris) and giving quarterback Mac Jones all the time in the world to throw to Devonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle. There are studs on the defense like MLB Dylan Moses and CB Patrick Surtain II, but if the unit doesn’t get significantly better coordinator Pete Golding will be looking for gainful employment in January. JUST RIGHT (4) Georgia: The folks in Poodlesville rejoiced when Jamie Newman transferred in from Wake Forest to take over for the departed Jake Fromm (State Farm). They got downright giddy when JT Daniels transferred in from Southern Cal and won a waiver from the NCAA to play immediately. Sounds good, right? Well, neither one of them got any spring practice reps and they’ll both be learning an offensive scheme on the fly from a brand new coordinator (Todd Monken). Four starters from the O-line have to be replaced. The defense could be elite but good enough to take the Poodles to the promised land if the offense doesn’t ever gel? TOO HIGH (5) LSU: Heisman QB Joe Burrow will be playing on Sundays this fall along with 13 other players from a team that ran the table and won the national championship. Joe Brady, the guy who designed that Star Wars offense is now an OC in the pros. The new QB is Myles Brennan, who has thrown two touchdown passes in three years in Baton Rouge. The nation’s best wide receiver (Ja’Marr Chase: 84-1,790 yards, 20 touchdowns) is back but there will be five new O-linemen. On defense there will be six new starters. LSU will be good, but not that good. TOO HIGH (6) OKLAHOMA: In three years on the job, HBC Lincoln Riley has produced two Heisman Trophy QBs and a Heisman runner-up. All three were transfers from St. Somewhere Else. This year his QB is expected to be redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler, who will be operating behind the best O-line in the country (all five starters return). Sixteen starters return from a team that made the CFP semifinals. If the defense improves and Rattler comes up big, the Sooners could make the national championship game. TOO LOW (7) PENN STATE: Stud linebacker Micah Parsons (109 tackles, 5 sacks, 4 forced fumbles) has opted out of 2020 due to concerns about the virus. Penn State’s defense won’t be nearly as good without him. Is the offense good enough to carry the load? The Nittany Lions get the Buckeyes at home but play Michigan on the road. TOO HIGH (8) FLORIDA: This is the year Dan Mullen has been pointing to since he arrived on the Florida campus in December of 2017. Two seasons and 21 wins later, the Gators have an SEC roster, the best returning QB in the league (Kyle Trask, 25 TDPs), the best tight end in the SEC and maybe the country (Kyle Pitts, 54-649, 5 TDs), four returning starters on the offensive line and a defense that is going to be both nasty and elite. Remember the name Brenton Cox Jr. and get ready for beastly off the edge. TOO LOW (9) OREGON: Former Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead is charged with turning Tyler Slough into a championship level QB. If Slough can throw the ball well enough to back the safeties off the line of scrimmage, CJ Verdell could (1,225 yards, 8 TDs) light up the Pac-12. The defense needs some help for stud edge rusher Kavon Thibodeaux (9 sacks). TOO HIGH (10) NOTRE DAME: The Irish are playing an ACC schedule and competing for a conference championship for the first time in school history. The schedule will definitely be easier. They have an experienced starter at QB in Ian Book (3,034 yards, 34 TDPs) and all five starters returning on the offensive line. The Irish get Clemson in South Bend in what should be a prelude for the ACC Championship Game. TOO LOW (11) AUBURN: Bo Nix turned heads as a freshman when he passed for 2,542 yards (16 TDPs) and ran for another 7. The Tigers return all their skill people but only two starters on the offensive line. The defense will miss Derrick Brown but should still be one of the better units in the SEC. JUST RIGHT (12) Wisconsin: The offense loses Jonathan Taylor and his more than 6,000 career rushing yards, WR Quintez Cephus and three starters on the O-line. The replacements aren’t exactly overwhelming. The defense will be really good and it better be since it will have to carry the Badgers. TOO HIGH (13) Texas A&M: This is the year Jimbo Fisher has been building toward since he took the job in Aggieland. He has 18 returning starters including a three-year guy at QB in Kellen Mond (7,379 yards, 52 TDPs; 1,315 rushing yards, 18 TDs) and 10 defensive starters. The schedule is brutal because it includes games with Alabama, LSU and Auburn and might include the Gators but the Aggies will be very, very good and a threat to make the SEC Championship Game with a little luck. TOO LOW (14) Texas: Tom Herman was supposed to be the guy that took the Longhorns to the promised land but he’s 25-15 in three years. With 18 returning starters, if Herman can’t win the Big 12 this year, the boosters aren’t going to be happy. They got a break when LSU was dropped from the schedule. ABOUT RIGHT (15) Michigan: The offense was pretty average last year and that was with a two-year starter at QB. There will be a newbie taking the snaps this year for an offense that has to replace eight starters. The defense will be pretty good, but not great. TOO HIGH (16) Oklahoma State: The offense will be spectacular if QB Spencer Sanders remembers to throw it to the guys wearing the same color shirt he’s wearing. Chuba Hubbard (2,094 rushing yards, 21 TDs) will be the Heisman chatter and WR Tylan Wallace (53-903, 8 TDs) will contend for the Biletnikoff Award. The defense returns 10 starters. That might not be good news. ABOUT RIGHT (17) Southern Cal: The pundits think Clay Helton is in over his head. Alums would like him gone. Wonder what they will say if the Trojans win the Pac-12, which they should with Kedon Slovis (3,502 yards, 30 TDPs) at QB for what should be a record-setting sophomore year. Seventeen starters return, nine from a defense that was underwhelming last year. Expect serious improvement on that side of the ball and for USC to crack the top 10 in the final polls. TOO LOW (18) Minnesota: Tanner Morgan (3,253 yards, 30 TDPs) might be the best QB you’ve never heard of. He will be throwing behind an O-line that returns all five starters. The Gophers will have to win shootouts. The defense wasn’t very good last year and it won’t be any better this year. ABOUT RIGHT (19) North Carolina: Mack Brown has 10 returning starters on offense, the most important of which is QB Sam Howell (3,641 yards, 38 TDPs), who will throw to a pair of gifted wide receivers in Dyami Brown (81-1,034, 12 TDs) and Dazz Newsome (72-1,018, 10 TDs). The defense needs a lot of work. The Tar Heels will have to win shootouts but they will be exciting. ABOUT RIGHT (20) Utah: The Utes are going to have problems replacing QB Tyler Huntley and stud RB Zack Moss. The new QB is former South Carolina starter Jake Bentley, who will operate behind four returning starters. Last year’s outstanding defense was gutted by graduation. TOO HIGH (21) UCF: The Knights will continue to light up scoreboards wherever they play. Sophomore QB Dillon Gabriel threw for 3,663 yards and 29 TDs as a true freshman. He will be throwing to one of the fastest set of wide receivers in the country. If DC Randy Shannon can get some improvement out of that unit, the Knights could very well run the table. This is a team nobody should want to play. TOO LOW (22) Cincinnati: The Bearcats return 11 starters, the most important of which is junior QB Desmond Ridder (2,164 passing yards 18 TDPs; 650 rushing, 5 TDs). The offense has to replace running back Michael Warren II and none of the replacements are anywhere close. The defense has issues with the pass. Cincy has to play UCF in Orlando. TOO HIGH (23) Iowa: Before all these revelations about racial issues, Iowa might have been considered top 15 material. We’ll have to see if the Hawkeyes can put all the turmoil behind them. It’s not going to be easy. TOO HIGH (24) Virginia Tech: For the first time since the Clinton administration, there is a new defensive coordinator in Blacksburg. Justin Hamilton takes over a defense that Bud Foster piloted to 109thnationally in scoring defense, 102nd overall and he’ll have to do it without stud corner Caleb Farley, who has opted out for 2020. TOO HIGH (25) Iowa State: HBC Matt Campbell has a lot of holes to fill but he’s got a nice centerpiece in QB Brock Purdy (3,982 yards, 27 TDPs; 8 rushing TDs). The Cyclones have to come up with a running game and figure out how to stop the run to move much higher. ABOUT RIGHT SHOULD HAVE BEEN RANKED: Boise State; Arizona State; Kentucky; Memphis

Amid credible reports that Admiral Mark Emmert continues to sail the Good Ship NCAA straight into an iceberg large enough to apply for statehood, the Southeastern Conference is trying to figure out what’s next after giving the finger to the Atlantic Coast Conference just one day after the ACC announced a 10-plus-1 schedule designed to accommodate four ACC-SEC rivalry games along with three other games between SEC and ACC opponents. That was a week ago. By now you probably figured the SEC would have already released a scheduling model for its 10-game, conference-only plan that eliminates those ACC-SEC matchups along with three SEC-Big 12 matchups. There are rumblings from people who know about these things that a few SEC athletic directors – notably Scott Stricklin of Florida, Greg Magarity of Georgia, Mitch Barnhardt of Kentucky and Roy Tanner of South Carolina – are hopping mad because traditional games that carry plenty of meaning in their respective states have been wiped out. And that doesn’t even begin to take into account the ADs in the ACC and Big 12 who were broadsided by the SEC decision. It can be argued quite effectively that SEC commish Greg Sankey’s plan to forge ahead conference-only makes perfectly good sense. The SEC plan takes into account worries and concerns about covid-19 by delaying the start of the season until September 26. It gives every team a midseason open date over a three-week period (most likely October 24, October 31 and November 6) so that nobody has to play 10 straight weeks. The regular season will finish up on December 5 and December 12 has been set aside for makeup games in case of virus-forced postponements. If you think Sankey and the SEC did the right thing, then that’s your story and you’re sticking with it. If you happen to think the SEC could have done what the ACC did by playing 10 conference games and a plus-1, then you’re not alone. Folks in the ACC and Big 12 probably think the rich and powerful SEC turned its back on its financially beleaguered cousins. How tough would it have been to throw those two leagues a lifeline? Now both the ACC and Big 12 are in scramble mode, trying to add a non-conference game for their plus-1. Had the SEC gone plus-1, that wouldn’t have been necessary for the most part. Since announcing the conference-only plan, the SEC hasn’t come up with a definitive schedule, which is a huge disservice to its head coaches and their staffs. At Florida, Dan Mullen and his assistants spent the last four months studying video of four non-conference opponents in addition to the eight SEC games already on the schedule in order to come up with a foundation for game-week preparation. With those four opponents eighty-sixed and the addition of two new ones, Mullen and staff have to put in ridiculous amounts of hours to scour video for tendencies of two new opponents. No schedule means a week of prep time has already been wasted. It seems inconceivable that the SEC would be this unprepared. During the four previous months you would think the 10-game conference-only contingency would have been discussed and prepared for to allow all 14 schools to hit the ground running if and when that option became reality. But even if they didn’t have this already in the contingency hopper, how hard is it to get all 14 SEC athletic directors armed with pencils and legal pads to sit down at a great big table to hash out a schedule? This isn’t like NASA scientists plotting a Gulf of Mexico splashdown for Elon Musk’s space capsule, right? If you spent the last week asking yourself how tough could this be anyway, then you better find a new question because the SEC apparently hasn’t an answer. Re-scheduling for a conference-only season – a bad dream in its very best scenario, a nightmare that promises to haunt every SEC AD and Sankey for months at its worst – is actually the easiest of the issues facing the conference as we plow ahead in this year from hell for college sports. But since there can be no football without a schedule, let’s address scheduling first. It would seem that the most logical approach for SEC scheduling would be keep all the conference games in place from September 26 onward, then fill in the blanks although there will have to be some shuffling since Ole Miss, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee all have games scheduled on the three potential midseason open date weeks. This scenario seems to make the most sense because all 14 teams are open on December 5 which would leave only one date to fill between September 26 and November 28. This would be the ideal scheduling model for Florida and Stricklin. The Florida-Kentucky game, which was to be played for September 12, would simply be rescheduled for November 28 since both Florida and Kentucky have lost their non-conference rivalry games (Florida-FSU, Kentucky-Louisville) on that date. Florida lost its November 21 game with New Mexico State and Arkansas lost its game with Louisiana-Monroe so both are open. Fill that date with Florida-Arkansas and both need only a December 5 opponent to complete their regular seasons. Florida’s midseason open date (October 24) would remain intact the week prior to the Georgia game in Jacksonville. Within hours of the SEC announcement of a conference-only schedule, there was this juicy rumor that had the SEC opting for what has been called a ““competitive balance” scenario. The way this would play out would be seeding all 14 teams from best to worst. The schedules for the best teams would be top heavy with other good teams while the worst teams would be playing more games against each other. The perceived problem with this scheduling is that it could cannibalize the SEC’s College Football Playoff hopes. Too many games with the top teams playing each other could result in something like we typically see in the NFL where division contenders are sometimes only a couple of games above .500. In a season already shortened by two games, the SEC can’t afford a logjam at the top of teams with more than one loss. The SEC would be wise to follow the trend of the Big Ten, which announced its 10-game, conference games only schedule Wednesday. Big Ten teams were already scheduled to play nine conference games and those nine games remained intact but instead of going for competitive balance, the league loaded up the best teams with teams presumed to be middle of the pack or worse. Ohio State’s new opponent is Purdue, which went 4-8 last year. Penn State added Illinois, which is 15-34 in the last four years. Michigan got Northwestern (3-9 last year) and Iowa got Maryland (3-9 and loser of its last seven games). The Big Ten went with the already scheduled conference games and then filled in blanks, which is precisely what the Southeastern Conference should do. Enough about scheduling. The SEC needs to be ahead of the curve as it deals with covid-19. We know all about face shields on helmets, better testing procedures and the possibility of keeping players in a bubble to prevent contact with students who come from all corners of the country when classes resume on campus. What the league needs to do is demand better testing for Sickle cell in African-American players, pre-diabetic conditions especially in the league’s abundance of 300-pound plus players and high blood pressure. At their age, most kids who test positive for the virus aren’t going to die or even get seriously ill unless they have a pre-existing condition that weakens the immune system. The SEC needs to get out front on that issue. Because conditioning was haphazard after schools closed their doors back in April, the players might be more susceptible to injuries. Therefore the SEC needs to implement some insurance safeguards that include five or so years of coverage after eligibility is expired. That’s something that needs to be addressed even if there isn’t such a thing as covid-19. There are social justice warriors that want college football to become a platform for voicing their issues. A group of players in the Pac-12 has formed a group that claims to have hundreds of members who are threatening a boycott in the fall if their demands aren’t met. The movement has been joined by some players in the Big Ten. It’s likely there are players throughout the country who are interested in what’s being said. Some of the demands are legitimate and should be addressed, while others, such as a demand for revenue sharing have absolutely zero chance. The SEC needs to make a concerted effort to hear the players out and make concessions when it benefits the entire league. Realistically speaking, the players want to play football in the fall but they want to have their fears addressed as well as issues that are long overdue being dealt with. There is no reason the SEC can’t accommodate most of them. Is there a chance of a boycott that spreads nationwide and cancels the 2020 football season? Not really and the reason is rather simple. If players boycott and there is no college football an untold number of schools all the way from the top on down to Division III and NAIA will go belly up and football won’t be played again at those institutions. Ever. The schools need the players. The players need the schools to play football and offer scholarships. No football and no scholarships means no NFL dreams come true and no free education that can be a ticket to a better life in the event the NFL dream ends. This brings us to the single most critical issue, which is money. Money has everything to do with why college football will be played this fall. Football is the engine that drives all the other sports at nearly every single school in Division I. Oh, you’ll have that exception like Kentucky where basketball makes a rather hefty profit but for the most part, football brings in the cash so there can be scholarships and operating expenses for all the other non-revenue producing sports. As Florida’s uber-successful volleyball coach has said on more than one occasion, “Don’t you dare touch football!” Mary knows. Florida’s ultra-successful football program has produced the revenues that have given Mary and the Gators the volleyball program that the rest of the SEC wishes to emulate. A few weeks ago, Wisconsin’s astute athletic director Barry Alvarez noted that his school stood to lose $60-70 million this fall with a reduced conference only football schedule and the possibility of no fans or at best 25 percent capacity in Camp Randall Stadium. Alvarez pointed out that Wisconsin would stand to lose in excess of $100 million if there were no fall football season and games played in the spring. This is Wisconsin with $190 million in cash reserves, mind you, one of perhaps 20 college athletic departments nationwide that could survive going an entire year with no football whatsoever. Most of the schools in Division I barely break even, if that. What Alvarez told us is the single-most compelling reason why every effort possible is going to be made to play college football this fall. Maybe revenues won’t be the same with fewer home games and far fewer fannies in the seats due to social distancing guidelines, but football means television revenues. Certainly not nearly enough to make up for losing as many as two or three home games or stadiums with 75 percent fewer fannies in the seats due to social distancing guidelines, but TV money will start to heal the gaping wounds that occurred when campuses emptied and sports were halted back in April. Something is certainly better than nothing at all. Fans may not be able to attend games in their usual numbers but they will be watching on television, most likely in record numbers. With the paycheck games scrapped for conference-only scheduling or conference plus-1 in the case of the ACC and Big 12, games should be better. Fans would much rather watch a conference game than something like Florida-New Mexico State or Alabama-UT-Martin in November. UConn, mired in debt and without a conference affiliation, was one of those schools that counted on paycheck games. So when the 65 teams that make up the Power 5 went conference-only or conference plus-1, there were no paycheck games to be had for UConn. With no strong financial base, an absolutely rotten head coach in Randy Edsall and no TV contracts to grease the skids, the decision was made Wednesday to cancel the entire 2020 season. It is entirely possible football is gone for good at the school and there could be others. It’s just another reason why television revenue is a lifeline at this juncture. The lack of paycheck games should lead to significantly better ratings and while that doesn’t necessarily equate to more money in the coffers for 2020, it should mean better TV contracts in the future. In the case of the SEC, CBS has already stated it won’t offer more than $300 million a year to renew its contract past 2023. ESPN was expected to make a deal for SEC rights at $330 million a year but with the network hemorrhaging subscribers by the hundreds of thousands monthly and its NBA and Major League Baseball ratings in the tank in large part due to the network’s embrace of a social justice platform, maybe $330 million a year doesn’t materialize. Maybe Fox joins the bidding. Perhaps CBS sees a serious ratings spike this fall that will embolden a new bid that will prevent a divorce with the SEC after all these years. Money also has everything to do with why the 65 teams that make up the Power 5 will eventually secede from the NCAA. This is not a question of if they will leave, merely a matter of time until the decision is made and the ink dries on the divorce papers. At issue is leadership – or lack of from Mark Emmert – and, of course, money. Every time it seems leadership is required from Emmert, he punts and the perception by the power schools is that punting keeps costing them money. By ditching the NCAA and its cumbersome regulations and bureaucracy, the Power 5 schools can rewrite the rule book and make decisions that bring in more revenue at a time when everything costs more money. Rather than spend buckets of money paying for compliance to ridiculous NCAA rules, the Power 5 could streamline the rules for a far more efficient model. Instead of the NCAA determining when and where college football can be played, the power schools could make their own decisions and again that would mean more money. The NCAA is hoping and praying that when the divorce comes, the Power 5 will remain in the organization for all the other sports, but that is also unlikely. Blessed with their football television revenues, the Power 5 could stage their own championships in every sport and even allow other leagues to participate in basketball and some of the non-revenue sports. Instead of bottom feeders joining the NCAA for a cut of the NCAA Basketball Tournament revenue – there were more than 340 schools in Division I last year – the Power 5 could add another 65 or so schools for a championship event that would certainly make more money and would have to be distributed to far fewer schools. So amid all the chaos of trying to get a football season up and running, understand this: Scheduling issues in the Southeastern Conference are the very least of the issues. There will be football and the SEC will come up with a schedule, but much more has to be dealt with in this year when all conventional wisdom has been thrown out the window. This has been a year like no other and when the virus that set all these wheels of discontent and havoc in motion has been somewhat eradicated, it’s doubtful things will go back to what was just months ago perceived as normal. There will be a new normal. We just don’t know when it will be nor do we know what it will be.