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ESPN analyst foresees ‘potential talent drain’ if college football season is pushed to spring
By Paul Harvey
Published:
As of this writing, the hope remains that the college football season will be played in the fall.
Even if the college football season goes off without a major issue, this season will be far from usual on many accounts. The B1G has already announced a conference only regular season, canceling some prominent non-conference games in the process.
Still, it would appear that an adjusted fall season is the current best-case scenario with a decision to move the schedule to the spring looking like a worst-case scenario. That sentiment was echoed by ESPN’s senior NFL writer Jeremy Fowler.
During a Saturday appearance on SportsCenter, Fowler indicated that multiple NFL sources have indicated that a number of star players are likely to sit out a college season entirely if it is played in the spring.
“My NFL sources tell me that a lot of star players could be sitting out,” said Fowler. “One executive even took it a step further saying any player who has a chance to be drafted in the first seven rounds of the draft will consider sitting out because why risk further injury?”
Fowler went on to explain that most star players may not even need the spring season to get the necessary exposure for the draft if the dates for the Senior Bowl and NFL Draft processes remain the same.
“So you have the all-star games taking on even more importance, the Senior Bowl in late January, they could try and extend their game to accommodate juniors and seniors, bring more players in,” explained Fowler. “There is a potential talent drain here because if the goal for players is exposure to head coaches, general managers, and teams, they could likely get that through the all-star calendar. They might not need the season. Heck, there might be a scenario where players can be signed here pretty soon if they have to wait another 6-8 months to play a season.”
The Herd shared the clip of Fowler’s comments (NCAA football discussion begins around the 4:00 mark):
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.