Three B1G Things: Nebraska governor gets real with Husker fans, PSU AD lays out timeline for CFB return & an extended dead period
Three B1G Things is a daily weekday update on some of the most unique and interesting stories from across the B1G. It ranges from recruiting to coach press conferences, funny anecdotes to serious situations. We provide our commentary, analysis and opinions on a few topics every day.
“If you want football this fall, you’d better comply”
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts may have the quote of the year right now. If the threat of COVID-19 wasn’t real enough already in the United States, Ricketts provided a very real wake-up call for the people of his state.
“If you want to see football this fall, you’d better comply with social distancing measures,” Ricketts said, according to Paul Hammel of the Omaha World-Herald.
Should it take the threat of a lost college football season to comply with the social distancing measures government and health professionals are recommending? Absolutely not. But if it gets the message across, it’s better than nothing.
Nebraskans love Husker football — that’s apparent by the decades-long streak of sold out home games, an incredible presence at road games and the non-stop conversation about the team. Losing a season would be devastating for the state.
Honestly, it would be devastating for a lot of states. It’s somewhat surprising that other governors haven’t made this kind of threat to urge their constituents to follow the government guidelines during this crisis.
A return to campus in early July is ideal for the 2020 season to continue as planned
Will the 2020 college football season continue as scheduled? Will there be a delay? Will it be canceled? Those are questions we don’t have the answer to right now, and it’ll probably be several weeks and potentially months before we do have them.
Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour did provide some information about what it would take to get the season started on time, though. Meeting with reporters on Thursday, Barbour pointed to two keys in kicking off the season as scheduled:
- Players back on campus 60 days before the kickoff date
- All students permitted to be back on campuses across the country
Based on conversations with sports scientists, Barbour said that 60 days is the ideal time for players to get game-ready without risk of injury. Depending on when teams are scheduled to start the season, that would require players to be back on their respective campuses between July 1 and July 7. She also said there isn’t a situation in which student-athletes would be allowed on campus and other students were kept away.
The bottom line? Late May or June, we might learn the fate of the college football season.
NCAA extends recruiting dead period
A no-brainer for the NCAA, right? While there are still travel restrictions throughout the country and states implementing a “shelter-in-place” order, it’s really impossible for recruiting to continue.
This time, the NCAA extended the dead period through May 31, and the association will re-visit a potential extension closer to that date, if necessary.
What does that mean for student-athletes who were banking on taking official or unofficial visits before making a decision? What does it mean for rising programs who have something new or different to sell that might provide them with an edge against a blueblood program? There are so many question.
At some point before the Early Signing Period, we’ll likely see recruiting re-opened. The thing to watch then? How many players decommit or flip their commitment after meeting with coaches and players face-to-face, and potentially seeing those campuses with their own eyes.
It could be an incredibly interesting recruiting period when the moratorium is eventually lifted.