On Thursday night, ESPN analyst Kurt Herbstreit made an appearance on ESPN Radio, giving this hot take.
“I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I’ll be so surprised if that happens.”
Hold on. Let’s take a step back. The season, which is scheduled to kick off on August 29, is still five months away. Fall camps are still about four months off. A lot can happen in four months time.
We aren’t talking about canceling spring sports here, many of which cost schools money instead of making them money. We are talking the college football season, which means there are billions of dollars on the line. Officials won’t be so quick to pull the trigger on canceling the football seasons.
P5 schools stand to lose anywhere from $30-$60M each in tv money alone, without a season. Television networks would take a major hit. Even the government takes a hit. For example, not being able to collect tax money from networks such as ESPN on advertising revenue.
While we are no doubt facing a crisis, no one knows how it is going to end. While Herbstreit is one of the more respected men in the business, he was just offering up an opinion. Let’s wait a few weeks and see where we are before we start worrying about whether or not Trevor Lawrence has played his final game as a Clemson Tiger.
Right now, only one thing is certain, and that is the fact that nothing is certain. Let’s just pump the brakes for the time being. We still have plenty of time to worry about football. About four months to be exact.
