As the Big 10 shuts down their football season, the Big 12 mulls it over, and group of five conferences back out one-by-one, it’s obvious that these lost seasons will have a drastic, long-term effect on college sports.
ESPN college football analyst Trevor Matich joined Jared and The GM for his weekly visit Tuesday, as well as SEC Network Analyst and former Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers. Both former college players and current announcers foresee some major change coming out of this season, especially as conferences continue to make individual decisions on whether or not to play.
Rodgers began his interview by advocating for better leadership across college football and the power five conferences.
“There’s no better example to the fact that there has to be a governing body to make decisions unilaterally for player safety and with players and colleges in mind because there’s nothing and it’s terrible now,” Rodgers said.
The Big Ten cited heart complications associated with COVID-19 as part of their reasoning for cancellation, but did not publicly release the medical information that led them to that conclusion or where it was from.
“When you look at today, it’s like I’m reading about the coronavirus on Twitter,” Rodgers said. “You’ll make the narrative what you want.”
Nashville resident Trevor Matich joined 102.5 The Game for his weekly visit Tuesday at 4:30, and brought up the area where these cancellations could most stricken college athletic departments; sports other than football.
“It won’t be felt in the football programs of power five schools, so much as it will be felt in the Olympic programs, the non-revenue sports,” Matich said. “You’re gonna have wrestlers, track athletes, lacrosse players, swimmers who lose their opportunity to play college sports, and that’s at the power five level.”
While we await the short term consequences of major conferences canceling their 2020 football seasons or attempting to push them to the spring, the longer term ripple effects are already beginning to butterfly into the world of college sports. Will there be an at-large college football commissioner one year from now? How many non-revenue sports teams will be eliminated? One season of football cancellations could just be the tip of the iceberg.
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