ESPN announcer says a normal college football season looks "impossible"

Chris Fowler says a normal football timeline looks impossible at this point

by TigerNet Staff - Apr 16, 2020, 8:17 AM

College football fans are hoping that the 2020 season unfolds on time and in a normal fashion, but that’s a scenario that one ESPN announcer says is “impossible.”

Chris Fowler, a sportscaster for ESPN and former co-host of “College GameDay” on the network, took to Instagram this week to give his thoughts on the matter as the nation is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.

“The question everybody is asking and pondering is will we have a college football season that unfolds normally,” Fowler said in a recent Instagram post. “I say that’s impossible.”

The College Football Playoff Management Committee spoke with Pence on a conference call Wednesday, and per CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told Pence that no games will be played until students are allowed back on campus.

On the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday, Fowler said there are challenges to getting the season started.

“Hope isn’t a strategy unless you’ve got truth and facts, right? We’ve already seen that,” Fowler said. “What’s realistic? And I don’t know if it’s really realistic to gather in 20 Saturdays and have a national season. You could have a lot of colleges online exclusively this summer; the campuses won’t even be open. So how can you bring this unpaid workforce back in there and say ‘Hey, we’re playing games’ without a bunch of people going ‘Wait, why are playing? What are we doing?”

However, Fowler said that all of his speculation is just that.

“It’s just speculation, but I’ve had conversations with people who are in the planning stages,” he said. “They’re not the decision-makers, but they’re planning the various scenarios and the what-ifs and they’re thinking about a few different scenarios.”

Fowler then laid out three scenarios for the college football season, one being a typical college football schedule that starts in late August and early September and wrapping up in December and January.

“I mean, maybe it’ll happen,” he said. “We hope it’ll happen, but hope without facts and the truth is not a strategy. That’s what got us into this mess, in large part, in the first place. so hope isn’t going to do it.”

His second scenario involves a shortened season that would start late and run through the winter.

“People are very worried about a second wave of this virus coming back when the temperatures up North turn cold in November,” he said. “Do you want to start a season, then have to shut it down? To me, that would be disastrous.”

A third scenario involves a spring football season that would begin sometime in February and go into March, April or May with a postseason in June. However, that particular case would hurt spring sports and perhaps the start of an on-time 2021 season.

“It would be bizarre,” he said. “It would wreak havoc on some other sports at that time of year, but to avoid the financial disaster of having no football during the academic year, I think it might be a fallback position.”