...the NCAA will have a massive problem on its hands in 2021.
First, let me state that for the record, I ABSOLUTELY want to see college football this year. College football in an empty stadium, is still much better than a world without college football at all. However, if I am being honest with myself, I don't think I am going to get what I want. I don't believe there will be a college football season at all, for one simple reason: College football requires students to actually be on campus. Unlike pro sports, college sports are dependant on the students actually you know...being there. Because of COVID, I don't think colleges are going to start out with students on campus, they will be limited to online/video conferencing...And as a result, no football. So...working on the assumption that there will be no 2020 college football, that presents a bit of a problem for college football teams, and the NCAA in general. Problem #1: What do you do with eligibility requirements? This should be obvious. If a football player can't play football because of COVID, they didn't play...and if they didn't play, they didn't really use up a year of their eligibility, now did they? Problem #2: If 4th year Seniors don't use a year of eligibility, but remain enrolled at their school, and pass their online/virtual classes to the point they can graduate, you are going to see a LOT more graduate-level transfer players enter the system, because there are going to be a lot more players who still have a year of eligibility left...because they didn't use it in 2020. Problem #3: Too many underclassmen. Without college football in 2020, while all of the recruits can still take college classes to become sophomores, they haven't actually played a down of football yet...and you will also have to deal with the incoming 2021 recruits simultaneously. They can't all get scholarships. Now, when add Problems #1-3 together, you get one MASSIVE problem. There simply aren't enough football scholarships to go around. Because of COVID, a lot of universities will have to cut the number of athletic scholarships they hand out, at the same time, next year they will have record numbers of D1-quality athletes on campus, because of two recruiting classes starting at the same time, having more eligible graduate transfer players, etc. Something will have to give. Either the NCAA expands roster sizes and the number of scholarships each team gets in 2021, (assuming the schools foot the bill for the scholarships, despite the huge loss of revenue this year), or they don't. If they don't, those schools are going to have to revoke scholarships and cut lots of players, because of a shortage of space on the team. What happens to those players though? Well...there are a lot of smaller schools out there. If there is suddenly a surplus of D1 level players, with no D1 school to go to, D2 teams like Grand Valley, Ferris State, Valdosta State, North Dakota State, etc are going to find themselves with the most stacked rosters they have ever had, because they will absolutely grab as many of those D1 FBS level players as they can. They will dump their D2 level athletes in exchange for the D1 leftovers... It also means in a few years, there will be a thread in NFL chatters about the NFL draft, and how there are so many players coming from the FCS or lower divisions...
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