Miami football season has multiple scenarios per AD Blake James

Throughout the 2020 offseason, there have been a number of scenarios what is going to happen with the college football season. Hurricanes Athletic director Blake James spoke on Wednesday about the possibilities for the Miami football season.

In a conversation on the Joe Rose Show Wednesday morning, Miami athletic director Blake James spoke with the eponymous host and co-host Zach Krantz to discuss the potential scenarios that could playout for the 2020 Miami football season. James cautioned 59 days before the season starts a lot could still happen.

The 2020 Miami football season is scheduled to begin on September 5. That is eight weeks from this Saturday. The three main scenarios that James discussed with Rose and Krantz are the season starting on time without fans, an eight-game only ACC season and games being pushed back to the spring.

With Miami scheduled to play at Michigan State September 26, playing that game in the spring would mean the game would be played in cold weather. With training camps opening this month, athletic directors nationally are going to have to come to a decision soon how the 2020 college football season will progress.

The precautions that are going to be put in place for the players are another ongoing discussion for James both with other ACC athletic directors and for the non-conference games. Coordinating within the 14 ACC football teams and likely Notre Dame plus the other Power Five Athletic Directors will be a challenge.

"“We’re getting to that point where we are going to have to make some decisions in the coming weeks that will shape what the fall sports landscape will look like…when you look at what has happened during the past few weeks, it definitely gives you a much more concerning look than where we were in June, when it appeared progress was made.Obviously, this spike creates a lot of challenges. The spike in COVID has really picked up across the country. Collectively, in the conversations I’ve had with a lot of my colleagues, there is a real concern. But the positive is September is still a ways off.There’s a lot of time in between and a lot of things we can do to slow that spike. The team we’re putting on the field has gone through the same safety precautions as the team we’re lining up with has gone through. There can be some challenges in getting everyone to a certain agreement.That’s what we’re working on as a conference. Hopefully, we get to that point where it allows us to feel comfortable enough to take our team and put it on the field against another ACC opponent or even an opponent out of conference.” (Even if the season is played) this fall is going to be a financial hit for everyone.Because COVID-19 is likely to prevent teams from playing in front of full capacity crowd.”"

The comments from James were transcribed by Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. James’ comments have been consistent and transparent throughout collegiate sports being in limbo since March. No one truly knows what will happen between now and September. As stated it will depend on controlling the virus.

College football is going to have to develop a unified plan for this fall. Several teams have already had games canceled early in the season due to restrictions on traveling by their opponents. Coordinating games in conference will be less of a challenge than concluded the method for playing non-conference games.