The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Dennis Dodd On The Struggles Ahead For The Return Of College Football

Episode Date: June 23, 2020

This is the Matt Thomas show. It is 201 on Sports Talk 790. We are happy to be joined now by one of the premier college football writers in the country. You can find them at cbsports.com on the college football beat. Dennis Dodd here on the Matt Thomas show. Dennis, it's Matt. Thank you very much for the time. Are you as confused as I am about every conference and what they're doing and saying and acting?

because I feel like there's no uniformity, and I think it's a recipe for disaster this fall. Do you agree or disagree? Well, I agree with your first take because it's true. There is no uniformity across the board in terms of how to approach the virus, how to test for the virus, how to bring players back to face the virus. I don't think they're going to be getting a handle on what the procedure is going to be during the season. So, as far as I wrote in a piece yesterday, I think that it's the old philosophy by the stateholder of the major college football is crossing our fingers.

You know, get a plan, hope it works, because as you see, you know, it has reemerged in about 29 states that are spiking right now. And all you can save yourself is, thank goodness there's no football being played, because we might have to shut it down right now. Yeah, Dennis, Dennis, die with us from CBS sports. I was blown away in May, Dennis, when Mark Emert, the president, the state of LA said, we're going to leave it up to each individual conference. I'm assuming you're not surprised by that, but what kind of message was that when he sent that out that he was not going to be the leader, the grand poobah, and say, all right, we all need to be in this strange time that we're in some uniformity?

What was that like when you saw that? And did the SEC and the Big 12 and the Big 10 have different reactions to what Emmer did say? It was a collective eye role. It was, no kidding. You're not going to mandate it because you can't. The NCAA doesn't run major college football. It's the only sport that they don't conduct a championship in. They set play and practice rules.

They set some bowl rules. But that's really about it. The college football playoff has a business arrangement with those 130 schools in the SPN. And they have a championship. The conferences conduct their own conference championship games. So for him to say that was really, just sticking his nose in where it didn't belong. The NPA couldn't mandate a return to play because it can't.

The schools and the conferences were going to do whatever they want. Do you think college football will ever get to that point? Because I feel like, Dennis, we need a leader. We need someone to say, all right, you can't do this in the SEC or, hey, what's going on in the Pact 12? I mean, is there at some point we're going to get a true commissioner of college football, or is it just because there's too many different power? five and the group of six that it's just impossible to try to regulate under one governing body?

Well, there's two questions there. The first is when we ever had a commissioner, I don't say never, but we're talking about a group of leagues that can't even agree on how many conference games to play. You know, how do you expect them to agree on the big issues? That, being said, a lot of people can see the Polo-5 breaking away from the NCAA to form their own division because they get to keep all the money. I mean, look, look at the hit that everybody took when the NCAA tournament was canceled in March. Now, obviously, it should have been canceled because of medical concerns, but now if information comes out, the NCAA was properly

prepared insurance-wise for that short-fallen money. Two hundred million of their rainy day fund has been allocated for legal fees and all these big loss. they're fighting. I don't know that's the best way to run business. To the point, Matt, that is, you know, I think you have to think about if next year's permanent is impacted at all by the virus. There's going to be a lot of people ask. Exactly, I'm going to get it from the NCA-H. Dennis Dodd from CBS Sports, one of the premier college football writers joining us here on Sports Talk 790. Dennis, the 23 positive test at Clemson, we've seen LSU self-quarantine, we've seen Kansas State get hit.

University of Houston. And some of them are testing ahead of time, some are not. So there isn't any common pattern. Is there or are you sensing a pattern right now? Well, the only pattern is the question has to be asked. They'll open up too soon. I guess I thought that, and it was June 1st, that schools and conferences could open up the facilities to voluntary workouts and football.

Some went that day. Some still haven't opened up. Oklahoma is going to open up until July 1st. But I didn't expect more than 100 because that's where we all are now across the nation to the point that there was an outbreak at LSU after players went to a bar. Kansas State shut down things two weeks after they had 13 positive. Houston shut things down. We're hoping that. I'm hoping that.

Yep, you there? Yeah, we're listening. you a little bit. Okay. I talked to a coach this afternoon. He said, you know, if this is happening now, maybe that's a good thing. It's burning through the team, and we get hurt immunity. Well, I don't know if a coach or a dumb sports writer like me, even knows what her immunity means. I know what it suggests. You can catch it and develop an immunity, but I don't know the particulars on that. All right, Dennis. So we're about, what, five, six weeks away from some more camps opening up and starting some sort of college football season.

What's the next step? I mean, I know I'm asking you, it's like you would have the answer, but are we going to see our schools, individual, I mean, how are conferences handling it? Is the SEC dramatically holding out different policies as compared to what's happened to the ACC, the Big 12, the American, or is there some uniformity when it comes to how every conference sees their membership going in terms of reopening their campuses? Yeah, right now, it's up to the schools to test and how frequently they test as they welcome players back in. They have a protocol where somebody tests positive and they're isolated, contact tracing, perhaps, stuff like that.

I think once the season starts, I think the Power 5 at least, but at least competitive-wise, would like to be all on the same page as the type of testing. In other words, let's make sure, first of all, that they're universal testing. Everybody's testing, let's say, twice a week, the same days. And then uniform testing. They're all testing the same way. And they get into an ethical issue where it's Friday and, you know, Vegas drops the line two points because the starting quarterback for the opponent doesn't look like he's going to play.

Nothing in the media because the schools aren't bound. or bound by privacy laws. If somebody tests positive or can't play, they don't tell anybody. So do you have to tell the opposing coach ethically because this is a national emergency, a worldwide pandemic. Our coaches this week ain't telling nobody. This is ball. Okay, what about this?

What do I just say, Dennis, why don't we call every AD in this country that's playing Division I football and say, look, we're not ready for this. We've got another wave coming. Why don't we just put the kids in camp December 1st, we start the season, January 10th, and we crown a national championship first weekend of April or second week. I mean, any logic to that at all?

That's one of the options. Everything's on the table. A late start to the season, two-semester football, spring football, which is what you're talking about. I'm told that the spring football option is a last resort because then you start getting into eligibility issues. You're going head up against the draft. And if you're starting a season on January 10th, I can almost guarantee that a Trevor Lawrence is going to be playing football. You know, why isn't he or $10 being paid for a $35 or $40 million day day come late April? Okay.

And the seasons might still be going on. That really complicates things. But that is an option. What about the fact of fans? I'm always curious about payouts. We're seeing astronomical numbers for Kent State to go play Auburn. New Mexico State to playing USC. I mean, I'm just throwing examples out there.

Can these schools make these outrageous payouts if their stadiums are not full of 80,000 fans? That's a good point. I think right now these contracts are going to be honored whether there are fans in place or not, and that's a good question to ask. As far as fans being in the stadiums at all, I think most schools are selling tickets to some degree

to some percentage and telling the public, okay, we are planning to play these games. You can buy a certain amount of tickets. If we don't play, you can either make it a donation. We will repay you or you can put this towards next year if you choose. And that's basically the philosophy right now because they don't know. You know, every school, Matt, there's 41 states to play major college football. And by the way, Texas isn't looking good right now for doing that. I don't have to tell anybody.

But there are going to be 41 different state health boards telling those schools how many people they can put in the stand, if any. So that all remains to be seen. A couple more minutes here with Dennis Dada, CBS Sports. Dennis, can every college school that plays Division I want of football afford to test as often as probably necessary for these kids? No, I just got off the phone with an FCS athletic director. and all they're doing is doing the temperature thing where they shoot at your forehead. They simply can't afford it. And I get that, but there's going to be an issue when some of these non-conference games,

when, say, and once in a corner plays at Nebraska, and that week, Nebraska may say, okay, we're going to pay you this guarantee money, but we also need you to test and take it out of your guarantee to pay for it if you can't afford it. I think you're going to see that happen really, really soon, because you can't bring in, after what you've been talking about FBS teams going to the extent they are. So you don't bring these players from FCS. You're always creating a different class of medically cleared players that haven't been tested and play in front of, if it's the case, then, 80,000, 90,000 people.

So I think that's going to have to be addressed. All right. Last question. My mom monitor, the University of Houston, is going to play, a schedule to play Washington State and BYU and non-conference games. We'll just use them an example. Any rumblings of massive rescheduling of conference, non-conference opponents to keep air flights down, to keep costs down, or are we too late in the game for you been thinking about that right now?

Oh, yeah. They've all been doing it to a certain extent. The Patriot League is making their teams drive to non-conference games. Well, that's an issue for major college football FBS, because I, I think Fordham played at Hawaii. They're not going to go to that game. There's a cold gate play somewhere in FBS. It's a 600-mile drive they probably won't make.

There have already been four games canceled by traditionally, historically black colleges at the beginning of the year, including, I think, one in Houston. I believe that's true. And one in Memphis. So, yeah, I mean, there's already a model out there to play conference games only. if the season is delayed. If you play 8 and 1, it play that. And it depends on the school and it depends on the conference.

But yeah, all that's being talked about. All right. And very lastly, get your crystal ball out, and you are allowed to, as a college football writer, allowed to change this answer multiple times the next 60 days. If nothing changes and we are moving towards that calendar of August and September, how do you envision the 2020 college football season? Well, I've just been telling people that I think there's going to be college football.

football in the fall, just don't ask me how many teams play it or how many games those teams play, because I don't think anybody can predict that, or what a college championship or a college football playoff looks like at this point. I think it's that fluid. I mean, you might see teams in the same conference, one plays 12, one plays eight, one plays six. Because the worst thing that can happen, Matt, is I've been told us numerous times, the worst thing beyond playing a season is all is having a disruption nationwide. There's so many teams that can't play just have to stop and pause. You know, it ain't going to be just a week.

Right. You know, it's going to be more than that. Frankly, the athletic budgets and the schools just can't endure that. Well, leave it at that. At Dennis Dodd, CBS, if you want great college football commentary with no spin, you go check out Dennis at CBS.com. It's a pleasure to have you on my show for the first time. I hope I can bother you again down the road.

Thank you for the visit. afternoon. You bet, Matt. Thank you. Thank you very much. Dennis. D.S. CBS Sports on Twitter again at Dennis.com. CBS.