Let me start this off by saying, I know nobody has any idea what is going to happen in the world of College Football from now until the season is slated to start in September. I still feel confident in some form or fashion football gets played, it might only be conference games or it might be an eight game shortened season, but it will be played in the fall, otherwise financial disaster is going to hit everyone. I am however, feeling less and less confident the games are going to be played in front of fans unless the current climate begins to change and change fast.
With that said, let’s assume for a second they come out and say the full season will get played, but no fans will be attending. Does a school like UC, necessarily care about how many home games they have? Or do you instead look to bolster your income and schedule the best you can?
Let me run a scenario by you and remember this is just wishful thinking NOT anything that has been substantially talked about or worked on and this scenario is predicated on a multitude of dominoes that would have to fall, the most important being there is a football season and it is played without fans. The Michigan Wolverines open the season at Washington University. This is one of the biggest marquee games to kick off the season, however due to everything going on in the world it’s a game that seems like it is going to be cancelled. After all, is a school like Michigan going to want to fly to the place that was the epicenter of the US outbreak without ever having a week or two of protocols and routines in place to start the season? Probably not, which means Michigan suddenly has an opening in Week 1. On the flip side, UC opens up the season against Austin Peay in a contest whose only storyline is going to be does Evan Prater get into the game and how many reps does he get? Would UC want to find a way out of that game, take a nice payday to make the four hour bus ride up to Ann Arbor instead? I know what my answer would be!
While the likelyhood this plays out is slim to none, it is worth pointing out that I am not the first person to wonder about this very thing. What makes sense for Michigan is playing Washington which is a premier matchup to start the season and replacing them with UC would mean cutting out west coast travel, getting into a routine with new protocols from your own stadium and still playing a preseason Top 25 team. If you are UC you gotta ask yourself is playing an FCS team really worth it just for the sake of a “home game” or would you rather take the chance to make a program defining statement right out of the gates with one of the more loaded rosters in program history? To add Michigan to the schedule gives this team road games against Michigan and Nebraska before ever playing the likes of Memphis and UCF. If a Group of 5 team is ever going to make a playoff they are going to need a substantial schedule to do it, so why not take a chance?
So, what do you say UC fans? Would you give up that Week 1 home game against a team that means nothing for the chance at the national spotlight? I say sign me up!
