This is a paid guest post.
The coronavirus pandemic had caught the world off-guard. Even the most powerful and advanced countries were not ready to take on this new threat of a virus. A lot of sectors and industries were affected, including sports. For college football, this pandemic had placed this year’s playing season on the point of uncertainty–when will this year’s season happen, if it will happen at all?
Just recently, the Ivy League had announced that they would be postponing any sports for this coming fall season. According to them, the government’s current restrictions will make it impossible for them to hold a sporting season as scheduled in the coming months.
From their announcement, The Ivy League said that “it will not be possible for Ivy League teams to participate” this fall “as athletics is expected to operate consistent with campus policies, including restrictions on student and staff travel, requirements for social distancing, limits on group gatherings, and regulations for visitors to campus.”
For people from the sports betting industry–be it in person or through online sports betting, cancellation ore postponement of sports seasons means a lot in business. For bettors, this means that they have less games to bet on and thus less possibilities and options to spend their money on. As for the best bookmakers–like the ones you can find on Betenemy.com–this also poses a certain level of effect on them as no sports played means no bets made. Luckily, there is now what is called fantasy sports and virtual sports, opening betting options for bookmakers even though there are no real-life games played.
From everything that we know so far, here is where major college football conferences stand right now. Get to know which ones are canceled, which ones are set to decide soon, and which ones are not sure what direction they would take.
Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey previously said that he had scheduled a meeting for the athletic directors of the league to discuss the plans for this upcoming fall season.
However, Sankey himself is not very keen on a positive result of the discussion. He mentioned that the numbers surrounding the covid-19 pandemic need to change before schools and leagues can even begin to think of reopening this fall. He said that fans could expect an announcement this July.
Atlantic Coast Conference
“As we continue to work on the best possible path forward for the return of competition, we will do so in a way that appropriately coincides with our universities’ academic missions,” commissioner John Swofford said. “Over the last few months, our conference has prepared numerous scenarios related to the fall athletics season.”
The ACC had previously announced that they are delaying all sports for this season until September 1, 2020. However, reports revealed that they have also discussed playing a conference-only football schedule. They are expected to decide by the end of this month.
The Big 12
Not much is known as for the plans of The Big 12, but league commissioner Bob Bowlsby had previously said that the Big 12 is “kind of on the same schedule” as the SEC and ACC, and they expect to decide by the end of this month, too.
Big Ten
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith previously said that he is “very concerned” about playing any sports this fall. The league had announced that its football teams would resume game and play only with conference opponents.
The Pac-12
The Pac-12 takes into the footsteps of the Big Ten by opening conference only football games.
“Our decisions have and will be guided by science and data, and based upon the trends and indicators over the past days, it has become clear that we need to provide ourselves with maximum flexibility to schedule, and to delay any movement to the next phase of return-to-play activities,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement.