Would love to hear on what you specifically disagree with.
Would also love to hear how playing in the spring offers any kind of downside, whereas playing in the fall might have an obvious one.
Here are my general thoughts:
1. This decision has nothing to do with the health of the participants. It only has to do with university presidents... who are already staring at massive budget shortfalls... wanting to avoid taking steep financial losses from reduced (or eliminated) ticket sales. They think if they can play the games in the spring with full stands that it makes them tens of millions of dollars relative to playing now.
2. High school sports were already making decisions like this regardless of what pro or collegiate sports were doing. California, Virginia, and many other states already pushed their sports to 2021. No two local governments is created the same, so there is still a ton of nationwide inconsistency on school policy. I don't see how this changes that. Georgia isn't going to suddenly abandon their sports and school policies because Big Ten presidents are in dire financial straits.
3. It's incredibly valid to cancel school sports at the prep level. You don't have the means or resources to put in the protocols necessary to test, monitor, and treat every participant. And when there is a case in a high school, it can spread not only throughout the team or school but be brought home to families and the community at large. This is simply not the case for any college that 1) tests its students before they return to campus 2) limits player interaction outside of campus. To use Notre Dame as an example, there is no logic that they can safely hold classes this fall but tested & cleared players participating in a game with other tested & cleared players puts them at some sort of risk. This is very different than a public high school where every day you have hundreds of people interacting with thousands of potential transmission vectors.
4. We have seen multiple pro leagues now go forward with their seasons without issue. The PLL just finished their season without a single positive case because they used common sense protocols for testing/screening/quarantine leading up to the season. NHL and NBA are doing fine.
5. Playing the season in the spring has a potentially drastic impact on who is even able to play depending on what the NFL does. It's plausible that you just cost thousands of healthy players their final season if the NFL does not drastically alter their draft structure.
I don't think a spring season is, in concept, a bad idea. I do think that these decisions are being made for strictly financial reasons, and I do think a lot of players are going to be adversely impacted if the NFL doesn't move their draft backwards ~3 months (which might not even be feasible). In principle, I think college administrators are putting money in front of the best interest of the participants, and that's unethical. Players overwhelmingly want to play this fall -- fans or no fans.
