If they went strictly online, has it already been stated that that would rule out a football season? Could they not have online education (like 90% of D1 football players at other colleges already do) but still have the team stay at school and play? I think if they decide to close school for the well being of the students, the best thing that you can do for the futures and well being of these players who come from various socioeconomic backgrounds is to keep them in South Bend with the ND medical team and give them the opportunity to improve their draft prospects through a season. Additionally its a financially necessary decision for many schools' athletic departments. And you can give the players the ability to opt out without loss of scholarship or eligibility. I don't see why that compromise couldn't work. (most of) The players want to player no matter what, (most of) the parents of the players want the kids to play, the fans want the season, the athletic departments want the season. We already have sports seasons that start at schools before person academic instruction begins and some that last after in person academic instruction ends. Especially as the saliva testing becomes more readily available, it should be possible to pull off what the MLB has been able to pull off.
Originally, Jenkins said if the general student populous can't be on campus then they wouldn't play football. Don't know if that still holds true.
Here's what I'm currently hearing:
1. We will likely know by Friday of next week whether the current outbreak, in and of itself, is going to get school // football cancelled. This will be because the numbers are either going to keep going up, or they will have stabilized. This doesn't mean ND is out of the woods, but it does mean they'll continue moving forward and quarantining/monitoring the student body.
2. ACC schools behind the scenes are not all on the same page, but general consensus is that they are going to keep moving forward until the situation actually dictates that you can't play. If the teams continue on their current trajectory and have no major outbreaks over the next 3 weeks then they intend to go forward with the season. That doesn't mean individual schools may or may not "opt out" before that either by their own volition or if their hands are forced by their state governments.
3. At ND, the players overwhelmingly want to play, and moreover the administration feels like they are "owed" the opportunity because they did such a good job following protocols before and after returning to campus. They are also trying to be way more up front and transparent with them than what you saw at Big Ten schools.
4. Some players do have concerns that they're expressing, but most of the doom-and-gloom you see on Twitter and elsewhere is from a handful of students that 1) didn't want to come back to campus in the first place 2) are politically inclined in a certain direction. Is what it is, you can't have thousands of Zoomers on a college campus without them being "vocal" about something and this is the activist topic du jour. The vast majority of students think that it's been reasonably easy to get tested and think the University is acting in good faith with their best interests in mind... and they also really don't want to get sent home.
