The Ivy League won’t play sports in the fall. Here’s what we know about the Power 5

With the coronavirus refusing to loosen its grip on the U.S., concerns continue to grow about the future of the 2020 college football season.

The Ivy League announced Wednesday that is has ruled out playing all sports this fall, ESPN reported. There’s no word on whether the fall sports will be moved to the spring.

“The campus policies make it impractical for competition to occur, at least through the end of the fall semester,” Ivy League executive director Robin Harris told ESPN’s Heather Dinich. “That’s why today we’re announcing. Eight campuses have announced their policies for the fall over the past two weeks. When we realized and the presidents realized based on these campus policies that we couldn’t have competition we wanted to make sure the student-athletes were aware of the outcome. It’s certainly the right decision for the Ivy League, but it’s difficult.”

It’s not clear if the Ivy League’s decision will have a domino effect, but what would happen if the Power 5 conferences — ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — take the same path of least resistance?

According to Sports Illustrated, missing an entire season “could have cataclysmic and long-reaching effects for the billion-dollar industry of college football.”

“We’re so dependent on football revenue,” said one Power 5 athletic director to SI, “if we don’t have a season we’re all in trouble.”

“Unfortunately, there is a semi-truck barreling down the road that is about to crush the can and its owners,” said one anonymous athletic director to SI.

What exactly does this mean for the Power 5?

“We all pay attention to it, just to see what’s out there, but I think their model is a little different than our model when it comes to football,” said West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons to ESPN.

The Ivy League plays in the Football Championship Subdivision and its schools do not give out athletic scholarships. It was also the first conference to cancel its league basketball tournament, on March 10, as the coronavirus began to spread.

“Is it definitely going to impact what we do? As a whole, not necessarily,” Lyons said. “We have to look at what we’re doing with testing and protocols and the safety and well-being of our student-athletes, making sure we’re doing the right thing from that aspect of it, to see if we can fill any type of season.”

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott agreed.

“I don’t think it’s going to have much bearing on what we do,” Scott told ESPN. “Different part of the country, different approach to college sports and college football. Everyone is looking around the country and taking an interest in what they do, but I don’t think it’s going to have any bearing on what we do.”

Here’s glimpse of Power 5 conference schools that have acknowledged some if their athletes, including football players, have tested positive for CVODI-19.

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

On Wednesday, UNC-Chapel Hill announced that of the 429 COVID-19 tests that were administered to athletes, coaches and staff, 37 came back positive, the News & Observer reported.

This put the football team’s workouts on hold forat least a week.

The infected individuals will quarantine for 14 days.

ACC powerhouse Clemson, which has been conducting voluntary workouts since early June, has reported that 37 football players testeding positive.

ACC teams that have reported one positive coronavirus test result include Florida State, Louisvilleand Norte Dame.

On Thursday, the ACC announced that all men’s and women’s fall Olympic sports, including cross country, field hockey, soccer and volleyball will be delayed until at least Sept. 1.

Big Ten Conference

The Big Ten hit a coronavirus speed bump Wednesday night when Ohio State’s athletic department announced that it had suspended all voluntary workouts following an undisclosed number of positive coronavirus results in their latest round of testing, Cleveland.com reported.

The Buckeyes, citing privacy laws, declined to disclose the details of the test results to keep with its previously announced policy.

Then on Thursday, ESPN reported that the conference will play a conference-only schedule for all fall sports, including football.

Big Ten schools are allowed to handle COVID-19 cases using their own protocol, according the Detroit Free Press.

As a conference,” Big Ten spokesman Adam Augustine wrote in an email to the Free Press in June, “we are of the belief that our member institutions are best equipped to determine the particular protocols followed on each campus in accordance with the most current and appropriate medical policies and procedures, and in abidance with local and state regulations to ensure the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes, coaches and administrators.”

While some schools like Indiana University and the University of Maryland have said none of their student-athletes have tested positive for COVID-19, Michigan State University reported as of July 2 that it has no new cases — out of 41 tests — but that one athlete has had a second positive test result.

At Nebraska, where 8 people (out of 250 tested) in the school’s athletic department have tested positive for COVID-19, head football coach Scott Frost said, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Frost told the World-Herald that “the general feeling regarding if there will be football has changed two dozen times” this summer, according to Big Red Today.

“Recently, we feel like there’s going to be football, we’re just not sure what that’s going to look like,” Frost said.

During a Zoom call with reporters on Wednesday, University of Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said that “COVID is part of our society,” expressing that the virus is something else that sports will have to combat in the future, the Free Press reported.

“Wasn’t caused by football or caused by sports. And there is no expert view right now that I’m aware of that sports is going to make that worse. It’s part of our society; we’re going to have to deal with it,” Harbaugh said.

These kids are going to have to do the same thing. They’ve got to go to school. They’ve trained their whole lives for the opportunity to play their sport. That is my view with the knowledge that we have and time to learn more about it,” Harbaugh said.

Big 12 Conference

The Houston Chronicle reported that two Big 12 programs have shut down voluntary football workouts: Kansas State University, which reported 14 players tested positive and Kansas, which announced 12 football players and four other athletes had tested positive.

Amid concerns over virus surges in Texas, the Dallas Morning News reported that the Big 12 was considering moving the Big 12 Championship Game back a week — from Dec. 5 to Dec. 12 , which is scheduled to take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

“I think trying to build in flexibility makes sense,” said Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby to the Morning News. “That’s not the decision we’ll make this kind of year. I hope the season is orderly enough that those kinds of options can be viable. I suspect that we won’t have that luxury.”

Texas and Baylor have also been battling positive results since returning to campus for voluntary workouts, but Texas reported that no coaches or departmental staffers had tested positive during the time of the Chronicle article on July 5.

“The number of new cases has leveled off, and those student-athletes remain in self-isolation,” Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte said, according to the Chronicle. “In addition, several of the student-athletes who previously tested positive completed their 14 days of self-isolation, have been cleared and are being prepared for return to activity. At this point, there are no indications that student-athlete cases have been traced back to campus workouts.”

The mayor of Austin, however, is not convinced that the Longhorns will be able to play, according to WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics.

“I can’t imagine a world without a vaccine, where you put 95,000 people in a stadium, Mayor Steve Adler told WFAA.

“Frankly, I’m not sure how teams get through an entire fall in that kind of proximity and keep everybody safe,” he said.

Adler told WFAA said he is considering a new 35 day stay-at-home order to curb the surge of coronavirus cases in Austin.

Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley told ESPN that moving football to the spring could be an option, but he’d still prefer to play in the falll — if possible.

Pac-12 Conference

On Wednesday, Stanford, one of the nation’s largest athletic programs announced that it is dropping 11 sports due to financial difficulties caused by the pandemic, football not being one of them, the Associated Press reported.

Pac-12 football returned to practice this month with only a limited amount of positive tests.

Pac-12 schools that have had athletes test positive include Arizona, Cal, Oregon State, USC, Washington and Colorado, which had the highest positive tests with four — for a total of 10 conference-wide, according to the Mercury News.

Arizona paused its football re-entry plan due to the rising number of cases in Pima County after COVID-19 cases surged in the state,, even though only one athlete out of 83 tested positive, the Mercury News reported.

Southeastern Conference

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey spoke with Sports Illustrated last week, calling the situation “uncomfortable” when it comes to COVID-19 and fall football.

Some schools in the SEC have announced their positive test results, like LSU, who reported that at least 30 players were in quarantine in June after testing positive. Other schools like Georgia won’t release their tests results, the Tennessean reported.

“Any situation that deals with any COVID issue, period, on the campus, we follow the university protocol,” UGA athletic director Greg McGarity said to the Athens Banner-Herald. “I’m not going to get into details, but we follow the university established protocol in every facet of our COVID responsibilities.”

Paul Finebaum, the SEC Network’s outspoken commentator, said it’s important to put the health of athletes and staff ahead of the financial windfalls of college football, according to WRUF.

He also suggested it’s too early to know what will happen to the 2020 season.

“I wish everyone would get on the same page and quit selling false hope,” Finebaum told WRUF.