Blue White Illustrated

he question was simple but ef- fective: What happens if, during the season, James Franklin gets COVID-19? Meeting with reporters in May for a Zoom web conference, Penn State's head coach explained that he and athletic di- rector Sandy Barbour had not put in place a specific plan for his absence in such a circumstance. But the question from longtime ESPN college football re- porter Heather Dinich raised a salient point just as college football's return to action this fall was beginning to look in- creasingly likely. In a world of high-level college athlet- ics in which, under normal circum- stances, every scenario has already been thought over, discussed, planned and revised, the ongoing coronavirus pan- demic has forced an exponential expan- sion of that process. And Franklin's answer to the question offered a clear- eyed assessment of just what it will take for the sport to function safely and ef- fectively in the season ahead. Spoiler: It's extraordinarily compli- cated. "Say you meet as a team. You can't have team meetings right now [with] the way things are. So that's going to be out," Franklin said. "OK, well, are you going to be able to have offensive and defensive unit meetings? Well, you're probably not going to be able to do that as well. "But the other challenge is, are you going to meet with all your quarterbacks at the same time? If you meet with all your quarterbacks at the same time and they all get sick, you won't have a healthy quarterback. So now you're going to have to break up your quarter- back meetings as well." And those were just Franklin's on-the- spot examples. But a new set of practical challenges, including some that probably haven't even been conceived yet, is not a reason to shut down the entire operation. During the spring, athletic administrators and coaches throughout the country made clear that if the challenges can be suitably resolved, college football will be played this year, possibly on the already existing timeline of the fall 2020 schedule. And the athletes who make up the sport, at Penn State and elsewhere, are willing to make adjustments as needed if those changes open the door to compe- tition. "I'm just thinking about getting back and being with my teammates. We're all just excited to get back," Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth said. "So if there are certain guidelines we have to follow where we all can't meet as a team or can't meet as a full position group, then we have to follow that. But I haven't thought about it, to be completely hon- est. I'm just excited to go back and see my teammates in any way that we're al- lowed to." As Franklin continued to entertain questions during his news conference, the litany of challenges came further into focus. What will the Big Ten do if not every program can reopen on the same timeline or, in a worst-case sce- nario, if some programs decide not to play altogether? People might not like it, Franklin said, and the NCAA should present guidelines for reopening if possible, but standardi- zation seems unlikely. "I don't see how you're going to be able to hold up 10 or 12 schools in one conference from two states that are opening up a month later," he said. "I don't think you can pe- nalize one conference from opening be- RETURN TO PLAY Finding a way to have a football season in 2020 is a worthy goal JUDGMENT CALL T school that maybe is in a hot spot in our conference," Franklin said. "I think we all grew up in an NCAA that tried as much as it possibly could to level the playing field. This would be one of those things. But I just don't see how that's going to happen with climate differences. Arizona is going to be very different than New Jersey. Florida is going to be very different than Maryland, and so on. I don't think you're going to like it. I don't think people are going to be happy about it. But in reality, I don't see how you're going to be able to hold up 10 or 12 schools in one conference [when there are] two states that are opening up a month later." There's also been some talk of play- ing the season in the winter and spring, rather than in the fall. Bar- bour said in April that she would be open to having a season at a "nontra- ditional" time of year. That plan would require schools to scrap spring practice and would shorten the off- season heading into the 2021 cam- paign, but Franklin said that would be a reasonable trade-off if it would allow for a real football season during the upcoming academic year. "At the end of the day, you've got to do whatever you can to save this sea- son and then worry about the effects and come up with those solutions as the next step," he said. "If that means that we move this season back and lose spring ball, I think if people had to choose between losing this season and losing spring ball, they would give up spring ball. Maybe that means we have to adjust next season back a little bit, I'm not sure. My point is that we have to do everything in our power to make this work and be flexi- ble and open-minded. Are there going to be challenges and impacts that affect other things? Yes, no doubt. It'll screw with the recruiting calendar, it'll screw with spring ball, it'll screw with a lot of different things. But that's where the next problems come, and we have to come up with the next solutions." ■

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