Blitz Podcast: How coronavirus impacts 2020 college football season

(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

With the novel coronavirus closing down campuses across the country, the Blitz Podcast is back to talk about how the college football season could be impacted.

These are strange times around the country. Around not just the United States but around the globe, billions of people are experiencing the social impacts of a pandemic as the novel coronavirus alters the rhythms of life for everyone. Millions around the country are practicing social distancing in hopes of flattening the curve of transmission and reducing the possibility of overloading hospital capacities.

For all of those who are dealing with the inevitable adjustment period of transitioning to telecommuting for work, all while children are at home instead of school, the Saturday Blitz Podcast is back this week to break up a bit of the monotony that comes with self-isolation. College football has felt the impacts of the coronavirus as well, with spring practices canceled along with March Madness and spring college sports seasons.

This week the podcast is going to look at some of these impacts. The opening segment tackles the impact that reduced practices could have on the 2020 college football season, and what it might look like on the field next year. Will there be another year of chaos like the one we saw in 2007? Will the time off from practicing together favor more veteran programs?

After the first break, the podcast turns to the ultimate doomsday scenario — what it might look like if, like college basketball experienced this year, college football was shut down right before its conference championships were played and before bowl games had a shot to commence. How would pigskin aficionados weather the storm, and what would the national championship look like in a world where it was determined in similar fashion to the first three-plus decades of college football polls.

Our final segment offers a more lighthearted question for listeners to ponder: If you had to be quarantined with one current college football coach, which coach would you choose and why? The podcast takes a couple of different approaches to tackling the question.

First and foremost, we hope everyone is healthy and staying safe out there as the coronavirus raises concerns for the health of the population. As we all adjust to new realities this spring, here is a little diversion to occupy an hour of your time. You can access the podcast directly through the player above or download by following the link below.

The Saturday Blitz Podcast is part of the FanSided Radio Network at Spreaker. The show goes live every Wednesday morning. You can reach John Mitchell at @jlmitchell93 and Zach Bigalke at @zbigalke on Twitter.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.