September will leave the SEC with tough decisions

College football is going to leave us with some tough decisions.

While we hope that we would have forgotten about Coronavirus and all the problems it has caused us in six months, that isn’t going to happen.

And nor will the spread of the pandemic and nor will the deaths.

As we know, one of the biggest causes of the virus is the fact that it spreads quickly in crowds. The fact that we want to be together has been the reason why governors in most states have put in ‘shelter in place’ orders, in an effort to stop people moving to walk around parks and socialising, in an effort to slow down the virus and stop more people than is needed to ending up on a ventilator. The hospital beds across the USA simply won’t be able to deal with it.

I suspect that way before September, Donald Trump will trumpet that the virus is beaten (which will simply not be true), and that everything will go back to normal. Of course he’ll say that, because he’s got votes to win in November. Senators, mayors and everyone will say the same – without there being a vaccine in place (yet) for this to happen.

Anyhow, how does this effect college football attendance – and the SEC particularly?

7.4 million people went to SEC games total in 2019, averaging over 72,000 per conference game. And the SEC leads all other conferences in total attendance. I don’t know whether open booze had an effect, but that’s really not the point.

The point is this. The tailgates are rammed with people not exactly obeying the six foot rule. There are gatherings of more than 10 people. Beer is passed around. Hand-washing from a frankly unsanitary toilet – and certainly hand-washing – is non-existent when the hand sanitizer runs out….and not a lot of people are running to the local arts building to empty themselves of beer, bourbon and barbecue. Add to that a student base of well over 20,000 (unless it’s Vanderbilt, which has an enrollment of around 6,800), of which a lot of them have a more-than-healthy Greek life (again, kids in close proximity), and you’ve got the opportunity for all hell to break loose.

Now, the schools will say that they can have automatic temperature taking outside all gates. They won’t. There aren’t going to be 7.4 million tests over 14 sites, plus the totalled millions at tailgates and the student population. Plus, the stadiums are cramped. People will high give and hug and kiss after every team score (some more than others), and everything becomes more virulent.

And as the seasons goes on, things become colder, flu season starts to come back again, immune systems become more shot to pieces, and we start again.

We won’t lose college football this season. We are still going to see 14 teams play. Some will be great. Other teams will be awful.

But don’t be surprised if the SEC mandates that all games will be held behind closed doors for the safety of the area, and of the country.

The good thing is is the college sports programs will be still be able to function after this is all said and done. The SEC’s deal with ESPN looks increasingly valuable because of it.  And the other good thing is is that you’ll see a climb in viewer ratings and more people stay at home to watch. Your local policeman won’t go house-t0-house to stop a viewing party – and people won’t use common sense – but it’ll be better than a local pandemic because of a football game.

But here’s to hoping this doesn’t happen.