Alabama Football: Starting Crimson Tide season on Aug. 29 is new option

A new possibility for Alabama football to begin ’20 season on Aug. 29

For Alabama football and every FBS program, football may happen sooner than later. Until Tuesday, the NCAA had allowed opening games in week zero via a per case waiver. Now the option is open to every team.

For weeks, most talk has been about delaying the season, or worse moving football to spring. More week zero games may be a better idea. Few will argue the 2020 season will never have a fixed schedule. It may have a published schedule, but there is little chance some games will not be rescheduled or canceled. Rescheduling any game, much less several of them, would be a challenge. A longer season, starting on Aug. 29 and after pushing back conference games, could go to Dec. 12. With only 9-10 regular-season games, there would be more bye weeks, allowing more options for rescheduled games.

Until this week, the ACC and the SEC were expected to make regular-season schedule decisions before the end of July.

The ACC appears to be hoping the NCAA will decide something, making it easier for the conference to act. With no definitive news from the ACC on Wednesday, what will the SEC do on Thursday? Will the SEC decide to lead or join the ACC in waiting? No one knows, but the wait option cannot include many days.

A hastily scheduled Aug. 29 game would mean actual fall camps could begin on Sat. Aug. 1. No coach, and certainly not Alabama football, head coach Nick Saban wants to give up one fall camp session. That reason suggests the Crimson Tide will likely not take the new early game option. Acting earlier, the Oklahoma Sooners already re-scheduled their opening game against Missouri State from Sept. 5 to Aug. 29.

Few college football fans think there will be no fall football. What seems inevitable is greatly reduced fans in the stands. Ohio State announced this week, the Buckeyes’ home games will have a maximum capacity of 20 percent. The most ambitious hopes around the country are for 50 percent maximum capacities.

An even more extreme possibility began circulating Tuesday afternoon. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have been negotiating more games against ACC opponents. A new rumor contends the Notre Dame administration is considering not playing football in 2020. Maybe the rumor is totally unfounded or maybe the deepest pockets in college football believe a season of no football is survivable.

All the above could be fairly labeled crazy. More than that, it shows the dysfunctional structure of college football.