To play or not to play football this fall, that's the ACC's pending question

Will there be ACC football this year?

According to Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford, we should know in the next few days, or at least by the end of July, if the ACC will conduct a full football season in 2020 with conference and non-conference games, if the ACC will have a football season without non-conference opposition, or, if the ACC will cancel football and all intercollegiate sports this fall.

The decision by the ACC Board of Directors, made up of the Presidents and Chancellors of the 15 league members, will be for financial or health reasons or both. The league is weighing health against money. Usually, money wins.

A schedule that includes non-conference games makes no financial sense. When tickets sales are high, when fans fill the stadiums, when concession stands have long lines, and when payment to non-conference opponents, especially those not from Power 5 leagues, is reasonable, playing non-conference games is an easy solution, a financial windfall.

With little revenue from the fans, with the spread of coronavirus not under control, allowing fans in the stadiums is a health risk no one should take. Keep the money in house. Do not play non-conference teams.

Current 2020 ACC football composite schedule

Which brings up the elephant not in the football conference but in the room. Notre Dame is a member of the ACC, but it is a football independent, though there are six ACC teams on the Fighting Irish schedule this fall. Swofford previously has said Notre Dame will be part of the solution because financially for the six teams, it is the right thing to do.

Notre Dame’s schedule now is short three games as Big Ten opponent Wisconsin and PAC-12 members Stanford and Southern Cal have been eliminated because those conferences have decided on a conference-only schedule. By including Notre Dame, the ACC could fill the voids.

A conference-only decision is an opportunity to bring—maybe force—Notre Dame into ACC football fulltime. Join or lose six games against ACC teams, a demand that would create a rift in the ACC-ND relationship.

Currently, the Irish are scheduled to play Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Wake Forest, three from each ACC division. To get to eight games, assign ND to the Atlantic Division, cancel the N.C. State-Boston College game, add them to Notre Dame’s schedule, to give all three-ND, NCSU, BC—eight conference games.

The league can complete a 12-game league schedule in several ways including, in some cases, playing two games against the same team, especially if it helps with travel expenses. For instance:

N.C. State could play Duke, North Carolina, and Wake Forest twice. Each are on the Wolfpack’s schedule once. Duke could play N.C. State, North Carolina, and Wake Forest twice each, all on Duke’s schedule once. That gives Duke and N.C. State three additional games, 11 total. Finding one more each should be easy. North Carolina and Wake Forest could schedule two games. They are not scheduled to meet this fall. Along with second games with N.C. State and Duke, UNC and Wake Forest would have 12 games.

The two major factors in creating and playing a conference only schedule are money and power. If there is no football this fall, there is no big paycheck for the ACC from ESPN, money that some ACC schools have already spent, betting on big paychecks to come. The "big paycheck" is approximately $26 million per ACC member. No one, not even the smartest ACC Athletics Director, considered a pandemic would alter finances.

Power is about the future of college athletics. The coronavirus has created a path for the Power 5 conferences—ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 (which says it will follow the ACC’s lead), PAC-12, and Southeastern—along with Notre Dame to either withdraw from the NCAA or create a super division in the NCAA with its own rules and regulations instead of abiding by the archaic structure of the NCAA. Surely, the commissioners of the Power 5 have already considered and talked about it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a college football fan and would love to see college football this fall, but, all this said, my bet is on the third option, no ACC football, no ACC sports this fall. It may run over into winter and spring of 2021, at least until there is a vaccine for coronavirus.

Leaders of colleges/universities in the ACC and all over the country are concerned with their institutions' overall financial status and how to make up for losses this past spring and projected losses this fall. The 15 Presidents and Chancellors of the ACC are smarter than those who think no football this fall will be too costly. It may be more costly to play football in 2020.

Not having college football will be disappointing but players, coaches, and fans will get over it. Not having college football means a huge financial hit for athletics departments. But there is a bigger picture, a potentially costlier health issue that reaches far beyond stadiums. It's time to cancel the 2020 season and move on.