Ferd Lewis: Is it money or science that’s bringing back football?

Early last month no major athletic conference wanted to be seen as the first to pull the plug on its 2020 college football season.

Now, seven weeks later, it seems nobody wants to be the only conference that ends up spending its fall on the sidelines.

Which is why this week we have an 11th-hour scramble in which the Pac-12, Mountain West and Mid-American conferences are all engaged in deciding whether they can begin play before the window of opportunity slams shut on the 2020 season.

While there have been advances in testing and progress has been made in tracing, you have to wonder if the rush to judgment is fueled more by mounting peer pressure than evolving science. You have to question whether the fear of leagues being marginalized and losing out on TV money will overtake caution.

Initially, six of the 10 NCAA Football Subdivision conferences (Atlantic Coast, American Athletic, Big 12, Conference USA, Southeastern and Sun Belt) chose to kick off this season while four others calculated that playing in the midst of a pandemic was too much of a risk to undertake.

The MWC made one of the more dizzying turns. On Aug. 5 the MWC announced with fanfare an “adjusted” eight-game season that would allow its members to play. Then, five days later, citing health concerns, it suddenly stomped on the brakes and announced it was postponing football.

In the intervening weeks, rapid testing availability, along with no small amount of pressure from players, parents, fans and even the White House, prompted the Big Ten on Sept. 16 to make a 180-degree turn and announce a return.

In a matter of hours that day, the MWC announced it was, “working daily on solutions” that could bring football back and the Pac-12 said it was also trying to clear a path.

Only the MAC stood by its plans not to play a fall season. Well, for a couple of days, anyway. Then, it, too, began hurriedly casting for a way back while there is still time to have a semblance of a season, however truncated.

Now, all three are on the clock for decisions that will likely have to come by Monday at the latest if they are to manage to kick off an eight-game (Oct. 24 start), seven-game (Oct. 31) or six-game (Nov. 7) schedule and championship game. COVID-19 conditions willing, of course.

In the MWC, several coaches and school presidents quickly embraced a return. UNLV coach Marcus Arroyo tweeted, “I’m FIRED UP about our most recent @MountainWest conversations #WeWantToPlay.” Boise State’s coach Bryan Harsin tweeted, “We look forward to getting back on The Blue.” Fresno State president Joseph Castro has tweeted the promise of a “bold and creative plan” to prepare Bulldogs athletes for MWC competition.

None face the challenges of Hawaii. Teams from eight states comprise the 12-member MWC and only one of them, the Rainbow Warriors, live where a quarantine is currently in place. Only UH travels across the water on commercial flights while paying for everybody else to come here by charter. Just UH makes at least a 5,000-mile round trip, spending 10 hours or more in the air, for every away conference game it plays.

Even with the 72-hour screening that is scheduled to begin Oct. 15, these are no small considerations in a sport where games are played weekly and traveling squads, including players, coaches, staff and others, can easily number in the 80s.

And, then, there is another conference-wide question: Can they afford the requisite testing?

Here’s hoping that it will be an abundance of science, safety and common sense that carries the day in any MWC decision. Not the thundering hooves of a peer-pressure stampede.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.