Skull Session: The NFL Would Adjust Its Calendar for a Spring Season, the NCAA Recommends More Eligibility Due to COVID-19, and TBDITL Moves on With No Football

Reminder: times are weird, but Michigan still sucks.

Its Team up North, Lori, please dont use that word.
.
Love @ryandaytime #OhioStatefootball pic.twitter.com/VzoA6bqHju
— buckeyegirl (@buckeye86355869) August 12, 2020

Word of the Day: Aspersion.

YOU DON'T SAY? Turns out, the NFL isn't *actually* going to hold its scouting combine or draft in the middle of the college football season if everyone decides to move the season to the spring.

From @GMFB: If the bulk of college football is delayed until the Spring, the NFL offseason calendar would change dramatically. More here pic.twitter.com/Tp2GOUOqbP
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 12, 2020

Regardless of what it said in the past, the NFL's doing to do what it can to make sure there's a college football season, because when push comes to shove, it wants a college season more than we do.

I mean, you really think they're just salivating at the idea of drafting dudes with limited tape who haven't played a football game in 18 months? Take a look at any mock draft at the beginning of a season versus the end, and that'll tell you how desperately they want a season. Where do you think Joe Burrow would have gone? And folks had Jake Fromm as a top-10 pick.

The NFL wants to see college players play. They want to see Shaun Wade actually play the position they're going to pay him millions of dollars to play. They want to see Wyatt Davis develop. They want to see what a healthy Jonathon Cooper can do.

So if there's a spring season, they're going to accommodate it.

Of course, this will only happen if *most* of college football moves its season to the spring. So as it stands right now, the Big Ten and PAC-12 would probably just be boned, which I'm sure is going to go over extremely well with fans of those programs if that's how it ends up playing out.

MORE ELIGIBILITY. In a bit of good news, it looks like the NCAA recommending preserving the eligibility for players who have most of their seasons impacted by COVID-19, whether they opt out or miss more than half of their games.

The Council recommended the board provide fall sport student-athletes who compete and then opt out of future participation or have a season cut short due to COVID-19: (1) an extension of their five-year period of eligibility; and (2) an additional season of competition if they participate in 50% or less of the maximum number of competitions allowed in each sport by Division I rules.

This would make complete sense, but we're also talking about the NCAA, so it doesn't really mean shit if it "makes sense." I mean, it made sense for CJ Saunders to get another year of eligibility – or at least receive an answer sooner than eight months later – but we all know how that worked out.

Also, it's worth noting that these are only recommendations, and nobody has any idea how the hell this would work for a spring season, because everybody has made it ridiculously clear that they've given absolutely no thought to the logistics or feasibility of a spring football season before like, voting to move forward with a spring football season.

Everything is a disaster. Eat at Arby's.

THE BAND PLAYS ON. If Ohio State's 2020 season is the Titanic, swiftly sinking before our eyes without any semblance of a contingency plan, then TBDBITL is the famous Titanic band, playing the ship into the water.

Stay up-to-date with the latest information on our fall semester here. #GoBucks

: https://t.co/4N2stG0mfo pic.twitter.com/0CHJMsCZQy
— The Ohio State University Marching Band (@TBDBITL) August 12, 2020

If they want to live stream a performance of the ramp entrance and The Incomparable every Saturday this autumn, I can promise you they'd have at least one lowly blogger tuning in to give me at least some semblance of normalcy.

THE PERSONAL IMPACT. I feel sick for every player getting boned out of an opportunity this fall, but I especially feel for Jonathon Cooper, who's now had his senior season snatched from for a second time.

The loss of a football season in the #BigTen isn't just about players at @OhioStateFB like Justin Fields. Meet @JonathonCooper7. He's a 5th year senior. Team captain. And doesn't know what his immediate football future holds. pic.twitter.com/JLnZf9yUph
— Matt Barrie (@MattBarrie) August 13, 2020

The genuine look of confusion and sadness when they ask him about his future plans at 3:32 is nothing short of heartbreaking.

He's going to be more than fine in life no matter what, because he's just an A+ human being. But it's objectively bullshit that this has to happen to him, because he absolutely does not deserve it.

CAMPUS BARS HURTING. Football is the lifeblood of Columbus in the fall. And without it, a lot of business are going to be hurting, like high street bars.

Nick Schantz, a bartender for Lucky’s Stout House on High Street in the Short North just south of campus, said the bar makes more than half its annual revenue on game days.

“That’s probably the case for 80% of the bars around here,” Schantz said. “There’s going to be a lot of people hurting down here without football season.”

Lucky’s probably will manage, he said, but some taverns and pubs might not survive.

On football Saturdays, students, alumni and fans stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the Varsity Club on Lane Avenue across from campus, night manager R.J. Oberle said. The restaurant and sports bar gets a permit to close the street behind the bar to handle the overflow.

“We’re not happy about it, but there’s not much we can do,” Oberle said.

To be fair, even if there was a football season, they weren't going to see the same crowds this fall. No matter what, they were looking at a massive financial hit.

SONG OF THE DAY. "Piece of My Heart" by Janis Joplin.