Rivals.com AAC Roundtable: Will we have a 2020 season?

After days of discussion, the AAC Roundtable has come to its final day. Members of the Rivals.com sites representing the American Athletic Conference have discussed a variety of football topics throughout the week, from player of the year candidates to sleeper teams in the conference and everything in between.

In the final installment of the roundtable (see the other installments below), the representatives focus on the elephant in the room -- the 2020 season as a whole.

COVID-19 has rocked the world with more than 16 million reported cases as of Sunday, including more than 4 million reported cases in the United States. In four states alone -- Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania and Louisiana -- cases have reached the six-figure mark. COVID-19 numbers have spiked since the spring, and the very-real question of whether college football will even happen this year remains a conversation piece, from conference leaders and executives on down to casual fans.

In the final AAC Roundtable of the week-long series, the Rivals.com representatives are asked their opinions on whether or not we'll see college football this year.

Here are the following individuals who have agreed to participate for today's question (all names are in alphabetical order):

Kyle Gauss, assistant editor, OwlScoop.com (Temple)

Brandon Helwig, publisher, UCFSports.com (UCF)

Mike James, publisher, TheMidReport.com (Navy)

Mark Lindsay, publisher, PirateIllustrated.com (East Carolina)

Damon Sayles, managing editor, The HillTopics (SMU)

Isaac Simpson, beat writer, TigerSportReport.com (Memphis)

Guerry Smith, publisher, The Wave Report (Tulane)

Jason Stamm, managing editor, BearcatReport.com (Cincinnati)

QUESTION OF THE DAY: JULY 26

Will we have a college football season?

GAUSS: I flip flop on this every day. As of today, I'll say ... 80% chance of delay/cancellation and a 20% chance of a conference-only slate. I think college football is just waiting for the first domino to fall. If any Power 5 conference announces that they're punting to the spring or until 2021, every other college football conference will follow.

The only chance at having a season, in my opinion, would be if teams are able to essentially sequester their players from Thursday night onward. That way you can test a player on Thursday and then, assuming he has a negative test, keep him isolated from the general student population until gameday. That would be a massive undertaking with 10 20-year-olds, let alone 120 of them.

If I ran college football, I'd postpone until spring and pay a lot of attention to the development of COVID-19 vaccines.

HELWIG: Yes, but I'm thinking it will look drastically different. Early-summer optimism has now led to skepticism of a "regular" fall season, though we're all hoping for a miracle between now and the beginning of September. But looking objectively, it's really hard to see a fall season if a handful of positive coronavirus tests during voluntary workouts has led some teams to a temporary shutdown. We haven't even begun camp as most workouts have been segmented. And if we get to a fall season, what happens if (when?) a player tests positive during the season? The rest of their position group, if not the rest of the team, has been exposed. Are teams expected to play with reduced rosters? Is that even safe? Automatic forfeits?

That's the football side of it. For university presidents, what about the optics if the regular student body is at home doing virtual learning? Can programs afford to play if there are zero or extremely limited fans? Will local government leaders allow close-contact team sports? I hope I'm wrong, but I think we'll first end up with a pause, perhaps a delay until October and hoping the nationwide situation improves. If it doesn't, schools will have no choice but to embrace a spring schedule, assuming an effective vaccine will be readily available by then.

JAMES: I say yes, mostly because I don't think schools can afford not to. What that season will look like -- whether it's conference-only, played in the spring, with or without bowl games -- I have no idea. But I know that schools will make every effort will be made to play whatever games they can.

LINDSAY: I am not at all sure that we will play football this season. Having students piled in together in dorms doesn't seem like the best recipe to reduce the COVID-19 virus, and having fans in stadiums in 90-degree weather in masks doesn't seem particularly practical, either.

SAYLES: I do feel we'll have a 2020 season. I don't believe it'll be a full season. And I don't believe it'll be a year where we actually finish the season. Two of COVID-19's hotbed states are Texas and Florida. That's four of the 11 teams right there in SMU, Houston, UCF and USF. The numbers aren't in our favor, and people in general have shown that they won't yield to CDC guidelines. "It is what it is" in the eyes of some.

Had the country truly practiced the "We're all in this together" attitude we all saw on television and radio campaigns, perhaps we wouldn't be in the current situation we're in. Alas, we're coming up on August, and FBS and FCS conferences are trying to find ways to pull the 2020 season off. We're supposed to hear something from AAC commissioner Mike Aresco this week about the season.

I really hope it happens, and I feel like we'll have some sort of college football season -- but if we don't, it wouldn't surprise me.

SIMPSON: As of today, I'm extremely skeptical. If there is a season, I expect it to be delayed into the winter or early spring in addition to an abbreviated schedule. I'm pretty confident there won't be any nonconference play, which is a bummer. Losing some of those traditional matchups will definitely put a damper on the season. The most important thing at this point is safety.

Can football still be played while protecting the safety (as much as possible) of the student athletes? That's the question that's going to have to be answered as we continue to navigate these difficult times.

SMITH: It's not looking good. The risk-reward quotient is tilting heavily toward risk at the moment. If the number of COVID-19 cases continues to spike, it will be hard to justify a season when the numbers were much lower in March before the original shutdown of sports. It is too early to make a definitive call, but the numbers have to get better in the next month for teams to play in the fall.

STAMM: It will, in no way, resemble a normal season, but I just can't imagine not having some type of season. There's just too much at stake. Athletic departments around the country will fold, countless jobs will be lost, and universities will lose millions on top of the already projected losses due to COVID-19. I'm not saying it will be catastrophic, but it will be close, with no football.

The question is how the non-Power 5 schools make it through. The Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and ACC will be fine, as they each have their own TV networks. And I think they'll all play conference-only seasons. It's intriguing to hear the ACC and SEC talking about each of their schools playing each other, as well, to preserve the rivalry games (Georgia-Georgia Tech, Florida-Florida State, etc.).

I think the AAC will stay afloat, but I'm not sure about the others, particularly the MAC and the Sun Belt. They need football to have some type of revenue coming in from broadcasting and advertising. And while I know players are cautious and some will undoubtedly decide not to participate, it still seems like the overwhelming majority of players are still in favor of playing. I just think there's too much to lose by not having a season. And moving to the spring will just screw everything up even more, so I'm not sure that's a realistic option. Just my two cents.

DID YOU MISS PART OF THE ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION?

Sunday, July 19: Favorite to win the AAC

Monday, July 20: Dark horse of the year

Tuesday, July 21: Offensive Player of the Year

Wednesday, July 22: Defensive Player of the Year

Thursday, July 23: 2020 turnaround team

Friday, July 24: 2019 team to falter in 2020

Saturday, July 25: Best coach in the AAC