There is still a chance the college football season could get postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and the NFL may step up to fill the content void.
While the professional sports leagues are beginning to explore paths back to the playing field, college sports face a tricker return. The college football season is scheduled to begin in late August, but if campuses are not open by then games won’t be played.
Even if the situation improves to the point that campuses are open fans may not be permitted to attend games, which would result in a major loss of revenue for athletics departments across the country. There is a scenario where the college football season gets postponed until February to try and avoid interruption, but it would leave a serious content gap for football fans on Saturdays.
That void could be filled by the NFL as Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reports the league is considering moving some games to Saturdays if there is no college football. The NFL already plays games on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays throughout the season with a few select Saturday games in December after the college football regular season concludes.
Marchand notes that the league has already floated this idea to its broadcast partners, who could potentially air standalone games on Saturday in windows that college football would normally occupy. The NFL could even go bold and regularly schedule tripleheaders on Saturdays if the whole college season is postponed, giving them complete control of the sports weekend throughout the fall.
We are still a long way from that point, however, and the NFL itself still needs to figure out its own plans for the upcoming season. The league is planning to release a full schedule at some point next week but it will surely have contingency plans in place in the event that the pandemic forces the season to get pushed back.