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Mack Brown wonders if 2020 college football season could be in jeopardy in wake of COVID-19 pandemic

The college football season is still months away from kicking off, but the fear that the season could legitimately be in jeopardy could be growing from the coaching community.

“There is a fear of ‘would we have a season?’ ‘Would we have a partial season?’ ‘What does a partial season mean,’” North Carolina head coach Mack Brown said in a report published by The News & Observer in North Carolina on Monday. “There is a great concern because of the remedy that comes in with football.”

Brown, like every other football coach in the country, is currently working through this unique situation that sees football coaches trying to do as much work as possible without the ability to have any close contact with each other and players. The ACC has shut down all spring athletic activities, including spring football practices and games, and every other conference and the NCAA has enacted similar decisions in the interest of the health and safety of as many as possible As a result, the question of when things will return to normal continues to be a mystery to everyone.

“The biggest problem is you’re not sure when it ends, and we can’t get those answers at this point.”

And therein lies the problem. With continued updates from the nation’s top health officials and those beyond the borders beginning to suspect social distancing measures may be recommended for extended periods of time, the scenarios continue to inch close to the start of the college football season. Those concerns have been expressed around the college football world as officials and conferences must look farther down the line to see what can and cannot be done.

Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall has discussed the possibility of the upcoming season not being able to start on time. Playing games in stadiums with no fans is certainly one option, although ADs have been quick to point out the economics of that option don’t exactly add up in anyone’s favor. This is part of the reason why some college football coaches have begun to do their part to spread the word about the urgency of this pandemic, including LSU head coach Ed Orgeron (HERE) and Texas head coach Tom Herman (HERE).

According to NBC News, citing information and data from the World Health Organization, there have been over 35,054 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with 448 confirmed deaths as of about 12:30 pm eastern on Monday (those numbers have since been updated and continue to rise).

Week 0 is scheduled for August 29. The clock is ticking.