The Arkansas State University football team’s season opener at Memphis on Sept. 5. was still on the schedule as of Tuesday. That much, ASU athletic director Terry Mohajir knew.
Mohajir had no idea who the Red Wolves would play the following week or the week after that.
“I wish I could tell you something concrete,” he said, echoing his counterparts at schools across the country.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation or postponement of more than 300 NCAA Division I football games so far in 2020, and how much, if any, college football is played hinges on whether the surging number of virus cases can be tamped down.
Canceled games – even if it’s just one or two – could be crushing financially for athletic programs, especially those at the lower end of the Football Bowl Subdivision and in the Football Championship Subdivision. A team can play a Power Five conference foe on the road and earn as much as $2 million, often enough to keep other programs afloat or fund the training table or academic center.