Dawgs fans wonder: What if we end up facing a fall without football?

He said his chief fear is that "they'll play the season, but no team will have all of their key players healthy enough to play at any given time, causing controversy at playoff selection time, leading to a hollow if not meaningless National Championship."

As Walter pointed out, even if the season isn't postponed or canceled, fielding teams in the midst of a pandemic week after week is going to be a major challenge. Football is a contact sport, so social distancing is impossible. Just this week, the entire Michigan State football team was put in quarantine for 14 days after a student athlete and a couple of staff members tested positive for COVID-19. There's a pretty good chance that will happen to some, if not most, teams if football goes ahead this fall. Another wild card: Players could opt to sit out the season (as some professional athletes have done), since the SEC announced athletes will have the opportunity to opt out of the 2020 season and maintain their scholarships without taking a redshirt year.

No football at all is, of course the worst-case scenario here. If I had to bet, I'd put my money on the season opening sometime in September — probably with reduced or no attendance, and with fewer games scheduled. As McGarity said recently: "I think we would all be naïve if we think there's going to be 100% capacity."

So, what if we really do have a fall without football? Financially, that would do major damage to a lot of college athletics programs, which are supported by the millions of dollars football pulls in. UGA would be in better shape to weather the storm than many schools, thanks to McGarity's much-derided "rainy day" reserve fund, but the athletic association still would suffer a hit. When I inquired a while back about what the refund policy would be on Hartman contributions and season tickets, I was told: "As is our standard policy in the unlikely event that individual games or the full season are canceled, the UGA Ticket Office will refund tickets purchased for that contest/s. Refunds on the tickets will be given for games not played."

Beyond the direct financial ramifications of a fall without football, there's also the societal impact. What the heck would we do with our Saturday afternoons? As my brother Tim put it: "It definitely would make for a boring fall."

The post Dawgs fans wonder: What if we end up facing a fall without football? appeared first on DawgNation.