College sports will never be the same again: Reporter

Pac-12 joins the Big Ten in canceling its fall football season. Yahoo Sports National College Football and Basketball Reporter Pete Thamel joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to weigh in.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: There is a whole lot of college football that is not going to be happening this fall, but some might, or at least it's planned to. Pete Thamel is joining us now. He is Yahoo Sports' national college football and basketball reporter. He's joining us from Boston. And in fact, Pete, you broke the news that the Big Ten had made a decision, that the Pac-12 had made a decision not to go forward with this season. There are all kinds of implications economically-- for the towns, for the schools, for the players themselves-- in all of this. Give us a little insight into the decision-making process here for these conferences.

PETE THAMEL: Well, Julie, nobody should be surprised that the Big Ten in the Pac-12 cancelled yesterday. Their leadership-- Kevin Warren in the Big Ten and Larry Scott in the Pac-12-- have really dropped a lot of big bread crumbs over the past three months that this was going to happen at this point. A lot of people made a big deal about the Big Ten releasing a schedule last week. They also said in their schedule release, this schedule does not guarantee we're playing. I mean, they practically waved their arms in neon and said, look, this probably isn't going to happen.

And I don't think you can really pinpoint one thing. I think it's a confluence of the virus, of health and safety, of the unknown of how football and contact could potentially spread the virus. And to me, the untenable variable that the other major conferences face is tens of thousands of students coming back to their campus and inherently, bringing the virus with them.

DAN ROBERTS: Pete, Dan Roberts here. As of now, the Pac-12 and the Big Ten say that they will try to play in the spring instead. But as I understand it, that's widely seen as not really feasible for a number of reasons. Generally, it seems like if you cancel the fall season, you're cancelling the whole 2020 season. Can you talk to us a little bit about that--

PETE THAMEL: Sure.

DAN ROBERTS: --and why the idea of college football in the spring doesn't really make much sense?

PETE THAMEL: Sure. Just a few minutes ago, Dan, Ryan Day, the Ohio State coach, kind of set the new narrative for the Big Ten. He wants to start in the first week in January. He wants the spring to really still be in the winter, which it would be in a lot of Big Ten towns, and really came out and said, we want to start in January. We want to play eight games.

And I think part of that is he has, perhaps, one of the most talented teams in Ohio State history. So we want-- he wants to keep elite players like Justin Fields engaged, like defensive back Shaun Wade, who's going to be a first-round pick, engaged. Will it work? We're not sure, but that is at least a sort of tangible plan for the spring.

One of the biggest leadership failures, I think, all around college football is that there weren't enough contingencies really thought through. So I think that has led to some of the skepticism of the spring, Dan. And I think another part of the skepticism of the spring is that the coaches at the best programs really don't want to do it because they would lose those elite players.

Can this spring happen? We'll probably know more in a month, but here's the medical variable that I think is very important. Rapid testing-- accurate rapid testing-- should be available by January. And look, I'm not a epidemiologist, and I'm not trying to play one on Yahoo Finance. But of all the medical advances that I talk to experts about that they feel good could happen by New Year's, some sort of spit test, saliva test, antigen test-- rapid testing is the one that medical experts feel the most confidence in.

DAN ROBERTS: And then Pete, of course, this being Yahoo Finance, we're interested in the money lost here, and there's so much money at stake. Obviously, there's ticket sales, gate receipts, concessions, and that would have been lost even if the colleges can play in empty arenas. But talk to us a little bit about the ripple effects that you see financially because this is going to affect, you know, for years to come, athletic department budgets, the overall school budgets, I imagine recruiting and how much can be invested in recruiting. So many more areas are going to be hit from not having a season.

PETE THAMEL: Yeah. Dan, it's the single most transformative financial decision in the history of college sports, and I don't even think it's close. Football revenues are generally about 85% to 90% of athletic department revenues, and you are going to see massive layoffs. You are going to see pullbacks. You are going to see furloughs. You are really going to see an entire industry that has really been a bull market for the last generation have a massive correction right now. And it's forever going to change how college athletes-- college athletics looks and works.

JULIE HYMAN: Pete, really interesting stuff and perspective on all of this and great reporting. Pete Thamel is Yahoo Sports' national college football and basketball reporter. Thank you, appreciate it.