Return Of College Sports Remain On Rocky Ground

July 6, 2020 by Staff

We’ve recently seen the majority of big US sporting events announce when they’ll return with some interesting approaches to doing so - the NBA has created a bubble for its players by ensuring that all will remain in one location with constant testing, others have announced a much shorter season with many teams not having the opportunity to play against each other in order to reduce the amount of contact between teams and players.

Things are looking a little different for college sports, although it had been looking good following a 90/90 negative testing pool for Kansas State football players, further testing revealed some positive results - alongside that the US is still having a tough time dealing with the spread of the coronavirus and it still seems to be taking off despite Europe having it seemingly under control. It has been noted that college sporting events don’t have the same number of resources that those in the big leagues have, for example the NBA bubble, and for those reasons it may be a little more difficult to ensure a return to a regular schedule - this has led many to believe that we likely won't see any college sports until the new year and current events look to be supporting that.

There is some good news here however for sporting fans, as mentioned many of the major US sports are looking to get back underway throughout July as the dates have all been announced, similarly events across Europe are also continuing as football is nearing the end of its schedule and racing is just beginning again. This means betting is back, despite recent changes to both US and EU regulation on some schemes and initiatives given more authority like Gamstop within the UK, there are a growing number of sites that allow betting not on gamstop and will likely be a big part for many as college sporting events look to return towards the close of the year or early into next year.

It’s also important to note, however, that college sports will at least have a roadmap to return - by looking at what has been done well across other sporting events and what is an ongoing struggle, it may help many return faster than intended. College events will be able to avoid many of the pitfalls that have had other sporting events held up for some time, and amongst the ongoing pandemic the other US sporting events will show how to avoid these pitfalls and give college events the best possible chance to move forward - similar to the lessons that the big sports may have learned from European events recently. Until then, it’s a long waiting game, many are hoping that September could be the start of the new season as the NFL is preparing with few changes around that date, but ultimately it will come down to the schools individually and whether or not they’re able to support a safe environment for the players.