he battle for the College Football national championship has entered uncharted territory.
Covid’s new omicron variant has ravaged the sports world in this country and could actually create a chaotic situation where the winner of this four- team playoff could be crowned champion without ever playing a game.
Top seeded Alabama will play No. 4 Cincinnati in one national semi-final Saturday Dec. 30 in Dallas while No. 2 Michigan will play No. 3 Georgia the same day in Miami, but they will be playing under new Covid related rules.
“As we prepare for the Playoff, it’s wise and necessary to put into place additional precautions to protect those who will play and coach the games,’’ CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said. “These policies will better protect our students and staffs while providing clarity if event worst case scenarios result.’’
The contingency plans were agreed to by CFP management committee, comprised of the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director.
The CFP said each school will be responsible for determining whether it has a sufficient number of available players.
If any of the four colleges competing for the 2021 college football title has a severe Covid-19 outbreak, that school will have to forfeit its playoff game, the committee that oversees the CFP said, raising the possibility that the national champion could be the last team standing amid the omicron outbreak.
The committee outlined a number of forfeit scenarios should one of the four participating teams have an insufficient number of athletes due to Covid-19. If a team can’t play its Dec. 31 game, it will forfeit its contest and its opponent will advance to the national championship at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
If both teams in one of the semi-finals are unable to participate due to respective coronavirus outbreaks, then the other semi-final will immediately become the national championship game.
If three teams in the semi-finals can’t play, the remaining team will be immediately crowned national champions.
Should two teams advance to the Jan. 10 national championship game and one team is suffering from the outbreak, it will be given then chance to postpone the game by no more than four days or will need to forfeit. If both teams have an insufficient number of players to play Jan. 14, the championship will be considered vacated.
The new policies came shortly after alarm bells rang when Texas A & M announced it would pull out of the Gator Bowl Dec 31 due to Covid and injury issues. Aggie’s coach Jimbo Fisher raised the white flag when he said. “We don’t have enough scholarship players available to field a team.’’ The exact number is 38.
Rutgers, a Big Ten’s team with the highest- grade point average among available 5-7 teams will fill in nationally ranked A & M in the high- profile game against Wake Forest. The Scarlet Knights did receive a bowl bid after losing their final regular season game to Maryland. They could be without starters Olakunle Fatusaski, Bo Melton, Isiah Pacheco and Julius Turner and Mike Tverdov due to NFL draft preparation.
Rutgers academic calendar goes later than most schools in fall semester, so its players have been working out on campus over the past few weeks while taking finals, which could ease player health and safety concerns. The Knights’ invitation is the first since the 2014 Quick Land Bowl win against North Carolina. It is the most prestigious bowl game Rutgers has ever played.
The highest division of college football is the only sport governed by the NCAA without a sanctioned national championship, although the CFP winner is generally considered the football national champion. Both Alabama and Georgia are already dealing with positive tests with just over a week left before the semi-finals. Alabama announced its offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien and offensive line coach Doug Marrone tested positive and were experiencing mild symptoms while Georgia’s second team quarterback JT Daniels tested positive. Michigan offensive lineman Andrew Stueber said that Michigan would get a full team booster shot and that the team has instituted stricter protocols similar to Alabama.
