Mark Stoops believes the college football season should be played with fans in attendance

During his Monday Zoom conference call, Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops spoke on the uncertainty of the upcoming college football season. But, he is preparing as if the season will kick off as scheduled on September 5th against Eastern Michigan.

Many factors have to play in, in order to get college football up and running at its normal date, however that may not be the case and Stoops is unsure if playing without fans in attendance is a viable option.

“Other people are going to make those decisions, but I’m not sure that’s a viable option. The other thing compared to the NFL is financially. I think it’s very important to have fans in the stands. Universities are counting on that. We need people in the stands.

“Before this whole situation happened, you heard me talking about it, encouraging our fanbase to pick it and pick up season tickets, get in there because we need them. It makes a difference to us having them in there, both financially and for their support,” Stoops said.

“Obviously, I want to be there. Our staff and our players want to be there, and we want the fans to be able to attend. It’s of my opinion we should play football with fans in attendance. I’m going to do the things I’ve been told and that’s go about my business and do the best we can to prepare our team to be able to play September 5th. That’s what we’re doing.

“Until somebody tells me otherwise, that’s the way I’m going to go about my business is getting my team ready to play.

Stoops also spoke on the importance of player safety, and how that would affect the start or delay of the college season.

“You’re going to have college players out there that are allowed to play and line up six inches apart from each other and breath on each other, sweat on each other, get in big piles and do all that, but you’re not allowed to have fans in the stadium? I mean, that’s going to be the first thing you here, right?”

We may have a college football season one way or another; with or without fans. With fans might be a stretch by the time September rolls around, as cramming 60,000 people together is a recipe for disaster at this moment. So a delayed season seems more than likely to happen.

We can all be hopeful, but we should be smart.