The NCAA college football season hasn’t even started and there has already been plenty of drama.
According to ESPN Analyst Rene Ingoglia, the University of Central Florida Knights could benefit from all of the disruption.
With fewer teams and top tier programs in the mix this year, a perfect season from the Knights could be very hard to ignore if a playoff happens.
“They have a chance to take a grasp of this thing and become national for all of their programs,” Ingoglia said.
This week the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced they will not play football during the fall.
Ingoglia says there will be winners and losers off the field, “It will not be good for the Big Ten and the Pac-12 if these other leagues kickoff and have a successful season.”
There’s still a lot up in the air for the college football season, but Ingoglia says he’s holding out hope.
[MORE: Big Ten, Pac-12 pull plug on fall football amid pandemic]
“Until that knife gets stuck in my heart and they say there’s no fall football. And, that knife, if it’s coming will come from the SEC. I think they’re gonna push through and play,” he said.
Some fans are speculating players from the Big Ten and Pac-12 may decide to transfer to programs committed to playing football in the fall. The voice of the UCF Knights, Marc Daniels, says fans shouldn’t get too excited,
“Nobody has 20 scholarships available,” he said.
Daniels tells Florida’s Fourth Estate very few schools have extra room on their roster during this time and they will not cut players to make room.
Another issue, the NCAA doesn't allow students to transfer before graduating without any penalty.
Daniels says, “The assumption of mass transfer, I don’t think will be an issue right now unless the policy changes.”
Also, players looking to transfer could get to a new school and find out the fluid coronavirus situation has changed again.
“The problem is you can transfer and two weeks later everything is shut down. So, these kids are in a really tough situation,” Ingoglia said.
Listen to the full episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate on iTunes here or on Sticher here.
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