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The picture is clearing up a bit from public comments from Governors and Mayors - don't expect events with large crowds in 2020.

I believe this is going to be a "lost season".

Can we have a discussion about the scenarios without it getting into a political battle? Things I'm thinking about and think would be cool to discuss/game out:
- can the league really play games virtually? what if players opt out? could the league "insure" contracts or players /coaches?
- players are paid by the game / impact on contracts / if the games aren't played, couldn't teams load up in 2020 on cap damage, and not even carry players like kickers and ST-ers?
- a draft class without a rookie season, and then having 2 classes of rookies enter games at the same time? I think that might be really cool (looking for silver lining).
- player aging and fitness

I suspect they will try to push a season without spectators.

However, if players, training staff, officials, etc balk or get mass infections, that may be scuttled quickly.
When you think about it, there's a whole hell of a lot more than 50 people x2 necessary to make a football game and broadcast happen. You're talking 250-500 people.

And you need all 32 teams, which also means about 25 states/governors to be on board.

Full wipe is definitely very possible.

I brought up some questions a couple weeks ago:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14154

But I'm wondering - suppose 2020 NFL season doesn't happen.

Does a GM who just gave a guy a 4 yr deal get 21/22/23/24 instead?
More likely, I'm assuming everything is tied to specific years, so 2020 is voided and you just get the remaining 21/22/23?

Do players get paid if there's no season and it wasn't the league's call?

I assume signing bonuses are stilling being paid out at time of signing, right?
So wouldn't that mean players would care even more about signing bonus now than they usually do?
And less about 2020 salary?

For example, a contract structure like 20M up front with salaries of 1/10/10/10 might be really appealing, if you think the upcoming year is just going to magically vanish.

Would the league try and reclaim a proportion of a signing bonus already paid, if the season doesn't happen? That could get fascinating.

If the NFL does truncate the season, which wouldn't be at all surprising, then it will be interesting to see how they approach it.

The schedule is broken down into quite useful groups these days, so depending on how many games can be played it does give them quite a few options.

A. 6 games against divisional opponents
B. 4 games against teams from a division within its conference
C. 4 games against teams from a division in the other conference
D. 2 games against teams from the two remaining divisions in its own conference, one home game and one on the road, based on division ranking from the previous season

Possible permutations:
6 Games: A
8 Games: A + D
10 Games: A + B
12 Games: A + B + D
14 Games: A + B + C

If there are 10 games or less then maybe instead of the usual wildcard format, the top two in each division could advance to the playoffs providing 8-team quarter finals, 4-team semi finals and a 2-team conference final without any team getting a bye week.

Sorry @Moriarty I didn't see that. Yeah - it is fascinating. The players are paid for games, so contractually I believe they would not get paid for games or many incentives. But yeah it seems like the teams would eat any signing bonuses, and have a year less of service on a player's contract. And 2021 FAs in addition to 2 years of rookies would be really amazing to see.

Of course nobody knows what is going to happen. But we usually don't let that get in the way of discussion.

No worries, it was a while ago.

Here's another what if that occurred to me:

What if the NFL plays fanless in 2020, because they make all their money on TV, but colleges don't play a season, because ticket sales is too much of their revenue?
Would you have a 2021 draft with players who didn't play that year - therefore both underdeveloped and rusty?
Would you have no draft in 2021, just free agency?

Or what if some colleges/conferences play and some don't?

Moriarty wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2020 10:04 am What if the NFL plays fanless in 2020, because they make all their money on TV, but colleges don't play a season, because ticket sales is too much of their revenue?

I was just talking to my wife about that last night.

I can see the NFL pulling off some version of a season, but there's no way (right now) that college programs can. We don't even know if colleges will be opening their doors in 90 days.

SEC and BIG Ten networks bring in a good bit of money for schools too