How canceled College Football games will affect the 2021 NFL Draft
By John Newman
The Power 5 Conferences have canceled their out-of-conference games in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In this article, we’ll explore how three canceled games will affect the 2021 NFL Draft.
“All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain.” -Roy Batty in Blade Runner.
In recent weeks, the ACC, Big 12, SEC, Pac-12 and the Big Ten decided to cancel all their out-of-conference games for the 2020 season. With the COVID-19 pandemic still a threat in most of the United States, several NCAA conferences have chosen to proceed with College Football this season in a limited capacity. The MAC even decided to shutter their conference for 2020, leading to concerns the rest of the Power 5 conferences will do the same in the upcoming weeks.
Many of the games already confirmed to be canceled were highly anticipated matchups, pitting some of the best college football teams across the country against each other. And while it remains to be seen whether conditions on the ground will be safe enough to play any college football this autumn, the canceled inter-conference games will affect more than just the bottom lines of national broadcasters, Power 5 athletic departments and the economies that survive because of college football.
Sources: Big Ten presidents and chancellors scheduled to speak tonight to discuss the future of the season. Sentiment from the call yesterday indicated there was momentum at the presidential level to cancel fall sports. Unclear when a decision will come.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 9, 2020
Considering the ephemeral nature of college football, many student-athletes will not have another chance to prove themselves to professional scouts and their general managers after 2020. These young men have but a short window to show NFL decision-makers that they have the right stuff to play in the big leagues. Missing even a handful of games in their college careers could have major effects on their professional prospects in the future.
Like the main antagonist in Blade Runner, all those moments are now lost in time, like a losing team’s time-outs being improperly used at the end of the fourth quarter…in the rain? The reader is free to think of any appropriate time-related metaphor here if the one above isn’t to their liking. The point is many college football players will be losing dozens of opportunities to improve their chances of noticed in time for the 2021 NFL Draft
In this article, we’ll explore three inter-conference games that have been canceled and how those lost games will affect the 2021 NFL Draft. We’ll explore which players draft chances will be affected the most by these games not being played and why these games were expected to be such exciting events in 2020. We’ll provide context as to why the game in question being canceled will have such a serious effect on the 2021 NFL Draft and hopefully if the fans are really lucky, become a little more grateful for the games we do get to see this fall.
For the latest news and analysis of the 2021 NFL Draft, keep coming back to NFL Mocks this fall. We’ll continue to provide player analysis, scouting reports and mock drafts all year-long leading up towards next springs draft.
Now whether we’ll actually get a season of college football or not….well that’s another matter entirely.