Although we do not know exactly what the NCAA football season will look like, we know who the front runners are for the Heisman trophy. Ohio State’s Justin Fields and Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence are the odds-on favorites, but there are some other names you should know before placing your bets.
Fields is listed at +300, and Lawrence at +600. I do like Fields better than Lawrence, but I think the Big Ten is more likely to have their season severely altered due to the coronavirus making me lean towards Lawrence and the extra return of three times my bet.
Who could be this year’s Joe Burrow? D’Eriq King, who will be the starter at Miami after transferring from Houston, could really surprise some people. He is listed at +1200, but I’m not sure his supporting cast is good enough to carry him to the trophy.
If you are looking for a value play, Travis Etienne, who is the star running back alongside Lawrence at Clemson, is listed at +2500. Etienne would need Lawrence to have a down year, or suffer an injury that costs him a couple of games, but he has the talent and his numbers will be jaw-dropping.
My favorite long shot is John Rhys Plumlee at Ole Miss. His team will need to pull off a few upsets, but he could create quite a nice payday at +8,000
Big 12 Weighing Options if Season is Altered
If you have Big 12 futures, what the season will look like if games are canceled due to the pandemic should be something to look at. A group of five athletic directors is trying to come up with the criteria for cancellations, postponements, or even forfeits.
This is not an easy task as no one knows exactly how COVID-19 will look in two months. Will the number be higher, or will we have a better handle on how to successfully mitigate it once a person has it?
Trying to figure this out is impossible for scientists, let alone athletic directors who didn’t study pathology or epidemiology. The conference is weighing all options from testing, how many people on a depth chart do you need to field a satisfactory team, how many should travel, etc.
I do not envy their job as there is no way they come up with a correct answer. Hopefully, they get enough input from coaches, students, and experts to come up with a plan that everyone agrees is best for the players and the universities.
Texas A&M Penalized
Jimbo Fisher has been handed a show-cause order for improper contact with a recruit. The punishment shouldn’t affect the program for this year, but he will be limited on recruiting calls and contact for the fall of this year.
Pac-12 Commission Voices Doubts About Season
Larry Scott, who serves as the commissioner for the Pac-12 conference, voiced some concerns for the season after a spike in coronavirus cases in Arizona and other conference states. With only two months before the season starts, the increasing numbers are making everyone a little less optimistic about a 2020 football season.
Arizona has seen a record number of cases over the past two weeks, and it houses two of the conference teams in Arizona and Arizona State. There is still time, but Labor Day is approaching, and that is when college football season kicks off.
No games have been canceled, but the early-season matchup between USC and Alabama, which everyone is looking forward to, might be one of the first games to get canceled if numbers continue to surge.
