Kansas football: AD Jeff Long describes unclear future for 2020 season

As we move ever closer to the 2020 Kansas football season, AD Jeff Long shed some light on what we could expect for games.

While Kansas Athletic Director Jeff Long didn’t give a ton of details about how the 2020 Kansas football season would look, he did shed some light on certain areas of interest. The good news is that there will likely be a football season in some capacity.

One of the many precautions that will probably be taken by Kansas is requiring all in attendance to wear a face mask. Long said: “I would think our fans should expect to wear a mask. I think that would be a reasonable expectation from what we know now,” so it sounds like a mask will be required for Kansas football games.

Another point of interest for fans revolves around attendance restrictions for both David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium and Allen Fieldhouse. Long said that both places could be restricted to as low as 20 percent capacity, or not restricted at all.

Here’s what that would mean for both David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium and Allen Fieldhouse:

• DBKMS full capacity: 47,000
• 80 percent: 37,600
• 60 percent: 28,200
• 40 percent: 18,800
• 20 percent: 9,400

• Allen Fieldhouse full capacity: 16,300
• 80 percent: 13,040
• 60 percent: 9,780
• 40 percent: 6,520
• 20 percent: 3,260

In the probable event of capacity restrictions, it’ll be intriguing to see how the kinks are worked out by the athletics department. Season ticket holders alone could fill up a limited Memorial Stadium or Allen Fieldhouse, so it’ll be interesting to see how the general public, students, and season ticket holders are reconciled with one another.

One thing Long was adamant about is how unique of a position each individual school is in: “we’re not in control; the virus is, when it comes to how it impacts our teams.” While it’s reasonable to expect Kansas at least plays it’s Big 12 schedule, the non-conference games could be up in the air.

It’s really easy to see a school like New Hampshire, the Jayhawks’ fire opponent, could decide traveling to Kansas just isn’t worth the risk for an FCS team.

Considering the amount of time between now and the scheduled first game of the season (September 5), the situation is subject to change at any minute for better or worse. All it would take it one or two breakthroughs to have a mostly normal season, and on the other hand, one or two setbacks or outbreaks could derail the season.

At this point though, we should see a 2020 football season in some capacity.