Kansas football begins practice for uncertain 2020 season today

Kansas football, along with other schools beginning their seasons on August 29, is officially allowed to practice starting today.

Despite the challenges, Kansas football is getting closer to the 2020 football season by the minute. The Jayhawks began Fall camp today, which means we’re only about four weeks from seeing Kansas take the field against Southern Illinois in the season opener at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

While the Jayhawks’ game against the Salukis is still a go, there are reasons for KU football fans to be concerned. Namely, the fact that the Big 12 is the only Power Five conference thus far to not have modified their schedule in some way. The Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC have fully eliminated their non-conference portion of the schedule, while the ACC is only allowing one non-con game for each school within the ACC school’s state.

The other conferences shutting down their non-con schedules has affected Kansas, essentially putting the Jayhawks’ matchup with Boston College in limbo. This season is going to be a strange one, and it’d undoubtedly be tough to be one of the student-athletes, especially at a Big 12 school. The uncertainty would be very difficult to deal with.

At any moment, the conference could shift toward a conference-only schedule, essentially pushing the Jayhawks’ first game back to September 12 and canceling three games. As it stands now, here is Kansas football’s 2020 first four games of the season, their dates, and their locations:

• Home vs. Southern Illinois, August 29
  • Possible Boston Collge replacement, September 5
• Away @ Baylor, September 12
• TBD vs. Boston College?, September 19
• Away vs. Coastal Carolina, September 26

Despite the extreme fluidity of the situation, the fact that we’ve made it to the beginning of Fall camp with plans to still have a 2020 season is a good sign. There’s not much the average fan can do but hope for the best when it comes to these decisions.

Hopefully, we’ll get to watch the Jayhawks play this season in a way that protects the health of the student-athletes, coaches, staff, and fans. Anything less would be unacceptable, and if that means a schedule modification then so be it, but with any luck, it won’t come to that.