A massive shift could be coming to football audiences this fall. Traditionally, Saturday’s are reserved for college football, while the NFL holds down all of Sunday. But that might change pending the status of NCAA football.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported the NFL might shift games to Saturday in the event the collegiate season is canceled:
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL likely will move games from Sundays to Saturday, if college football doesn’t proceed this season. It’s unclear whether the games would be broadcast, streamed, or distributed on a pay-per-view basis, but the league likely would backfill the vacant Saturday windows with NFL content.
The easiest approach would be to treat each Saturday like the late-season tripleheader the league staged in 2019, with a game at 1:00 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 8:15 p.m. ET. That would trim the Sunday slate by three games each week.
This might actually be more amenable to teams around the NFL, though there are a number of factors to consider.
Those teams with a “short week” could be impacted in a variety of ways. Playing on Saturday would allow an extra day of rest or practice for teams scheduled for Thursday Night Football the following week. But teams slated to play on Monday Night Football would lose a day of preparation.
It remains to be seen whether college football will even be canceled. Power conferences such as the SEC and Big 10 have moved to conference-only schedules, but some players have opted out of the 2020 season due to health concerns.
Still, the football landscape could look quite a bit different depending on how things shake out in the next month.
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