Who doesn’t want to forget 2020? I know I do. The only redeeming event for me during the worst year in our country’s history was the birth of my grandson.

But as we count down the days that will close down 2020, will 2021 really be any different?

College sports in 2020 was all about COVID for the Pac-12.

And believe me, I am not poo-pooing the loss of life from this virus. I hate disease in any form and what it does to human beings; whether it be COVID or cancer — but COVID changed the landscape of sports; a change never before seen.

Not even the 1918 pandemic caused this much disruption of sports. But it’s only a little over three months away from spring ball, and that begs the question: Will there be spring ball in 2021?

Jimmy Lake has to have a contingency plan before April for moving the team out of the state of Washington to practice — even Jim Harbaugh did that and it wasn’t during a pandemic.

Let’s accept the elephant in the room here — the west coast is run by governors that have become megalomaniacal dictators who aren’t going to be willing to give that power up easy.

California has been shut down and locked up and had some of the strictest rules on the West Coast to combat COVID, yet the disease continues to run rampant and is a hot bed right now.

This isn’t meant to be a political article — it’s still a sports article — unfortunately in 2020 politics has bled into every vein of college sports.

Now there’s talk about a new strain of COVID (most viruses do mutate), and president-elect Joe Biden says he would lock the country down again because a “dark winter” is coming…the goalposts continue to be moved.

If there is a 2021 season, will the Pac-12 decide to let their teams start sooner this year and give more leeway for games that are cancelled?

The conference is already a laughing stock with the most inept leadership in the country, so rules and guidelines have to be changed in order for games to be played.

Another year of this and Pac-12 football is over. Period. There simply has to be a change in leadership for the conference in order for it to survive going forward under the current governance of the coastal states.

Would Washington consider leaving the Pac-12?

This has to be discussed at some point. Afterall, the conference is compromised by NIKE. It’s been bought and paid for. It shows up every year on scheduling, but this year there was something almost creepy about it.

Every team in the Pac-12 reported COVID issues this year — and the one school who never had a single case was Oregon. How is that possible?

I guess when you take millions of dollars from NIKE the conference will turn the other way…but that’s another article.

Yes, yes, go ahead and call me a conspiracy theorist, but America has become such a dumpster fire in the past year, anything is possible. There is documented proof that the Pac-12 sold out to NIKE for millions of dollars, and I’ll revisit this later.

Too late for Apples?

As crazy as this year has been, I’ll just throw this out there: At the end of January, why can’t Washington play the Apple Cup?

Why not? High school sports won’t start until February — and don’t tell me they couldn’t get a TV deal out of it with all the proceeds going to  COVID relief for small businesses in the state who have struggled to stay open.

Washington would want to do it and I’m sure the Cougs would want to do it as well — this is a year like no other, and if they wanted it bad enough it could be done.

Recruiting issues…

The ever-ending dead period is supposed to end in April, but I won’t believe it until I see it — not when there’s COVID Führers running the states of Washington and California.

These guys are consumed with power right now –so  will there be any hope in sight of the dead period ending on the West Coast?

Again, those goal posts just keep moving.

Remember when this started? There was only supposed to a lock down for two weeks in order to stay ahead of the curve and ensure the hospitals were equipped.

We did everything we were asked to do: shelter in place, wear masks, wash our hands…everything.

We saw Pac-12 football fall completely into the Pacific and sink in 2020.  The real science has been ignored, now we’re in irrational fear-mode rather than actual common sense mode.

What to believe?

I’m sorry to say all of this, and people may not like it — but why were football games cancelled because of COVID?

Not one football player has died from it, and I really believe if this is the new standard, the people in charge will keep moving those goalposts and Washington football may have to move out of the Pac-12 to survive.

A player should have the right to play football – the one’s who don’t’ want to play? That’s their choice.

But Husky Sports may have to decide to take a stand here:

Are they going to stand by and watch sports be shut down over a disease that hasn’t killed or disabled any D1 player in 2020? They’re already isolated from the public during games — and there will always someone who argues this point with me — but let’s accept reality here.

There’s a 99% survival rate on this, and someone needs to make a decision about whether or not college football will survive on the west coast or not.

If they decide to not have football again until COVID is totally gone, then we have to live with that — but this death-by-paper-cuts stuff has to stop.

It’s not just sports either — it’s about jobs and livelihoods and the well-being of school-aged children and young men who worked all of their lives to get to the next level. It’s about young people who were promised Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness in the United States of America.

As I said, I am not scoffing at the fact that there has been a loss of life in this country from this disease  and the toll it’s taken on the lives of seniors and those with underlying health issues, I am scoffing at the idea of the uncertainty of not even getting through a 12-game season.

Either you play football or not.

Decide, make a plan, stick with it, and let the chips fall where they may. If the players want to play, and the coaches  want to coach, and the schools want to have football then they should have football.

With one rule for everyone in every league, not just according to whoever your governor is and what part of the country your conference is in.

But if they want to skip an entire year and make sure COVID is now under control, then okay — let’s do that.

This just can’t continue into 2021. It just can’t.

I would rather they not have a season at all and get the vaccine moving and better testing (false positives were a problem in 2020; just ask Stanford) and independent testing should take place rather than testing from within the school’s own athletic department.

All numbers should be done by the same group and should be transparent to the public, without naming individuals.

We’ve all been looking forward to putting 2020 behind us, but is it? I highly doubt it at this point.

The last time I looked, with all the lockdowns, and masks, and social distancing, and even the new vaccine — this virus is still spreading like wildfire. Nothing has stopped it.

Nothing has worked. So is there really any reason to celebrate the end of 2020?

If the past year showed us anything, it was that we really have no idea where the endzone is.

Those goalposts just keep moving…