One of the things that makes Saturdays in the fall (and college football in particular) special is the roar of the crowd after a big moment.
That aspect is just one of many that may look dramatically different in football's return this fall, as many prominent figures within college football are planning on stadiums operating under social distancing guidelines. Fox has already shared that they are one network considering piping in crowd noise for their audience to make the environment seem more like what we're all accustomed to.
Earlier today, Jim Harbaugh shared on ESPN's Get Up morning show that he'd be more than comfortable coaching his Wolverines at an empty Big House, considering what the alternative is.
"You could definitely test both teams, you could test the officials, but can you test 100,00 fans coming into a stadium....probably not. Without a vaccine, you probably couldn't do that."
When asked where he stood on playing if fans could not be in the stadium, Harbaugh replied:
"Heck yea I'd be comfortable coaching a game without any fans. If the choice were play in front of no fans, or not play, then I would choose to play in front of no fans. Darn near every guy on our team feel the same way, that I've talked to about it."
I think Harbaugh speaks for 99% of coaches in saying they would rather play in front of no fans instead of not playing at all...but man is that weird to think about.