College Football is waiting for a decision on the upcoming training camps and regular season amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sports went on hiatus last month starting with the NCAA Tournament being canceled and the NBA, NHL and MLB suspending and delaying their seasons.

While football, college and the NFL, is not in jeopardy at the moment, college coaches are adjusting to the possibility of shortened training camps. The NFL Draft is going to operate completely virtually to adhere to social distancing and quarantine guidelines.

Stanford head coach David Shaw said having a shortened training camp with less training on conditioning before contact could really affect college football games and be dangerous. He joined ESPNU Radio on Sirius XM to discuss what teams would need in an adjusted period and the challenges.

“I think you need to have a minimum of six weeks of training,” Shaw said. “I can possibly be convinced to four but to know that...I’m going to have guys coming back here from 30 different states. There’s different levels of conditioning equipment with them, different levels of ability to get outside, different levels of...guys live next to parks that are open, some guys live next to parks that are closed. Before I put a helmet on anybody, shoulder pads on anybody, we’re going to have to train them.

“I can possibly be convinced of four weeks of training and three weeks of training camp, which would be seven weeks. To me, it's really cutting it close. I think you need eight to 10 to truly feel good about playing a college football season with the speed, violence and conditioning that’s necessary to last a full season.”

Football players need ample time to prepare their bodies for many collisions throughout the season but as 247Sports’ Chris Hummer points out, there is limited evidence that a shortened offseason program creates a spike in injuries throughout the season, but the few examples are alarming in terms of injuries.

The NFL CBA negotiations in 2011 pushed well into the offseason, which created a four-and-half-month period in which players were prohibited from any team-related activities or even workouts in the club’s facilities.

Conditioning-dependent injuries – soft-tissue injuries like the ACL, hamstring and biceps – jumped 38 percent during the 2011 season based on the 2007 numbers, per a study by Emory University. Another study found that 12 Achilles tendon injuries occurred within the first 29 days of training camp upon the NFL’s return in 2011; the previous two seasons produced just 16 total Achilles injuries.

Those studies are far from conclusive or definitive – a much larger data set would be required – but high-leverage athletic functions without an extended conditioning window proved dangerous during that limited sample size.

The college football regular season is scheduled to begin on August 29th with their week zero games, including a contest between Notre Dame and Navy scheduled for Ireland.