No one knows what the future holds in the world of sports. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed almost everything at a virtual standstill.

Until social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders are gone, sports will remain on the country’s back-burner. That has NCAA presidents, athletic directors and fans of college football worried.

However, one of the nation’s athletic directors is remaining hopeful.

During an appearance Tuesday on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” Navy AD Chet Gladchuk said he believes his team’s 2020 season can begin on time.

“Navy AD Chet Gladchuk remains optimistic about facing Notre Dame in Dublin on Aug. 29 if it’s within reason of medical authorities. ‘They still remain very positive over there. We all are. People in Ireland have not given up on the game. We're still very optimistic on it,’” Finebaum tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

But the game is in Ireland, far away from the U.S., which is the current epicenter of the pandemic. It remains to be seen whether Notre Dame and Navy would sign off on playing the season opener in Dublin if the rest of the year is in jeopardy.

That plays into a point made by ESPN commentator Chris Fowler, who was a guest on Finebaum’s show last week.

“The thing that continues to be true, and it was true months ago and it might be true in another month, is that the country’s not on the same page and not on the same stage in terms of how COVID-19 is progressing and cresting, and that’s problematic,” Fowler said. “How are you going to have a playing field that’s even close to being level if the situations are wildly different in different parts of the country?

“When you have the mayor of L.A. say that there’s no sporting events in his city he didn’t think for the rest of 2020, and these deciders on these issues are gonna be the governors and the municipal leaders. They’re the ones who decided to shut things down, and as we know, they’re the ones who can turn it back on based on what they think is appropriate. So if that’s true, how is USC and UCLA gonna play games, how’s the Pac-12 gonna function?”

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick has already gone on record to say he doubts college football games can happen without fans in 2020.

“I don’t think it would be fair to our students,” Swarbrick said earlier this month. “And I don’t like the idea of our game-day stadium just being television studios. They need to be alive with people in attendance, so I do think that’s a big question. I think you might be able to do a little bit of it, but it can’t be the model for a season.”

Swarbrick also said players would need plenty of time to get ready for a season once the green light is given.

“We probably need at least six — and I think most of us would prefer seven or eight — weeks with our fall sports student-athletes to adequately prepare them,” Swarbrick said earlier this month, via NBC Sports.