Several NCAA college football programs announced their plans for preseason camps Friday signaling Power 5 leaders are pushing for a 2020 season despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest whipsaw development in the tortured path toward a college football season is this: They’re going to try to play.

We have collectively lurched between pessimism and optimism four or five times now. There were moments when a season seemed like an impossibility, and others when it seemed like an inevitability. But after the latest dip in confidence earlier this month, as virus numbers soared across America, we somewhat surprisingly have arrived at the doorstep of August with a plan. It may not be built on much more than hope and hubris, but there is a plan.

That plan does not involve spring 2021. Not yet, and seemingly not ever beyond a last option. The voices calling for that have gone quiet.

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