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SBN Reacts: Will COVID lead to a Power Five breakaway from the NCAA?

It’s been a question lingering in the minds of sports fans for years, and now the coronavirus has put NCAA issues at the forefront.

By Sam Snelling

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College Football Playoff Semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NCAA. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged in Missouri Tigers fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.

While the current landscape of college athletics is changing more than any time before it, fans don’t think those changes are going to last.

Due to COVID-19 concerns, conferences across the country have made their own decisions on the 2020 football season, taking the NCAA out of the equation entirely. This has caused conversations about a possible Power 5 conference break from the NCAA.

However, according to the most recent SB Nation Reacts survey, a slight majority of fans don’t think this is the breaking point.

Across the survey, fans appear to treat 2020 like an anomaly and not allow this year to change anything going forward, even if that means missing out on large chunks of games played.

I’m less concerned about the way conferences are handling things and the NCAA’s non-intervention into the possibility of play. I’m more interested to watch how the players approach things going forward. They’ve obviously shown the amount of power they think they have, but they also haven’t fully squeezed the trigger. It’s like they’re all still waiting with the safety on. Players have always had far more power than they realize; I’m just curious when they finally flex it.

Almost two-thirds of fans said it’s not worth playing football games in the spring, a plan floated by some in order to have games played by all schools during the current academic year, if next season’s games are affected.

For now, all focus in the college athletics world is on the football season. But it won’t take long for the basketball season to come back around. The end of one season has already been lost, so it would stand to reason that league officials may try to find a way to protect against further cancelations.

Fans, however, don’t expect that fix to be at a bubble. Only 39 percent of fans think there will be any kind of a bubble for the NCAA basketball season.

To vote in the Reacts surveys and have your voice heard each week, sign up here.

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