‘Someone Is Going To Die’: Grim Preseason Prediction Debunked as College Football Season Ends with Zero Fatalities

Coronavirus doomsayers slammed college football for moving ahead with the season, with one “expert” even claiming that up to seven would die by the end of the season.

However, the reality is the season ended without even one coronavirus death.

University of Illinois computer science professor Dr. Sheldon Jacobson was one of those coronavirus scolds who rang the alarm bells the loudest with his prediction that up to seven people would die from the virus if college football continued.

“I guarantee someone is going to die,” Jacobson told CBS Sports in June.

Jacobson also predicted many more would end up hospitalized thanks to the decision to keep playing.

“A few of them could end up in the hospital, and you’ll have a small number who could die,” Jacobson exclaimed. “I don’t want to sugar coat it for you. I just want to give you the facts. … If everybody comes together under normal circumstances, we’ll probably see that kind of outcome.”

But the college football season ended last weekend, and in retrospect, we find that no one died from the virus, nor was anyone even hospitalized with symptoms.

In the wake of the season, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey celebrated a safe and successful season.

“There were those that I think made every effort to communicate why we shouldn’t try to play,” Sankey told Sports Illustrated. “They shamed the effort for trying. I think we did a lot right.”

Sankey added that there are no regrets for moving forward: “We made the best judgments we could. I have people who say, ‘Did you make the right decision?’ If you go back and look at the information, we had at the time of the decision, absolutely. But you’re going to be judged on outcomes, and we’re here [playing the national championship], and people have to judge the outcomes. People have stayed healthy. COVID hasn’t spread in games. We had to adjust and adapt.”

OutKick, though, pointed out that Jacobson tried to weasel out of his dire predictions by quietly altering his data and then abandoning his attack on college football only to attack college basketball, instead.
In his most recent screed against college sports, Jacobson warned that college basketball’s coaches are at risk of dying because they are mostly older and tend toward being in the most at-risk age bracket.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.