While the Big Ten and Pac-12, two of college football's major conferences in the U.S., have canceled their fall seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese leagues are preparing to stage their upcoming campaigns, albeit in an irregular format.
The X League, Japan’s top football league, is scheduled to start its shortened season Oct. 24. The Kansai Collegiate American Football League, which has produced 12 of the last 13 collegiate national champions and 42 overall, announced it will stage its 2020 season under a tournament-style format from mid-October. The rival Kanto Collegiate League will use a modified round-robin format for its competition, which begins in November.
The most important and difficult challenge is to play the game safely and protect players and staff from the coronavirus. In order to lower the risk of infection, some football leagues are moving toward requiring players to wear a shield on their faceguard.
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