Good luck getting your kids off to school, Gunner.
I agree it's going to be a mess. And I think it will remain be a mess for a few years as the backlogs work their way out. If I were a college president, I'd be working on some attractive quasi-gap year programs to offer the next few entering classes (and maybe the current crop of freshmen and sophomores, too). You could charge something for the year if you offered some credits. Students could apply, but agree to enter the following year. If you managed it right, you could smooth the demographic disruption a bit. (For schools that don't get far more applicants than they could possibly admit, that option probably won't work...)
I am really torn about what to suggest to my son. I'm a big fan of gap years, but finding worthwhile things to do for the next 12 months would be a real challenge. I think working a low-skill, low-wage job is great experience, but probably not for a full 12 months (at least not while living at home). And it's unclear if there will be baseball this spring--either way he could end up off the field for more than a year, except for some thrown-together games earlier this summer.
My oldest kid's college still plans to have students on campus. She will be a junior and insists she will continue even if things go fully online. The next few months are going to be interesting.
Nobody in my family has been sick or lost their jobs, so we really can't complain (but still do, of course).