I think with water temps of 72, it is too early. You may decide to cover it but not drop the water level so you can continue to run the pump some.

Here is what I do. I live in WV and I won't cover my pool until the leaves start really falling down. Lots of trees around my pool. That will probably be sometime in October. But, even after the cover is on, I will continue to run my pump periodically and add bleach occasionally as needed until the water gets much colder. This is generally only a few hours a day of run time and adding bleach only a time or two per week maybe. I usually don't actually drop my water level and close my pool (remove the pump and filter) until sometime in November before we start having freezing nighttime temps. With the cover on, the chlorine consumption does go way down, but until the water temp is much cooler, I don't want to risk an algae bloom. Everybody is going to have their way of doing this and their timetable, but this is the way I do it and I always open to clear water in the spring.