Sports Illustrated jumping on the same bandwagon…
I see no way around canceling it
I agree. I was listening on radio last week and one guy said explain the difference between Nevada flying to Fayetteville and the UA flying to Florida. I think he had a point. I see no way around cancelling football for this season and then somehow try to work basketball and all the spring sports together.
All the rhetoric about “the season” this fall over the past 6-8 weeks reminds me of the “false hope” comments people make when they’re discussing “Uncle Harry”, who everyone KNOWS has a fatal disease but no one ever talks about it out loud. Instead, they talk about “how good he looks” or what fun they’re going to have this Christmas, when there’s no way he will make it to Christmas.
It’s what you have to do, under the circumstances…but everyone involved knows it’s just busywork and going through the motions until it’s time to plan the funeral.
I’m not being critical of anyone in saying the above…just giving an analogy. It’s been a weird feeling as all of these plans were being made and debated, when it was inevitable 2 months ago that there wouldn’t be any football this fall. You have to make contingency plans on the very off-chance a miracle happens. But it’s kind of like spending weeks on a proposal (in sales) that you pretty much know is already hard-wired to another company; it’s what you have to do, but it’s hard to get really excited about it when you can read the tea leaves and see where it’s going to end up.
The strangest year of my life marches on…
Colleges can do that. High Schools, by and large, have students who play multiple sports and will be asking players to pick/choose.
The next layer of this: cutting to 8 games, or 6 with 2-week quarantines between games. That allows you to roll back the season further.
I am still surprised that there was not a stronger effort to put the 119 or whatever D1 schools on a spreadsheet plotting travel distance and having the NCAA assign an 8-game schedule designed to make travel easy and safer.
The NCAA has very little say in major college football. The conferences assumed power a long time ago.
Basically the only say the NCAA has is setting scholarship limits and enforcing the rules (and they don’t do that very well either). Conferences and the CFP (which is essentially a coalition of the Power 5) run the show.
By the way, there are 130 schools in FBS.
I also don’t see much light in the tunnel for college football in the SEC.
The SEC is waiting a month to play. Based on what I am seeing with maskless college kids at parties and for that matter high schools, I expect nothing less than widespread outbreaks on campuses across the country. Ironically, the sports teams will likely be the first to know due to mandated testing. Protecting coaches and players during athletic time is a good thing, but I don’t see it overcoming the likely high levels of exposure outside of the athletic bubble. The teams that have had high levels of asymptomatic spread will be in better shape - see LSU. The teams that haven’t are likely to see significant outbreaks. I so hope I’m wrong.
By the time we get to the end of September, I expect there will be any number of schools that will be going virtual and the chance to play football will have passed.
With all the positive news about a vaccine being available in Dec/Jan, you would think starting the normal schedule in Feb, would make sense to all involved. Right now, it seems to be the only feasible possibility to get in a normal football season. Probably should delay the start of basketball season until Jan/Feb also.
Yeah I agree, doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, I definitely don’t think it will happen in the spring so we’re looking at not having it at all. Sad situation! A lot of lost opportunities to get better for a lot of players, really feel bad for players like Rakeem Boyd.
When there is a vaccine, I don’t expect the first to get it will be sports teams. I’ve read those more vulnerable will get the vaccine first.
That’s true, but that means the parents and grandparents won’t have to worry about the virus carrying from the college athletes and other students to them. 99% of the college athletes and students won’t get very sick, if at all, from the virus. 10-14 day quarantine, and they are good to go. By summer, probably everyone who wants the vaccine will have it available.
And even when there is a vaccine and it’s widely available, a lot of people will refuse it.
Very true, a lot of people are already posting the conspiracy theories about the vaccine.
The good news is that if the vaccine is even 60% effective & 70% of the population gets it, the transmission of the disease should diminish considerably.
I’m by no stretch an “anti-vaxer” but I admit some reticence about taking a vaccine that gets rushed without adequate testing. Then there’s a tough balance between risking a vaccine with some unknown serious side effects against the likelihood of getting a virus with well-known risks.
If a vaccine is ready by Jan 1, it might be a godsend, but it might be quite risky.
With or without the vaccine, some of the population, especially the elderly & at risk, will stay isolated so between isolation & vaccines, hopefully the virus is quickly eradicated. Expect students, educators, & healthcare get priority. Too many conspiracy theories & theorists!
We still have 4 1/2 months of testing before year-end so we should have an understanding of the results & side-effects of several vaccine options. Fortunately vaccines for viruses usually have minor & fewer side effects, much less so than the other medications.
Should know about football by early September & after a couple of weeks of school.
It’s my opinion that if people can go to work and school, sports can be played.
I’m with you, Dudley! way too much inconsistencies going on with shutting down this and not that.
True, assuming the virus does not erupt on campus & schools therefore close again.
Lost a friend to Covid & another had open heart surgery due to Covid symptoms so I tend to take the virus seriously, especially with a son returning to UofA for grad school.