Two weeks and allow NC State to get healthy and be able to complete their next game with Vandy? Why couldn’t the other 3 coaches left in it tell the NCAA, “let NC State clear their team of COVID and let’s come back in 2 weeks to finish this”. I know this is naive and simple, but it also would be an honorable move by the other three schools. I guess it’s no different than making us play on after Slavens sprained his ankle several weeks ago.
But seriously, why couldn’t the other kids wait to start their summer ball plans?
T.V. deals with ESPN?
Basically, the rules were set. It sucks. No different than drawing Perry Costello to call your game. Bad luck.
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Why not make an exception to this rule & let NCST bring in players that weren’t on the travel roster to play. Even if it’s 3rd teamers. At least give them a chance to compete. Still advantage for Vandy for that game.
Besides backing into the finals. Now Vandy has total advantage in the finals as well with rested players, especially pitchers.
You just can’t put everyone’s life on hold for one or two weeks. Fan bases already have traveled to Omaha. People have taken off work. Players on all the teams have no doubt lined up summer ball commitments for when they’re done in Omaha. TV deals are in place for pre-determined windows. And on and on.
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I agree with all these “why don’ts”! Why don’t they call Arkansas to substitute for NC St so they can have healthy competition? That’d make GREAT television (should we swing our bats).
Perhaps in the future NC State & players/coaches from other teams will consider taking the added step of vaccinating so history does not repeat.
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Some of their players that had the shot tested positive. Should the decision to get the shot be a coaches decision or a parents? For a twenty yr old are the unknown risks of the shot worse that the risks of getting covid? My daughter had covid during Christmas break. She had no symptoms. None of us caught it. Now that she had it, she has the antibodies and doesn’t need a shot. This isn’t an easy answer to make everyone get the shot.
Me and my wife had COVID in January. Thankfully it ran its coarse quickly. I was test for antibodies a couple of months later and I have them. My doctor recommended getting the vaccine anyway. Which both of us did.
In general, it is very easy to say people should take the vaccine. There are some exceptions, but they’re rare. The vaccine hasn’t been approved for young children, so they shouldn’t get the vaccine yet. I bet none of the NCS players had a medical reason not to take it. They just chose not to. The consequences were they caught the disease, exposed others, and got disqualified. Too bad, but the rules for the tournament were clear.
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Some may already be playing summer ball elsewhere
The College World Series can’t be delayed for the same reason the men’s basketball tournament wasn’t delayed when VCU’s first-round game was ruled a no-contest, or the Texas Bowl was canceled due to TCU’s issues. The show has to go on.
NC State might be better in two weeks, but who is to say by that point another remaining team wouldn’t be dealing with covid issues? Not to mention the contractual nature of TV, the stadium, Omaha-area hotels, etc.
What happened to NC State was unfortunate, and we can discuss and disagree on some of the decisions that surrounded its removal. But I think most can agree life can’t be put on hold for two weeks to appease one team, unless you’re willing to compromise for every similar situation that arises.
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Knew the rules and guidelines, some made the choice to not adhere to them, would have been no different if it had been Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas.
The players got covid in Omaha.
In my humble opinion, no conspiracy here and it was not unfair.
Everybody knew the rules going in.
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I don’t think we have enough info to say if the rules were fair or not. Not to mention there was no rule for what specific threshold of covid cases disqualifies a team. Might as well make it one positive case, not some ambiguous number decided on the fly between 4 and 8. But the main problem with implementing these protocols in an objectively fair way is that we don’t know if the vaccines protects against infection or just against illness. Should they have the same testing protocols for vaccinated and unvaccinated players? Probably. Should they let vaccinated players continue playing even if there is an outbreak on the team? Maybe. I think all we can say about the covid rules is it is what it is. Hard to say it’s fair. We do need to figure out what kind of reality we are living in to keep the fair and fun and to keep the stadiums open. I think maybe the NCAA and the rest of the sports world is figuring it out in a trial and error kind of way but I think we are far from having an answer yet
I posted this in another thread, but because the NCAA and NC State have not been entirely forthcoming about the situation due to players’ privacy, we don’t know which NC State players were ruled out Friday night for Saturday’s game.
If there were no catchers left to play, for instance, that would create a scenario in which a no-contest would be understandable. The same would be true for if a pitching staff was hit hard.
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Isn’t the team with a position hit hard by COVID give the option to play? I don’t think the game is automatically canceled, whether it be baseball or football.
Say NC State had 3 catchers on the roster and all were ruled out. I’m sure they would’ve had another player trot out there behind the plate.
That was a football rule, which was determined by the SEC. I don’t know whether the NCAA has such a written rule for its baseball tournament.
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Nc state and the NCAA were forthcoming about them having enough players to continue playing with vaccinated players only and the Wolfpack were not happy about the timing and decisions to be disqualified from positive test results by vaccinated players rather than subsequent testing to see if the vaccine was working as intended for their vaccinated players
Just my opinion from reading a guy I respect as much as anybody who writes and researches the game.
Good dude and friend as well.
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From what I’ve read, NC State had 13 vaccinated players eligible Friday, four of whom tested positive later that night. That would have left NC State with nine available players for Saturday (positions unknown), with the possibility that some of the non-vaccinated players could test back into game eligibility.