Jamie Pollard letter on falls sports

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Beyerball

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According to Pete Thamel at SI he’s saying there won’t be a cfball season and it’s already done it’s a matter of when it’s announced..

so there’s that
 

CascadeClone

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Yep. He is looking for ways to have fall sports in the midst of rising cases in a pandemic. He'd better off by planning for a fall and spring without sports. It's on the horizon but no one wants to admit it.

JP should be looking from the lens of "creating a new way" - I think he's stuck since he's still framing the debate as safety vs revenue, just be in the middle. This is what happens when there is so much money involved.

Plan for what? Losing $40M? Jamie isn't going to get all the vendors and employees to take $40M of IOUs for a year.

You can fire a bunch of people, stop feeding athletes, pull all their benefits, maybe re-negotiate some payments or construction contracts... but in the end you are going to be extraordinarily insolvent. I am not exactly sure what that means for the AD (or for ISU, if that happens). Maybe one of the accountants can comment.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
Plan for what? Losing $40M? Jamie isn't going to get all the vendors and employees to take $40M of IOUs for a year.

You can fire a bunch of people, stop feeding athletes, pull all their benefits, maybe re-negotiate some payments or construction contracts... but in the end you are going to be extraordinarily insolvent. I am not exactly sure what that means for the AD (or for ISU, if that happens). Maybe one of the accountants can comment.

DUMB-and-DUMBER.png
 

agrabes

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My rationale for why the season won't happen is pretty simple. Jamie says that the student athletes will be safer and more isolated at ISU. But even in a normal season, they can't stop players from going out and getting in trouble.

If universities want to play the games, and bring in revenue for the school, the athletes have to be completely isolated from the outside world, similar to what we see the pro leagues doing. But then what about the other part of the magic term that makes college sports what they are: STUDENT-athlete. Are the players allowed to attend classes? What happens if a classmate or a professor tests positive? Most of these players live in university housing, how do they avoid other students?

And one more angle that isn't coming up with these discussions: what about the coaching staffs for these teams? ISU has a relatively young staff, but what about someone like Saban, Lovie, or Mack Brown? They are at much higher risk for the adverse effects that come with this virus. Can they be reasonably isolated?

I think all in all, is it will be too hard to maintain isolation while still carrying out a season that involves 150+ players and staff per team.

I think there are few good points you brought up. First, attending classes. I totally agree that the players need to attend classes in the same way that any other student would attend. Or at least, as much as they would in a normal academic year. I'm sure the University has already put plans in place to limit exposure for all students. Reducing things like large lectures, spacing students out while in class, requiring masks while indoors, etc. I don't think that attending class will be a high risk activity. If it is, then students should not be there at all and this whole point is moot.

Second regarding it being too difficult to maintain isolation -
When you look at it and say "It's 150 people for 4-5 months!" it seems impossible. And yes, there are outbreaks all over the place and our country is not doing so hot with this virus thing. But that's society as a whole. If you break it down and say "Ok, it's 150 people who just have to be a little more vigilant with social distancing and PPE than they were before" then it doesn't seem crazy. It's manageable to keep 150 people in line most of the time. Pretty much everything they do is low risk as long as they are willing to take simple precautions. These guys are all highly motivated to play and win, if they can put extra effort into their workouts to meet those goals, they can put extra effort into social distancing too. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but I think they know that this is not like getting caught drinking or smoking pot or whatever else. That stuff can get you into trouble, but won't kill the season. Infecting the whole team with the virus will kill the season and possibly kill people.

I guess that's a long way of saying there are real hurdles to overcome, but it's not impossible to do this in a safe way. I'll continue to add the disclaimer that I think having 30k fans in the stadium is unsafe though.
 

clonedude

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So just to use as an example.... let's say after a couple games Player A, who has a decent chance at playing in the NFL someday, tests positive for covid. But he's over it fairly quick and is only out like 3 or 4 games.

He then tries to come back and realizes he's lost quite a bit of his lung capacity and doctors tell him he'll likely never get it back again. And it's bad enough that he can no longer perform at the elite level required, and is never able to play again.

Or what if Player B after a game simply talks to his parents on the field, his parents end up getting covid from him and then die. Or if nobody is allowed to get near the players EVER, let's say a player unknowingly ends up giving it to an older assistant coach who ends up dying from it.

People do understand that a child did come home and gave it to both of their parents and both parents died from it, right? That actually happened in this country.

What if we play the entire season, and let's say during that season 8 players had gotten it during the season, but overcame it and came back. Then next March we come to find out that 5 of those 8 players now have serious medical conditions resulting from having it? Let's say one players kidneys stop functioning and has to go on dialysis. Another gets slight brain damage from it? Etc, etc.

Will we look back on the season and say it was worth playing it?
 

isu81

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Unfortunately this is largely an issue of self making - not just for ISU, but every program. There should never have been an arms race to see who can spend the most to have the largest scoreboard, who can renovate their stadiums the most in a 10 year plan, or who can get to the top of the salary ranks first. It has been a waste of billions of dollars worth of donations and revenue collectively That could have been used much more wisely.

Regardless, that is a society we’ve created and when anything goes wrong, it all comes crashing down. Unfortunately, the only real fix is legislative. I don’t know why schools aren’t pushing to have legislation that allows for operating with debt for the next 10 years and remove the need to be largely net neutral fiscally. Give them the option to create short-term debt reduction solutions to get through a rough year or two and slowly build back up to profitability.

If schools could sell bonds, or do unique things - along with scaling back the arms race of capital expenditures for the next decade - this could actually be about public health instead of money. Instead, the same people that have begged for every dollar possible over the past 10 years are trying to guilt-trip the rest of us to keep pouring hard earned dollars into a never ending waste of money.

And no, I don’t blame Pollard - his message was good and necessary and he has done everything possible to keep ISU competitive. It’s more a rant about that constant need to have the shiniest helmets and biggest scoreboards that continues to skyrocket the costs for us fans. And then when things go bad, we’re no better off than the AD and can’t exactly keep forking over paychecks as donations.

The situation Iowa State Is in, while not unique, is not the case for every program. First, we've been in a position to have to spend everything we bring in to stay close to others in facilities, salaries, etc. We are one of the lowest revenue P5 schools and thus, were in one of the worst positions to have the golden goose shut down. There are programs with huge amounts in reserves.

https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/
 

iowastatefan1929

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what happens if there is no football fall or spring?
shoot it to me straight
does isu lose cmc?
is isu/iowa finally finished?
 

BoxsterCy

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So if an average donation is $100 as some would donate way more, some less, that's over $26 million to start.

Obviously that doesn't cover up the shortfalls all across the board but it does add up.

Well, some peeps do give. ISU Foundation is $1.3B into their goal of $1.5B for their current campaign. Of course that isn't just cash America sitting around in a vault. Lots of pledges and such. Since I have ISU as one of my beneficiaries I hope they don't start thinking I am worth more to them dead than live. :rolleyes: #fundingviaassassination
 

CNECloneFan

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Maybe I missed it, but what is the point of the "conference games only" policy? If it is to push back the season by 4 weeks, well OK. But if it is concern over Corona virus, why is EIU travelling to Ames a hazard, but travelling to Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania OK?
 

theshadow

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Maybe I missed it, but what is the point of the "conference games only" policy? If it is to push back the season by 4 weeks, well OK. But if it is concern over Corona virus, why is EIU travelling to Ames a hazard, but travelling to Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania OK?

Because conferences can control policy/procedure for their schools, and ensure that they're all working from the same standards.
 

cysmiley

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That is a different situation. State agencies I audited were the same as what you describe because they receive APPROPRIATIONS from the state. If they don't use all their funding the state may not appropriate them that much money the following year.
We didn't receive appropriations, but our "mother agency" did, I think ISU would be defined as a mother agency for Athletics, thus woud they be subject to those restrictions?
 

Cyclonepride

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I think we'll be changing your name to Coronapride.

Suit yourself. This is a bad situation, and everyone should take precautions, and if you're vulnerable, by all means, don't go to games. If you do go to games, don't go around vulnerable people without being extremely cautious. But this is not the black plague, and life does have to go on, through this and after this.
 

BoxsterCy

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what happens if there is no football fall or spring?
shoot it to me straight

does isu lose cmc?
is isu/iowa finally finished?

Dr. Raymond Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!
Mayor: All right, all right! I get the point!
 
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rochclone

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He sure isn't wrong. Bad times are coming.

Nothing 5 trillion in PPP can solve. Plus another $2,500 to every citizen. I mean what can really go wrong if the government just starts printing money at that rate.
 

rochclone

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Huh, I didn't even go there.
There is a solution that solves everything, and it's not long, drawn-out letters focused on money over safety. We just won't do that one, which breaks down every "solution" thrown out there.

But this isn't finding a solution. This is just stubbornly pressing on.

Federally mandate masks being worn inside for 6 weeks or outside on groups of over 25 if social distancing can’t be accomplished. Made it punishable by jail to not wear one and have 45 take the lead. We would crush this virus and the company would be completely reopened by Labor Day. It’s insane that somebody on his staff doesn’t tell him that this technique likely guarantees him victory in November.
 
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