SI: College Football Leaders moving to cancel season

[Clonefan32]

True which makes it all more complicated...aren't a lot of classes still going to be online at a lot of schools even if kids are on campus (which is kind of weird).

Then you have meals and all that. Even though it's not predictable you have to take into account how college students have pre-frontal lobe brains and make dumb choices no matter what the rules are.

And I guess that's where I struggle a bit. I think this makes sense if you are starting from the point of thinking these kids are going to be boarded up for the next 6 months. But the reality is there are going to be out and about and at risk. So I guess I'm not sure how much you are actually saving them from. But who knows...

 

[Clonefan32]

Oh and by the way, if they cancel college football, you may as well kiss college basketball goodbye. There's no chance this is markedly better by November. Either you wrap your mind around kids may contract COVID and we are going to work through it, or get comfortable with the facts we wont see college sports for quite some time. Not saying either is right or wrong, but that's the reality.

 

[cycloneG]

I think you could make the argument there could be more risk in shutting down the season.. Think about it. Having the season means the majority of the players are going to try and do whatever they can to help mitigate the virus and protect their teammates and themselves in order to keep playing. Sure there will be a few guys who break the rules, but they'll be punished by their team for doing so.

Once the season is cancelled, there are going to be loads of players who won't care anymore. They're not going to take it as seriously.

Isn't this why the season is potentially being cancelled? Players could have been dominating social media all summer pleading with people to mitigate the spread of the virus. Players were mostly silent until the prospect of losing the season was presented. Trevor Lawrence didn't tweet about mitigation once.

 

[Clonefan32]

Isn't this why the season is potentially being cancelled? Players could have been dominating social media all summer pleading with people to mitigate the spread of the virus. Players were mostly silent until the prospect of losing the season was presented. Trevor Lawrence didn't tweet about mitigation once.

Yes, because if Trevor Lawrence took a stronger stance we would have been over this by now...?

What a silly take.

I guess I just don't envision a ton of people out there who weren't inclined to wear a mask and quarantine that would have acted differently had Brock Purdy encouraged it.

 

[TykeClone]

This story only ends with Nebraska and Iowa playing an 11 game series against each other.

I'd have no issue inviting Iowa to play in the Big IIXII this year but telling Nebraska to pound sand.

 

[Clonefan32]

I'd have no issue inviting Iowa to play in the Big IIXII this year but telling Nebraska to pound sand.

Oh...yah, looks like we are full. But I think the MEAC is still playing football?

 

[Halincandenza]

From that article:



This is why we're shutting down college football. 12 athletes in the US have been found to have COVID-related heart impacts. Yes, there are likely at least some additional cases that haven't been identified, but the number can't be large. It's extreme risk aversion. I get it - I'm not the guy who will have to take a phone call if someone does get a serious health condition as a side effect of COVID-19. It's easier for me to say we need to be strong willed and accept that a very small percentage of athletes will have serious issues. It's easy for me to say that as long as the athletes do better than the general population regarding COVID, then it's OK. But, I also think that the reason we pay these commissioners and university presidents the money we do is because they have to make hard calls.



Right - that's the decision they have to make. It seems that many CFB commissioners have said it's not worth it to try to work through the issues. My personal call would have been to try it and see - learn how to do it. Because I also personally believe this is not going away. It's here now and will be here in the spring, next fall, and even beyond that. We may have a vaccine by spring, but we may not. Even then, having a vaccine does not mean that the risk has returned to pre-outbreak levels. We should plan based on the assumption that COVID-19 is the new reality and we have to adjust our expectations based on that. Part of that is learning how to safely and effectively conduct business (including sports leagues) in an environment where infectious disease is a possibility.

No, this is just one factor. Also look at baseball will players ending up in the hospital. But the larger point about the heart issues is it is very dangerous for athletes and they aren't sure how many people it effects because they are still learning. If they for some reason don't catch heart condition and a player dies that is a huge problem. It is also a problem if they end up finding out a large percentage of people that get covid develop heart issues. Just take the anecdote from Germany where they found 60% of people they examined had heart damage; if that is true that would could be a huge problem for the athletes who it says already have a higher risk for mycocarditis. Remember, this is just one health concern and they are continually learning more about the virus. Then let's say they are going to take every precaution for these kids. That will become very expensive if they have to start giving players EKGs and constantly doing things to make sure their heart is healing. These aren't professional athletes. These are students first, supposedly, so why take a risk for an extracurricular activity when it puts players at risk and puts community at large at risk? I think this is another reason NCAA and schools are concerned about going forward. You start to make it look less and less like these kids are amateurs and student athletes and more and more like they are employees and you need them to make money.

 

[Statefan10]

Isn't this why the season is potentially being cancelled? Players could have been dominating social media all summer pleading with people to mitigate the spread of the virus. Players were mostly silent until the prospect of losing the season was presented. Trevor Lawrence didn't tweet about mitigation once.

Ehhh I saw a whole lot of college athletes tweeting out about mitigating the virus the past few months. Trevor Lawrence is not to be blamed, especially considering he likely was doing the correct things himself.

 

[kcbob79clone]

Oh and by the way, if they cancel college football, you may as well kiss college basketball goodbye. There's no chance this is markedly better by November. Either you wrap your mind around kids may contract COVID and we are going to work through it, or get comfortable with the facts we wont see college sports for quite some time. Not saying either is right or wrong, but that's the reality.

Oh yeah, once #coronabros get football canceled they are coming after basketball. Just think of it, thousands and thousands of posts here just subbing basketball for football

 

[Halincandenza]

Basketball definitely won't go forward.

 

[Clonefan32]

Oh yeah, once #coronabros get football canceled they are coming after basketball. Just think of it, thousands and thousands of posts here just subbing basketball for football

I'd get a good chuckle out of it, honestly, given our outlook compared to Iowa's. That's a meltdown I'm all about watching.

 

[kcbob79clone]

I'd get a good chuckle out of it, honestly, given our outlook compared to Iowa's. That's a meltdown I'm all about watching.

Grab the popcorn, it'll be a hoot

 

[madguy30]

Oh it was then why did I see in the media and from politicians it was fine to be large groups to do that but everything else you were gonna harm people.

I guess you chose to ignore the parts where the concerns of the spread were widely recognized. I can't help you there.

 

[cycloneG]

Yes, because if Trevor Lawrence took a stronger stance we would have been over this by now...?

What a silly take.

I guess I just don't envision a ton of people out there who weren't inclined to wear a mask and quarantine that would have acted differently had Brock Purdy encouraged it.

Just using him as an example since he appears to be leading the charge to not have football canceled.

 

[jdoggivjc]

Big 10 just shut it down

Report: Big Ten presidents vote to cancel football season; MSU & U-M vote not to play

Both Michigan President Mark Schlissel and Michigan State President Samuel Stanley voted to cancel the 2020 Big Ten college football season, according to a report from Dan Patrick.

www.wxyz.com

 

[Clonehomer]

I guess I look at the baseball example. For the most part, it has been managed. In a few instances, it hasn't been managed. But is it worth it to scrap the entire thing rather than try to work through those issues? I guess I don't have that answer.

So would we all be good with ISU cancelling games like the Cardinals with positive tests? How many games do you miss before just cancelling the season for a team? It isn't like the baseball system is going great. One guy on the Marlins gets milk and the team is **** down for two weeks. How often is that going to happen on a roster of 100 football players?

 

[madguy30]

Yes, because if Trevor Lawrence took a stronger stance we would have been over this by now...?

What a silly take.

I guess I just don't envision a ton of people out there who weren't inclined to wear a mask and quarantine that would have acted differently had Brock Purdy encouraged it.

So in that case we can't take players' stances seriously now either then.

Not saying you're saying that...but it's been thrown out there.

 

[agrabes]

This is a nice way of going back to the old 'Stay in your home if you're scared!' mantra.

There's plenty of activities you can do outside of the home and seeing other people doesn't mean staying in close proximity for long periods of time in closed quarters.

Playing football in itself is likely low risk. All of the other parts of football including meetings, sleeping arrangements, etc. that are included have to be arranged to keep everyone safe and figuring out how to do that sounds tricky.

Considering all the things players get suspended for during a season based on their bad decisions, I don't believe the discipline to stay within the confines for the time would exist.

Some are making this out to be some sort of knee jerk reaction from the people making the decision like they haven't tried to figure out all avenues for a huge industry.

Said it earlier but I think at least trying camp to get a feel for things would have been worth a shot but maybe they couldn't even navigate that.

I agree with the general point - that the "stay home if you're scared" line is BS as general cure-all for any concerns about the virus. But I think over time we have to adjust our attitudes and practices. We can't keep everything locked down all the time. We have to target policies to try to do the maximum good - ban activities that are high risk and have the ability to spread to large numbers of people quickly. Other activities, even though they have some risk, should be allowed. But you can make an individual choice (as some people I know have) to be even more cautious by doing things like choosing to only get groceries delivered rather than going to stores in person. So I think the right approach is a combination approach - government sets reasonable requirements to eliminate high risk, individuals can choose to take additional actions to take their personal risk from low/medium to very low.

The point I'm making here is that playing football in a controlled environment with significant oversight from coaches and staff is a relatively low risk activity which should be allowed. I agree - the more time you spend in proximity with others, the more risk increases. However, at a certain point we have to accept that we will be in proximity to others. For example, the risk of family passing the virus to each other is high. But we don't ask people to isolate from others within their homes. We accept the risk that if one family member gets it, it's pretty likely that all family members will get it. What we're asking the teams to do is basically to become "quarantine partners" - all have to be on good behavior because if one of them gets it they will very likely pass it on to the rest. But the risk is still a bit less because of practices and procedures the teams have in place such as periodic testing and still maintaining some quarantines within the team.

 

[madguy30]

And I guess that's where I struggle a bit. I think this makes sense if you are starting from the point of thinking these kids are going to be boarded up for the next 6 months. But the reality is there are going to be out and about and at risk. So I guess I'm not sure how much you are actually saving them from. But who knows...

Yeah it's tough but I can't imagine the folks making these decisions weren't trying to figure out any possibilities whatsoever to keep some sort of season afloat.

I would have figured they would have waited until a few weeks into camp since we got this far in August.

 

[Clonehomer]

Here's how I see this. If you start the season and it implodes, not a lot of chance to restart it in spring. So, do you play now with a 10% chance of finishing or do you wait until spring where there may be a 30% chance at finishing due to more time, a potential vaccine, and better treatments.

I don't know what those percentages actually are, but I assume the conferences have really smart people that can give them reasonable numbers for them to make a decision.