Bigger Ten - “Should we cancel the college football season?”

PitinoFan

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Steve Deace and his co-host detail the far reaching ramifications.

 

Let's maybe give this one a few weeks/months prior to even discussing things of this nature. these posts do nothing for anyone given how much is unknown currently
 

Let's maybe give this one a few weeks/months prior to even discussing things of this nature. these posts do nothing for anyone given how much is unknown currently

They are arguing against canceling the season in the video. It’s likely being discussed now behind closed doors. A decision may not be necessary for weeks or months, but contingencies need to be in place.
 

They are arguing against canceling the season in the video. It’s likely being discussed now behind closed doors. A decision may not be necessary for weeks or months, but contingencies need to be in place.
I agree with this. Always need to be prepared for the unknown and let the chips fall where they may.
 

Let's maybe give this one a few weeks/months prior to even discussing things of this nature. these posts do nothing for anyone given how much is unknown currently
Well, if you listen to some of the experts, they are saying it could be 12-18 months. So I don't think it's premature to start questioning it. I would hope the brass at the B1G and NCAA are coming up with different plans based on where we might be at.
 


A decision may not be necessary for weeks or months, but contingencies need to be in place.
This is absolutely true. The schools are right now having to figure out how to try to deal with unexpected budget shortfalls due to the loss of revenue from the basketball tournaments. That hole created in the budget of the U this spring will be extremely problematic and force difficult cuts. Losing a football season's worth of revenue would be budgetarily catastrophic.
 

Here I'll answer it for you... We don't know and we won't know for quite some time.

The sides:
1. We like money and would like to make money by having the season
2. We are worried people may be hurt and we should be safe.

The discussions
1. Is it going to be safe to have a season?
1a. could we do it without fans in the stands and still make the season happen?

The answer(s)
1. We don't know because we don't even know how truly infective this virus is, how many are currently infected (testing issues, test availability, asymptomatic people).

The contingencies I'm sure will be discussed, but no one is going to opt out of contracts right now, vendors will not cancel shipments, fans won't get their tickets reimbursed. It's all too early. I work in healthcare and we're all sitting here wondering when the onslaught is going to hit in the Twin Cities as we speak and none of us know currently. It's all a matter of how the curve flattens (or doesn't) and at what point the disease hits coupled with does this become a cyclic thing for at least a few years (depends on attack rate, development of herd immunity, a possible vaccine) aka all things we can't know to make projections at this time. I'm not saying its not possible, there's just too much we don't know at this point to even make the conversation remotely intelligent at this point (the virus had a first diagnosed case in mid-November, we are 5 months in, and the college season is 5 months away; it is impossible to project given the data has infinitely large spreads on either side of it)
 

Another variable to consider: what if 13 campuses have it under control but 1 city does not?
 

I wonder if making college football a winter/spring sport for a year is on the table. Could then make basketball a spring/summer sport.
 



This stuff is so crazy. Nobody can predict two weeks from now, let alone August.

If I had to bet, I'd say college is 50/50, but I'd put money down that the NFL will be playing. Even if it's in front of empty stadiums and with every player, coach, staffer, trainer, ref, and security guard being tested multiple times per week in the lead up to Sunday.
 

I will predict that both the pros and the NCAA and Big Ten will say that their decisions were made based on what is best and safest for the players and the fans but will actually do whatever maximizes their TV income in the short and long run.

Bless them, what a nice challenge for their marketing departments. Love, love, love, love (money, money, money, money).
 

I will predict that both the pros and the NCAA and Big Ten will say that their decisions were made based on what is best and safest for the players and the fans but will actually do whatever maximizes their TV income in the short and long run.

Bless them, what a nice challenge for their marketing departments. Love, love, love, love (money, money, money, money).
FINALLY, something that I can agree with you on. There's just a lot of money involved. dump preseason/nonconference games, play a modified conference schedule without fans and call it a season. play conference title games and limited bowl schedule nf l can do what it wants - I won't watch anyway
 

FINALLY, something that I can agree with you on. There's just a lot of money involved. dump preseason/nonconference games, play a modified conference schedule without fans and call it a season. play conference title games and limited bowl schedule nf l can do what it wants - I won't watch anyway

Well, the good Lord works in mysterious ways, here is another one you can agree with: I gave up on the NFL three years ago.
 



I think there's a good chance of 2020's games in empty or socially distanced stadiums with players who pretested negative. There will be widespread fast result tests by then -- they already exist. It's a fairly low risk population group.

If the games still go on, that means the TV money does. As we know that's the biggest slice of the revenue pie for the P5 schools. Normalcy could be somewhat maintained for athletic departments and society. I could see some lower conferences without TV deals just calling their seasons off.
 


This is the thing that's going to be the hard, drawn out fight between sides: should we keep the seasons on as scheduled, but not allow live fans.
 



Mass testing and tracking will allow the cured and negative to go on with life, the positive will be in quarantine for 14 days. PLAY ON.
 

Mass testing and tracking will allow the cured and negative to go on with life, the positive will be in quarantine for 14 days. PLAY ON.

Yeah I think this is all going to unfold on the quicker end of projections. There's two things about America that I don't doubt:

1. Our national spirit of freedom, rebellion and individualism + bias towards prioritizing economics + disjointed and decentralized politics + poor early handling leading to it hitting harder and faster and with more pain here than anywhere in the developed world, and...
2. The resources of the nation to throw money at a problem and think creatively and entrepreneurially, will give us the clinical medicine power to overcome it faster than we think, and with less economic disruption than we think. Maybe in time to heal with CFB.
 

Mass testing and tracking will allow the cured and negative to go on with life, the positive will be in quarantine for 14 days. PLAY ON.
I think this isn't going to be a "one and done" situation where it's "ok you had it, now you're cured for the rest of your life".

When you get the flu, are you now immune from getting the flu for the rest of your life? When you get a flu vaccine, does that mean you'll never get the flu ever again? It's going to be like that, I'm afraid. (My own wild guess, I'm not an expert)
 

I think this isn't going to be a "one and done" situation where it's "ok you had it, now you're cured for the rest of your life".

When you get the flu, are you now immune from getting the flu for the rest of your life? When you get a flu vaccine, does that mean you'll never get the flu ever again? It's going to be like that, I'm afraid. (My own wild guess, I'm not an expert)
i think it is the cold family...so the hope is you never get the same cold
 

Let's maybe give this one a few weeks/months prior to even discussing things of this nature. these posts do nothing for anyone given how much is unknown currently
Basically what we did before Coronavirus even hit the United States. Let’s wait and see. That was a disaster.
 

Basically what we did before Coronavirus even hit the United States. Let’s wait and see. That was a disaster.
that is incredibly naïve If you think the president's actions are what people on the actual ground did/tried to do. Secondly, not even remotely similar points. Apples-oranges.

Clarification: I'm not looking to get into a pissing match about this, but to compare the response to a pandemic (one of which needed planning to start years ago, not several months) to about a sport that can be canceled within a substantially shorter time period is silly. Perhaps you were using a piece of hyperbole to make a point, but it's not like I'm saying wait until August then decide. That is all.
 
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i think it is the cold family...so the hope is you never get the same cold
That is the idea. This virus is unique in its combination of ease of passage and ability to cause substantial symptoms, where a typical coronavirus is rather benign, much like a cold/rhinovirus. The hope being a vaccine to this one would prevent/provide some resistance to the same strain would not entail you would be immune from all coronaviridae, but from this one specifically (have not read much yet on the rate at which antigenic shift/drift happen with this specific virus family, but whether it acts like the flu or not and becomes cyclical at this same infectivity/impact, we shall see with time)
 

Yeah I think this is all going to unfold on the quicker end of projections. There's two things about America that I don't doubt:

1. Our national spirit of freedom, rebellion and individualism + bias towards prioritizing economics + disjointed and decentralized politics + poor early handling leading to it hitting harder and faster and with more pain here than anywhere in the developed world, and...
2. The resources of the nation to throw money at a problem and think creatively and entrepreneurially, will give us the clinical medicine power to overcome it faster than we think, and with less economic disruption than we think. Maybe in time to heal with CFB.
Agree with both of your points. Think we're going to see this hit hard, even harder than it did in Italy due to the number of young healthy individuals who continued to be out as well as the clustering in our big cities (see New York). Next few weeks will unveil how our whole country will feel this. Would absolutely expect some regionality in infection and death rates, but given the incubation period the next 1-2 weeks will be very interesting.
 

That is the idea. This virus is unique in its combination of ease of passage and ability to cause substantial symptoms, where a typical coronavirus is rather benign, much like a cold/rhinovirus. The hope being a vaccine to this one would prevent/provide some resistance to the same strain would not entail you would be immune from all coronaviridae, but from this one specifically (have not read much yet on the rate at which antigenic shift/drift happen with this specific virus family, but whether it acts like the flu or not and becomes cyclical at this same infectivity/impact, we shall see with time)
My point was, I think some people are starting to believe that it will indeed have that same property that the flu does, which you describe in your last line. I would like to hope that if it changes its genetic sequence enough to evade immune response, that would also mean it is not as deadly as it is now. But the flu clearly does not obey such an ideal.
 

The data will tell you what to do. There is no sense in making pronouncement about the future while we are fact gathering.
 


But also nothing wrong with hypothetical discussion.

Yeah, I mean if we're not talking about this we may as well shut the board down because there's little else to talk about in CFB or sports in general right now.
 




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