End of Division I Sports as We Know It

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Gopherguy0723

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The Univeristy of Minnesota is going to lose at least $10 million, if there's some kind of football season. I don't believe there will be a football season. Regardless, a lot of schools won't be able to recover from this. The 300+ DI basketball schools will be shrink tremendously.

The pay of coaches and the sizes of coaching staffs will shrink. The amount of scholarships per sport might drop. The arms race for facilities will come screeching to a stop. I'm sure the Gophers' new facilities are in huge trouble. They're going to lose a lot of money and owe a lot. That's a bad situation.

There's no questiom the gravy train is over and hard times are ahead. The only question is whether college sports are looking at a hard or catastrophic time ahead.
 


People with money will continue to donate as to the facilities. However the smaller markets will struggle with this issue. Meaning that the gap will widen all the more between the big boys and the have not as to facilities.

Fans may disappear as they are in debt from not working and takes a while to rebound also meaning less revenue. Clearly need the adjustments as to pricing, etc.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
The Univeristy of Minnesota is going to lose at least $10 million, if there's some kind of football season. I don't believe there will be a football season. Regardless, a lot of schools won't be able to recover from this. The 300+ DI basketball schools will be shrink tremendously.

The pay of coaches and the sizes of coaching staffs will shrink. The amount of scholarships per sport might drop. The arms race for facilities will come screeching to a stop. I'm sure the Gophers' new facilities are in huge trouble. They're going to lose a lot of money and owe a lot. That's a bad situation.

There's no questiom the gravy train is over and hard times are ahead. The only question is whether college sports are looking at a hard or catastrophic time ahead.
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Just as fast as this virus came, it will disappear just as fast.

I would just like to alert everyone.
 

It's my perception that we've been told many times by many people in the know that a vaccine is 12-18 months away, optimistically.

If there is no vaccine by autumn, would fans show up to sit in stadiums to watch games in 2020? Not many would, in my opinion.

If there's no vaccine by autumn, would players be allowed to play? Would players themselves decide to play, or would they refuse?

I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see the 2020 season being played at all.
 


Goldteam said:
Just as fast as this virus came, it will disappear just as fast.

I would just like to alert everyone.
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But the economic impact will not "disappear just as fast."

Colleges will be dealing with loss of TV money and loss of ticket sales. but on top of that, businesses are taking a huge hit right now. Are those businesses going to renew their season tickets and suite licenses? Will the corporate big-wigs still be making donations? Will they be buying ads on the radio and TV broadcasts of games?

This may not be the end of D1 college sports, but it will require a significant adjustment.
 


Because I can work at home I will be keeping my Comcast triple-play as justification for internet connectivity. I know it can be cheaper but it is easy and works well.

May not be able to affort season tix anymore but will be contributing to the TV$$$ income stream for now.
 

Goldteam said:
Just as fast as this virus came, it will disappear just as fast.

I would just like to alert everyone.
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It's OT but there is zero evidence to suggest it will go away any time soon.
 



Always darkest before the dawn. Hard to believe right now but we’ll figure things out over time.

Fair to wonder about the impact on college sports going forward. I will charitably argue there is A LOT of fat that be cut from the carcass of Power 5 sports budgets. Spending on any number of nonesense items has exploded along with the tv revenue. Staffing, ludicrous facilities, all of it. I wouldn’t be sad to see a turn to a saner business model.

Schools may find they can live without quite a few things (beyond the excesses in sports), and perhaps budgetary issues on the academic side will prompt a reformation along the lines of revenue sharing, salary caps, and a focus on funneling more money towards academic scholarships. College athletics are meant to be amateur, non-profit enterprises... A guy can dream.
 

These higher ups in major college football have already been sitting down discussing alternatives and all of the options they may have to turn to. I don't think I'd be surprised if they didn't have a season, but I do expect some sort of college football season.

Limiting fans to as little as you need to be "safe" seems like an option. Making sure all of the players are getting tested before games. I know we are advancing testing technology by the day. The season is essentialy 4 and a half months away. I don't know how much time the teams want/need to be able to get ready for the season, so that's a factor.

I could also see cancelling the first month or so when non-conference games are the majority. If you could get everybody with a full conference schedule and that's it, that would be just fine for a real season. That would give everybody another month to prepare.

Once again, this would all be without fans as a baseline. Hopefully the TV money, which I think will be well higher than a normal year, would be enough to make it worth it for costs and expenses.

I'm no medical expert and I'm sure ongoing discussions take place everyday within college sports officials about the attainability of this, so we will see over time. But I assume they're gonna do whatever they can to get it back going as long as they get the go ahead from the medical professionals, which is the big if.

I do think it's important to be patient, as football, basketball, and all sports will come back at some point. We know that. You don't need to rush it if it's putting people at risk. Sucks but that's the facts. It actually really sucks.
 
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Pompous Elitist said:
Always darkest before the dawn. Hard to believe right now but we’ll figure things out over time.

Fair to wonder about the impact on college sports going forward. I will charitably argue there is A LOT of fat that be cut from the carcass of Power 5 sports budgets. Spending on any number of nonesense items has exploded along with the tv revenue. Staffing, ludicrous facilities, all of it. I wouldn’t be sad to see a turn to a saner business model.

Schools may find they can live without quite a few things (beyond the excesses in sports), and perhaps budgetary issues on the academic side will prompt a reformation along the lines of revenue sharing, salary caps, and a focus on funneling more money towards academic scholarships. College athletics are meant to be amateur, non-profit enterprises... A guy can dream.
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Totally fair to speculate and wonder what impact this is all going to have on all facets of life but the bottom line it is just way too soon to have any real idea at this point.

Too many people acting like they know what things are going to look like in August and beyond when we don't really even know what they are going to look like in 2 weeks.

Have said before in other threads that the biggest thing the NFL and college football have working in their favor is time. They have to plan and come up with contingencies but they can let it ride for a while still and see where we are at as we roll into summer.
 





Schools with endowments in the $100s of millions or billions. They’ll be just fine

Endowment update | Driven

THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION Report for the periods ended June 30, 2021
give.umn.edu give.umn.edu

Sure hope they can cover the $10 million.
 


I wouldn’t let the virus keep me away from a game. I’m sure some will and attendance will be down, but I don’t think it will collapse.

The season is going to happen with or without fans in the stands. To the OP’s point, there is simply too much money on the line.
 

John Galt said:
I wouldn’t let the virus keep me away from a game. I’m sure some will and attendance will be down, but I don’t think it will collapse.

The season is going to happen with or without fans in the stands. To the OP’s point, there is simply too much money on the line.
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But - if Fauci, or Birx or some other medical authority says it's not safe to play the games, then there will be no games.

Look, as others have said, we don't know what things will be like in a few months. It might all be better. But if a significant number of people are still getting sick and dying, and the NCAA or NFL says "bleep it, we're going to play anyway," that would be a public relations nightmare.
 

No, it isn’t going to change athletics as we know it. People have a compulsion to over react to what is current, thinking that whatever is going on now is so unique. College football, for example has gone through 2 world wars, Vietnam and Korean War, 9/11, Great Depression, Great Recession, Title IX, Spanish flu, many other smaller epidemics, among many other things. Yet, it still survives. It’s certainly changed in 150 years, but everything else has too. We’ll get over this, people will forget, the world will keep spinning, and college football will still be there.
 

RememberMurray said:
It's my perception that we've been told many times by many people in the know that a vaccine is 12-18 months away, optimistically.

If there is no vaccine by autumn, would fans show up to sit in stadiums to watch games in 2020? Not many would, in my opinion.

If there's no vaccine by autumn, would players be allowed to play? Would players themselves decide to play, or would they refuse?

I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see the 2020 season being played at all.
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There are already reports that the vaccine will not convey permanent immunity. 12 months might be its max effectiveness. Plus, with the rapid evolution into new strains, they may or may not be effective. And, I know there is a doc on this board who is going to say I am wrong, but this is from the developers of the vaccines.
 

Like the ohio state AD said. If you cant have fans in the stands what is safe about 250 people on field? Unless you test everyone before game what makes it safe?
 

There's definitely a world where you can cut football's excess and net more revenue.
 



It's silly to think fans will be scared away from games. Millions of people who are supposed to be locked down are venturing to stores every day. Some shopping is essential, but there's an awful lot want-based purchasing going on.
 

RememberMurray said:
It's my perception that we've been told many times by many people in the know that a vaccine is 12-18 months away, optimistically.

If there is no vaccine by autumn, would fans show up to sit in stadiums to watch games in 2020? Not many would, in my opinion.

If there's no vaccine by autumn, would players be allowed to play? Would players themselves decide to play, or would they refuse?

I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see the 2020 season being played at all.
Click to expand...
Old fans and those with compromised immune systems should stay away. The rest could attend with little concern (assuming governmental rules allow them to). Statistics loudly support this fact as very few healthy young people end up with serious cases. At some point, our plan for attacking this virus has to shift to fall in line with this reality. I’m already seeing that being discussed. As the typical Williams Arena crowd is pretty old, that would certainly change the scene there, and I would think ticket prices will have to be lowered greatly to put butts in the seats.
 

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