If football is pushed to spring, does that impact the start of the 2021 traditional fall season?

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Let's play this out, spring football season is 6-8 games or so, practice starts late February/early March, games in April-May, season ends mid-to-late May...is that enough time off for players to heal up and get ready for practice to begin in late July for the traditional start of a season in late August/early September of 2021?

Go Gophers!!
 

Also, what about the NFL Draft process? I know there are some players skipping the season to prepare, but some won’t. What will the deal be with College Football Playoffs? Lots of questions and issues if they play in the spring, but I guess it’s better than nothing.
 

There is a pretty good chance there is no football in 2021

If we are waiting on a vaccine to be widely distributed we are likely playing spring 2022 at the earliest
 

Let’s be honest. Unless there’s a vaccine by the end of the year, there won’t be a Spring season. They’re just kicking the can down the road.
 

Bleed, I'm thinking a 6 game schedule would not prevent a full schedule in the fall. I wonder if the seniors on the team would play a spring season? That might be a tough call for them.
 


PitinoFan said:
Let’s be honest. Unless there’s a vaccine by the end of the year, there won’t be a Spring season. They’re just kicking the can down the road.
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Exactly. Not to mention that we need about 70% of the population that has natural, vaccine or post-exposure immunity to protect " the herd ".
 

Echo the others above: based on the (assumed) reasoning of zero risk tolerance for players and shifting of any perceived liability for potential long term complications to other entities and individuals, the presidents will not be in a a position to suddenly vote for sports by late Feb. See ya in Fall 2021.

Is eligibility extended? That creates a bit of a personnel crunch for 2021. Some guys may be done.
 

boofbonser said:
Also, what about the NFL Draft process? I know there are some players skipping the season to prepare, but some won’t. What will the deal be with College Football Playoffs? Lots of questions and issues if they play in the spring, but I guess it’s better than nothing.
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The NFL is a bunch of jerks... but moving the draft SHOULDN'T be hard.... but who knows.
 

The delay to Spring is to have more time to have effective treatments in place, and to get the the spread decreased to a point where testing and tracing can be done very quickly to hold the spread at very low levels.
 



BroncoRedux said:
Bleed, I'm thinking a 6 game schedule would not prevent a full schedule in the fall. I wonder if the seniors on the team would play a spring season? That might be a tough call for them.
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Would make a ton of sense to play your division, a conference title game, and call it a season.
 

There's not going to be a spring season. If no fall season, football is done until next fall.
 

PMWinSTP said:
The delay to Spring is to have more time to have effective treatments in place, and to get the the spread decreased to a point where testing and tracing can be done very quickly to hold the spread at very low levels.
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Possible

We already have rapid testing available.

Contact tracing has been a total bust in the US due to non-cooperation and secondarily due to a reluctance by some public health policy makers (and natural inertia) to accept rapid antigen testing (soon to change in the manner of evolving mask policy this past spring/summer).
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Possible

We already have rapid testing available.

Contact tracing has been a total bust in the US due to non-cooperation and secondarily due to a reluctance by some public health policy makers (and natural inertia) to accept rapid antigen testing (soon to change in the manner of evolving mask policy this past spring/summer).
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Yes a lot of tests can be performed, it's the turnaround time on tests results has again widened to as much as 10 days. Agree the test processing protocol and requirements work against sustained rapid turnaround of results. There is a solution sitting in labs at most research universities that remains mostly untapped.
 



Back to the OP:

IF there is a short Spring season, I would think the most likely follow-up would be a somewhat later start to the Fall season.

Think of it this way - the Spring season essentially replaces and enhances the typical Spring practice season. Assuming some older players opt out, the Spring season provides more playing time for underclassmen.

So - here's a guess/proposal:

teams play a short Spring season.

Fall 2021 starts in mid to late September. Conference title games in mid-December. adjust Bowl game schedule. CFP gets bumped back a couple weeks.

This is all based on the assumption that, IF a Spring season is played, that assumes that covid conditions have improved to the point that 2021 looks more like a typical season, fans in the stands, etc.
 

10 game Spring season from 3/6-5/22. Conference championships Memorial Day week-end. 4-8 team play-off that ends June 19th. Fall season delayed to mid-September and shortened to 10 games (perhaps 1 non-conference, 9 conference.)
 

PMWinSTP said:
Yes a lot of tests can be performed, it's the turnaround time on tests results has again widened to as much as 10 days. Agree the test processing protocol and requirements work against sustained rapid turnaround of results. There is a solution sitting in labs at most research universities that remains mostly untapped.
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I’m talking about antigen tests, not qPCR tests. The rapid tests received a bad rap early on because they are not good at detecting low amounts of RNA on the “tail” phase of infection, ie shedding of remnants of amplifiable RNA. The rapid tests are perfectly suited to detect infection in the explosive, exponential growth phase of viral replication.

There will be a sea change coming soon on this, as predictable as the sun rising in the East.
 


If anything affects the fall ‘21 season, I hope they skip the spring season. I have a feeling this is like everything else, in that they are merely kicking the can down to road only to ultimately cancel it. Skip ‘20, give everybody an extra year of eligibility that wants it (or more accurately, put everybody’s eligibility on pause for a year), and move on.
 

howeda7 said:
10 game Spring season from 3/6-5/22. Conference championships Memorial Day week-end. 4-8 team play-off that ends June 19th. Fall season delayed to mid-September and shortened to 10 games (perhaps 1 non-conference, 9 conference.)
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This doesn't seem unreasonable. Though I honestly doubt that Spring will happen.

Another side effect is that there likely won't be early enrollment from HS seniors since their seasons are mostly getting pushed back and since they wouldn't be eligible to play this spring (I'm assuming).
forever a gopher said:
If anything affects the fall ‘21 season, I hope they skip the spring season. I have a feeling this is like everything else, in that they are merely kicking the can down to road only to ultimately cancel it. Skip ‘20, give everybody an extra year of eligibility that wants it (or more accurately, put everybody’s eligibility on pause for a year), and move on.
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The problem with eligibility is that you still only have 85 scholarships and you have an incoming class of players. I'm guessing the B1G would do the same thing they did to Spring seniors this year: "you don't have to go home, but you're not getting another year of scholarship here..."
 

Pompous Elitist said:
I’m talking about antigen tests, not qPCR tests. The rapid tests received a bad rap early on because they are not good at detecting low amounts of RNA on the “tail” phase of infection, ie shedding of remnants of amplifiable RNA. The rapid tests are perfectly suited to detect infection in the explosive, exponential growth phase of viral replication.

There will be a sea change coming soon on this, as predictable as the sun rising in the East.
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Yeah, I'm in the shallow end on all this...curiously looking at what's going on in the deep end.

I think that is a positive thing to point to...things are evolving/developing on an almost daily basis, but for a vaccine in the near future. I think there will be multiple good treatments available sooner rather than later in the balance of 2020.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
This doesn't seem unreasonable. Though I honestly doubt that Spring will happen.

Another side effect is that there likely won't be early enrollment from HS seniors since their seasons are mostly getting pushed back and since they wouldn't be eligible to play this spring (I'm assuming).

The problem with eligibility is that you still only have 85 scholarships and you have an incoming class of players. I'm guessing the B1G would do the same thing they did to Spring seniors this year: "you don't have to go home, but you're not getting another year of scholarship here..."
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I could see the scholarship and player totals expanding short-term to help with that...in all sports affected.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Echo the others above: based on the (assumed) reasoning of zero risk tolerance for players and shifting of any perceived liability for potential long term complications to other entities and individuals, the presidents will not be in a a position to suddenly vote for sports by late Feb. See ya in Fall 2021.

Is eligibility extended? That creates a bit of a personnel crunch for 2021. Some guys may be done.
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I've heard you say zero risk a few times. Who is saying zero risk is needed? People from the big ten? NCAA?

I would be ok with the risk right now personally (I go to restaurants, coaching my son's soccer team, hybrid school for my kids). But I know many others that aren't ok with the risk right now. Have yet to hear anyone say we need zero risk (and let's keep any statements by MplsGopher out of this...).
 

Word said:
I've heard you say zero risk a few times. Who is saying zero risk is needed? People from the big ten? NCAA?

I would be ok with the risk right now personally (I go to restaurants, coaching my son's soccer team, hybrid school for my kids). But I know many others that aren't ok with the risk right now. Have yet to hear anyone say we need zero risk (and let's keep any statements by MplsGopher out of this...).
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Thats what is implied based on the known facts and the purported cancellations. Regarding risk, there are some unknowns in terms of numbers of persistent heart and other potential problems. I’ve never argued there isn’t risk. I know there is risk and for some complications will be significant. However, are the players at higher risk being on campus than they are at home? I would argue no, with a myriad of protocols, but I can see other opinions being valid under certain circumstances.
 

I'm actually intrigued with the potential of two seasons in one year...I suspect many players might also see it as an opportunity.
 

PMWinSTP said:
I could see the scholarship and player totals expanding short-term to help with that...in all sports affected.
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They didn't for Spring sports. Can't imagine now that the precedent has been set they would go back and do that for Fall.
 


I don't think that they should have a spring season. I wouldn't want eligibility to toll for anyone this year and they would certainly use that as an excuse to toll eligibility.

What they should do, but won't, is host pro days, allow everyone to declare for the draft, and take back players that don't get drafted. All players should receive a red shirt year, and scholarship limits should be increased for the next several years with a slow regression back to normal limits.

What they are going to do, because they don't actually care about the players, is play an extremely abbreviated spring season, toll their eligibility, and tell the seniors to f*** off.
 
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Barry Alvarez was reportedly talking about a 6-8 game Spring season, and possibly a 10-game Fall season. That seems more plausible.

Asking a lot of college kids to play two full seasons in a calendar year. I don't see that happening.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Possible

We already have rapid testing available.

Contact tracing has been a total bust in the US due to non-cooperation and secondarily due to a reluctance by some public health policy makers (and natural inertia) to accept rapid antigen testing (soon to change in the manner of evolving mask policy this past spring/summer).
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Contact testing has failed in many areas for multiple reasons.
One is the absence of a readily available, rapid response, accurate test.
Please define what rapid antigen testing is and how it differs from what is available and why and who are "policy makers" that refused to accept it.
There has not been enough federal money to states to hire and train contact tracers.
In some locales the nvast number of positive tests overwhelmed the system.
Those are just a few reasons.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Barry Alvarez was reportedly talking about a 6-8 game Spring season, and possibly a 10-game Fall season. That seems more plausible.

Asking a lot of college kids to play two full seasons in a calendar year. I don't see that happening.
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Not true, I saw the Alvarez interview and he said Chryst is opposed to a spring then fall season.
 

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