B1G Season Update
So it looks like the B1G will announce tomorrow a 10 game FB schedule, 6 in division, 4 out of division. No home-and-homes. Start on Sept. 5.
Whether the schedule is released or just the framework remains to be seen, but I'm hearing it's the actual schedule. Dates and everything. We'll see, maybe it's just opponents.
B1G medical folks are delivering their final proposals this week as well. Uniform guidelines all around. Right now you have some schools shutting down after one positive test (Northwestern did it today), others not doing anything until they can't get two-deep at practice, different rules for getting out of quarantine, etc. - all of that should be addressed so it's a level playing field. I'm interested to see how they address practice as much as I want to see what they do about games.
I'm not Sam Webb (not a fan of that guy, loves to tell you how he already told you something, so lame) but my "gut feeling" says they're going to give it there best shot...get some games in as best they can, make some money. Truthfully, I don't see this working. We've seen that the bubble works, nothing else does. These are 18-22 year olds, no way they can be trusted and contact tracing is going to knock everyone out. (Which is why I was pitching the wacky idea to play every other week - 6 in the fall, 6 in the spring).
Add in what's happening in the Pac-12? This whole thing is a messy smash and grab. Get in, get your rivalry games in early, get as much money as you can and chalk up the rest.
Couple that with the fact that the NCAA is trying to figure out if they're even going to have championships (CFP isn't part of that). They could come out and say no championships for the other sports and those sports will have to figure out if they want to do their own CFP type tournament (likely P5 schools only).
Commish Warren met with student-athletes from each school tonight. 1 FB and 1 fall sport from each team, it was sort of a town hall before the news breaks tomorrow.
A few things I bet he didn't share, but I know to be true. No football = No fall sports (as of today). They also want football to play first (not sure why)...so the other fall sports aren't starting before Sept. 5.
If we don't play FB this fall, at least one B1G school will drop some sports before the end of the year.
Something I know he shared, this is VOLUNTARY. Everyone keeps their scholarship. But what people don't understand are two things.
1. If you opt out, you keep your scholarship and you get access to academic support, athletic training, weight lifting, everything. But it's probably all virtual. You can't opt out for health reasons and then go be around the team when they don't know where you've been. But you get all of the support.
2. If you opt out, you keep your scholarship, but that doesn't mean you get your eligibility back at that school (or at all if you are a RS senior). If coach doesn't want you as a 5th year, there is no guarantee. If you already redshirted, you're on scholarship but the NCAA isn't saying that you get your year back to play. So you could have redshirted last year as a freshman, sit this year as a RS freshman, and you've got 2 years guaranteed and 3 if the coach brings you back as a RS senior (otherwise you grad transfer).
This week you're going to see A LOT of information come out. By Friday, we should all know what is going on and when. At least as it's currently planned.
Sorry for poor spelling or grammar, typed from my phone.
August 3rd, 2020 at 11:12 PM ^
Looks like someone posted an article about the schedule. I wanted to share this morning but didn't get time.
Anyway, we'll see what happens tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed our 4 games against the West aren't @Minnesota, @Wisconsin, vs. Purdue and vs. Nebraska.
Jinx?
August 3rd, 2020 at 11:19 PM ^
FWIW, football was played during the Spanish flu
5 games were played, with a gap from October 5 to november 9.
Michigan went 5-0 and claims a national Title for the season
August 4th, 2020 at 12:05 AM ^
About 675k Americas died during the Spanish flu. We're probably about 1/4 of the way there and it's only August.
And this is with modern medical treatments.
Doin a heckuva job Donnie.
I don’t get the downvotes. This is indisputable truth. And it doesn’t even account for the fact that we’ve had so many deaths despite a full lockdown that lasted 2-3 months. Absent that, the body count would already be somewhere near 600K, according to the experts.
But, yeah, let’s play a contact sport with amateurs and without a bubble in between waves 1 and 2.
You're saying that we're not doing well containing the spread of the virus because had we not "fully locked-down" the country and contained the virus, our death total would be a great deal higher? In the realm of six-ish times higher?
There's no need to gimmick it up with anti-President lingo. I'm not a Trump voter, but making every argument a revolution around the political sphere seems childish.
It should be mentioned that the US is more than 3 times the size that it was in in 1918-19.
So as a % of the population, we're not even 1/12 of the way to the spanish flu.
Not saying we've done a good job with it by any means. Just that it's probably more instructive to compare our performance to other developed countries with large and diverse populations. In that context, we're doing poorly but probably not the worst.
Significantly worse than Germany, slightly worse than France, but probably slightly better than the UK.
From what I read in this excellent book, the 1918 pandemic was significantly worse all around than COVID-19 is likely to be. We're all fortunate in that respect.
On the other hand, one of the reasons the 1918 flu was not even more deadly was that by the third wave, the virus had apparently mutated to a much less lethal form. In the long run, more-infectious-less-lethal coronavirus variants will spread faster since their hosts will live longer, but in the short run anything could happen.
To play devils advocate, there are more than three times as many people living in the US right now than in 1918.
stop trying to politicize a virus..just shows your hyperpartisanship..No one man can be held responsible as much as Liberals want to try..Not EVERYTHING is political
I’m a conservative Catholic, not liberal. You are still going to be and already are epically on the wrong side of this. He failed blindly and now maliciously and history will tell that tale forever.
I wish we could get through one of these threads without someone bringing up politics. I just don’t see why it’s necessary.
Also, while I don’t think that “Donnie” is doing a great job on this, at the same time, because of the way that our government is set up - with each state having a certain degree of sovereignty- many of the decisions surrounding the response to the virus were made by governors. Did Donnie make the decision to send COVID-positive seniors back to the nursing homes in NY, leading to thousands of additional deaths? Is Donnie overseeing California, which is currently the only one of the states that was originally hit with this to suffer a second significant spike? What, exactly, is Donnie doing that you think somehow leads to cancelling sports? Operation Warm Speed seems to be going incredibly well, per Fauci, and every single state that has asked for resources has received those resources. What, exactly, do you think he has done wrong here, other than generally just being an asshole who says incredibly stupid things during press conferences?
Correct. President can’t account for all the idiots not wearing masks, social distancing, etc.
August 4th, 2020 at 11:20 AM ^
You know what would have helped a ton? If he had led by example and had been wearing a mask the whole time instead of only within the past couple of weeks.
August 4th, 2020 at 10:20 AM ^
SugarShane; unfortunately times have changed. Life doesn't just go on like it used to. I would love to see a college football season so count me as hopeful.
August 4th, 2020 at 12:06 AM ^
If Rutgers is the downfall of B1G football this fall then that would be strike 1000 against them.
August 4th, 2020 at 12:11 AM ^
Trying to play is just such a terrible fucking idea and the administrators that let it happen will only have themselves to blame when this turns into a shit show.
August 4th, 2020 at 12:23 AM ^
Makes no sense going forward with a season....really shows what the NCAA's priorities are.
You can say that again.
August 4th, 2020 at 12:23 AM ^
Makes no sense going forward with a season....really shows what the NCAA's priorities are.
Is this a NCAA decision, or is this being formulated by the major institutions? I think you are blaming the wrong people. The NCAA has purposely stayed silent during this whole thing.
It's not.
The NCAA can cancel all of their championships and not recognize a national champion from FB...but it can't cancel anything it doesn't host.
For example, March Madness was an NCAA event.
Now will teams play if there is no formal NCAA champion? Will student-athletes play? Probably not. Maybe in football because they have the CFP.
But what's the point in Field Hockey? Play 10 conference games for a B1G championship?
August 4th, 2020 at 12:26 AM ^
Thanks for the update
But why take a shot at Sam Webb? The guy is the nicest person in college football. He's what Ellen DeGeneres would be if she were actually what she claimed and not a nutcase - just super positive and great energy all the time. Recruits and parents love him, and he seems to have their best interests in mind. He's not perfect, no one is in the recruit prognostication business, but he's one of the best in the country. He's great, try to give him another look in that light. But obviously free to your own opinion.
I'm sure he's a nice guy...seems like a really nice guy and an awesome father.
I just don't particularly care for the guy in terms of how he goes about his business, and I think that's okay, too. Half this board says the same about Brian...on Brian's website.
Was it necessary? No, not really. But I knew people would understand "gut feeling"...which is why I reluctantly envoked his name and not someone else's. If I didn't say gut feeling, I would've never said his name.
Hope this makes sense.
I think he does that to sell the value of the information he provides, sort of reminding subscribers that he's been right on this thing all along and they've had the scoop for a while. A little bit of self promotion with the goal of furthering his business, but fair enough.
Well you got this for free.
5 home/5 road. 6 division, 4 crossover, no home-and-home, start Sept. 5.
I told you so. "Like I said." Yada yada yada.
So you have some info and you choose to share it...you sound like a jerkoff to me when you remind people of it.
At my job, we have about 20 employees. Not a metro area, just an industrial area near South Bend. 15 employees are college age. The others are ages 27, 36, 43, 52, 53. Almost all of the college kids have already had it. Only the 52 year old had it out of the older guys.
I'm wondering if that holds true for most college kids. Just because coronavirus has been around awhile now, and younger people are much more social. Now if you can catch it multiple times or it mutates everything goes out the window, but maybe those young people catching it early will help keep positive tests down (or if they are purposefully trying to get it now, like some suggested when LSU and Clemson had a bunch of positives right after returning). The older staff, coaches, and so on might be who really put the season in jeopardy -- bc they are more at risk, and because they are probably less likely to have had it already (based on my non-researched hypothesis that a higher percentage of young people have had it already).
Crazy that March Madness was canceled with no known student athlete cases. Yet we now have instances of football student athletes unionizing as well as testing positive for the virus. We’re not even one game into the season, but yep let’s just chug along here. Feel bad for these players.
Crazy yes, but a different time.
March feels like a year ago. The only thing that keeps March in any type of perspective for me is football seems/was further away.
It took the Rock to make me remember that we actually played XFL games this year. Completely forgot about that until yesterday.
"We've seen that the bubble works, nothing else does."
Best summary of the situation. Pro football is going to regret not going in this direction and preparing earlier.
Tldr, there won't be a season.
August 4th, 2020 at 10:02 AM ^
Because I'm a believer in nonviolent resistance, anyone that thinks uniform standards, bubbles, etc. for sports teams are a good idea, yet are totally fine with each state Mad Maxing their way through all of this can punch themselves in the face.