Real Life Example of How Our Football Season Might Look
Mates,
You may remember that Traverse City has a minor league baseball team called the Pit Spitters - last year it had some Michigan guys on it and they won the league championship. I don't know if it qualifies as 'professional' baseball since the players go back to college, but assumedly they get some type of stipend for living. This year the league they play in didn't really happen, so what the Pit Spitters did was to form into 3 teams and schedule a non-stop round-robin of sorts with the other two teams. The stadium is limited to 500 fans (all sell outs so far).
Apparently they have decided to put the season on hold for a few days as some of the players have tested positive for C-19. I am linking to an article that gives the details, but one of the details that is not shared is the condition of the kids that tested positive. You assume they are most likely asymptomatic and the handling of it is a precaution, though the CEO was pretty optimistic on the whole: said Pit Spitters CEO Joe Chamberlin. “We are confident that we can navigate through this and restart, with the safety of players, fans and our staff as our primary decision-making criteria.”
Assuming that football isn't cancelled before it even starts, how similar do you think this scenario would be for CFB? If yesterday's thread about Michigan's shortened/juggled schedule proves true, do you think the B10 will handle in similar fashion? If the schedule is as flexible as it might turn out to be, I can envision the very best teams having their opponents say they are sitting that particular game out for precautionary reasons. Ohio might not have anyone to play, and teams like us and PSU could have more openings on our schedules than some of the patsies might.
What do you think?
Link to the article: https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/pit-spitters-season-put-on-hold-until-july-10
Stay safe in the heat
XM
I hate to say it but I think every collegiate and professional league in the US is fooling themselves right now. I was all booked for the UW game so I am just as frustrated as anyone. But I just don't see any of this ending well.
They'll play sports again
When a vaccine is in place
This is how the zombie apocalypse starts not with a bang but a wtf?
here's a group of season ticket holders coming over from the AA golf course...
Still younger than the majority of the blue hairs telling me to sit down.
I don't see my "to go cup" I always bring with me on the walk over??
don't you remember? your hand decomposed and fell off, and the cup with it.
forgetful zombies, the worst kind.
If I understand this model correctly, it would mean that Michigan would break the team into a bunch of mini teams and then play against one another repeatedly. I'm not sure how compelling that would be.
Maybe they could play the other Michigan schools (MSU, CMU, WMU, EMU) in a round-robin format and then declare a "state champion", but again probably not that compelling.
At this point, I'm in the camp that if there is a higher chance to get the season completed in the Spring then to postpone. I understand that this would likely mean a number of upperclassmen would not play, but that would be a better alternative to having a heavily modified or unfinished fall season. The issue is that the NCAA/Conferences/Individual Schools are so decentralized that it seems nearly impossible to get an aligned approach.
Playing in state teams would be much better than watching a spring game every weekend. I would be on board with that.
We should just play Eastern 12 times. They can ride their bikes over.
Yeah, but a bus would be safer.
I expect a shortened season with plenty of last minute cancellations due to positive C-19 tests.
Has there been any discussion about the bowl games? I know it's five months away, but right now, going to Florida, Texas or California don't sound like a reward for a good season. If they move forward with a season, they should abolish the bowl games and go with a 16-team playoff on campus sites. And then they should just keep the playoff forever.
XM, in all honestly I don't see any way that college football is going to happen. The media is primed for a heavy "doom and gloom" week and personally I don't think the idea of college football will survive this weeks news cycle. I would wager that Michigan will be back in "Phase 3" within 7-10 days and the conversation will turn back to whether there will be in-person instruction anywhere in the state (K-12, college, etc.) and fall sports will be scrapped completely.
I would love to be wrong but I have not taken the college football "plans" of various iterations particularly seriously. Playing within the confines of the current narrative does not seem possible, there are too many stop signs, they are boxed in. I don't think they are playing. I think the NFL will play without fans, but frankly I am becoming less convinced of that by the day.
The data for Michigan doesn’t look particularly bad. Why so pessimistic? Test positivity s below 3.0% statewide, and there is no region it is above 3.5%. The state seems to be doing a decent job of contact tracing. This article suggests that hospitalizations are dropping.
https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2020/07/bars-workplaces-private-gatherings-fuel-michigans-recent-increases-in-coronavirus.html
As long as test positivity stays below 5%, hospitalizations don’t significantly increase and the state continues to be able to identify the sources of outbreaks (and tailor restrictions like closing bars) to the outbreaks, why would they need to do more?
john, everything you wrote about no season could very definitely come true.
my neighbor's son coaches in that league, I'll have to ask him how it's going. they were up there this weekend with the intention of watching some games. I'll report back later on with my findings.
The schedule may look like this:
Sat. Sept. 5 vs. EMU - Michigan Stadium (Washington - Seattle. WA)
Sat. Sept. 12 vs. Ball State - Michigan Stadium
Sat. Sept. 19 vs. WMU OR CMU - Michigan - Stadium (Arkansas State )
Sat. Sept. 26 vs Michigan State - Michigan Stadium ( Wisconsin )
Sat. Oct. 3 vs. Northwestern - Michigan Stadium (Penn State)
Sat. Oct. 10 vs. Michigan State - East Lansing, MI
Sat. Oct. 17 vs. Indiana - Bloomington ( Minnesota - Minneapolis, MN )
Sat. Oct. 24 vs. Purdue - Michigan Stadium
Sat. Oct. 31 OFF
Sat. Nov. 7 vs. Ohio State - Michigan Stadium (Maryland)
Nov. 14 vs. Purdue - Ross-Aide Stadium (Rutgers - Piscataway NJ)
Sat. Nov. 21 vs. Indiana - Michigan Stadium
Sat. Nov. 28 vs. Ohio State - Columbus, OH
The University of Washington has well over 100 kids positive from 15 frat houses, which are lightly populated in the summer.
As much as it sucks, putting large numbers of kids on campus, in dorms and other housing, and on sports fields and in practice sessions this fall, and then sending them all back home all over the country just before the holidays is BEGGING for an explosion of the virus at the end of the year.
I get the emails from WMU and they are filled with "Students First" and "Safety First" and other such empty words as they wind up to put kids back in classes because...money.
Call a mulligan for now. And don't hang your hats on a vaccine; we've never been able to create an effective one for a coronavirus and other countries, which have managed the pandemic FAR better, and not hanging their hats on one being developed.
I have my doubts as well that an effective vaccine will ever be developed. 90 percent of the population will end up getting this virus over the next couple of years. Herd immunity will lessen its severity but it will become one of the number of sars viruses that pop up every fall/winter cold season.
Shortened season with an in-state / regional schedule. 6 games in October and November. Something like:
- Oct 10 vs. Notre Dame (home)
- Oct 24 vs. CMU (home)
- Oct 31 (open week just in case)
- Nov 7 vs. MSU (away)
- Nov 14 vs. EMU (home)
- Nov 21 vs. WMU (home)
- Nov 28 vs OSU (away)
Longest drive is OSU at 3.5 hours, but the other away games are very doable in a day trip. More likely to get fans in the stadium with the delayed start. This recent spike needs a few months to dissipate before mass gatherings like a football game are allowed. Students need to have matriculated on campus and programs to ensure / prove players can be kept safe before games start.
No CFP this year given lack of competition. Bowl games TBD, but unlikely given high costs vs. low revenue. Maybe the well funded bowls, like the Rose Bowl, are still held.
Not a Spring fan, just a dumb idea. All of the draft eligible players will opt out, weather conditions in most of the country just don't work anyway, and MBB is then what ... a summer league ?
Not surprising but NOOOOO... sad face for all the Seattle based Michigan fans.
Welp, looks like next year I'm coming home to watch the men beat them up at the Big House.