Take A Wild Guess: Yes or No...will college football be played this year?

Submitted by MaizeBlueA2 on July 2nd, 2020 at 5:33 PM

None of us know, the NCAA doesn't even know...but take a wild guess, will college football be played this year?

Yes, without restrictions..."normal" season

Yes, but with no or limited (0-33.3%) fan attendance 

Yes, but they won't finish the season

Yes, but in the spring

No

The Mad Hatter

July 2nd, 2020 at 5:44 PM ^

Yes. At least in some places / conferences.

And then there will be a massive scandal when players die, infect family members who then die, or have career ending lung damage.

UrbanMeyerBurn…

July 2nd, 2020 at 7:37 PM ^

If they didn’t start until spring, how would that affect the 2021 season? Would they still start Labor Day weekend like normal? Say the 2020 season starts March of 2021 that would mean the season would end around late May after the bowl games. They’d had 3 months to prepare to play another full season. I don’t see that happening. I think there’s 3 options.

1. Play with limited fans

2. play only conference games pushing the season back a month.

3. Don’t play at all. 

GoBlueGoWings

July 2nd, 2020 at 5:47 PM ^

They should see how well NHL,MLB, and NBA does. If those leagues don't finish then no. If they do then yes with limited fans. If they don't finish the season, I hope the season ends on Nov. 22

CFraser

July 2nd, 2020 at 5:50 PM ^

As much as I hate to say this, no.

#1) There’s no vaccine coming soon. Not this year or early next. And if you mass market an untested vaccine then expect other problems and your situation to be worse than you started. 

#2.) It’s not going anywhere, and quarantine as possible is the most prudent approach. At least until there’s a vaccine, which there shouldn’t be by playoffs. And if there is, I’m a new anti-vaxxer for a while.

#3.) No way anyone will field a representative team and the record book will be just: “**************...” ad Infinitum. 

The opposing forces are cable companies (monopolies) and their revenue and those are strong forces so maybe they’ll win over common sense and we’ll have 7 on 7s for the 2021 NC.

 

Our AD already said: he won’t isolate the players. They’re not professionals. So we’re going to lose players every week for two games. Imagine: week before PSU: Dylan and Zach get it. Well there’s an * for ya

 

 

Edit: let me just say, the vaccine comment isn’t a guess and is extremely informed. And, by the way, what’s your plan to administer hundreds of millions of vaccines by January?!

Mgotri

July 2nd, 2020 at 6:58 PM ^

You make an interesting point, but I don't think it is realistic to think that a novel antiviral, etc would be able to be developed faster than the vaccine. One of the largest hurdles in making an approved is validating the manufacturing method. With the mRNA based vaccines the this is largely completed because all you are doing is changing the RNA sequence and not making big changes to synthetic steps. 

While with a biologic or small molecule you would have to create a whole new processes.

So I think the strategy of throwing everything we have that has already been in Phase 3 (remdesivir) or approved (chloroquine, that steriod whose name i forgot, etc) to try to find a bandaid treatment until an effective vaccine can be deployed is about as good as we can do.

Otherwise we would be looking at a similar timeline for a novel drug treatment that we don't have a safety profile on and will lose a lot of marketability after a vaccine is deployed. So I don't think it makes sense from a public health, nor business standpoint, to put a lot of resources into developing a novel drug for this. 

uminks

July 2nd, 2020 at 7:44 PM ^

It usually takes years to develop vaccines. Several drug companies and research labs are trying to develop a vaccine fast. There are some animal tests underway now but I'm not sure if they have the results necessary to start human testing. Like I said this entire process can take years before a vaccine in considered safe and effective. My guess is we will not see an approved vaccine until the summer or fall of 2021.

Mgotri

July 2nd, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^

Well, Moderna and Pfizer are currently in Phase 2 human studies. If either of those show efficacy without any unexpected SAEs, it is entirely reasonable to think that they could be ready for January as they would likely get some kind of accelerated approval path. There’s a bunch of others that are lagging which one of the big companies will start to partner with as the data rolls in to hedge their bets which will help to accelerate widespread distribution. 

Blue Me

July 2nd, 2020 at 9:34 PM ^

Pfizer said they could have enough doses to treat 50M people in September and 500M in 2021. Moderna is still tweaking their PIII trial that should kick off in the next week or two. Moderna is a very small company and will need a lot of help ramping up production as they've never had anything approved.

Speed bumps are normally encountered when mass producing vaccines.

I'm more bullish on Regeron's antibody cocktail that could act as both a therapeutic and a vaccine. They're basically following the same pathway that they did for Ebola -- that treatment will likely be approved as the standard of care soon.

Mgotri

July 3rd, 2020 at 6:51 AM ^

I just saw the Moderna news this morning. It does not seem like a big delay issue. Maybe a month at most.
I wouldn’t call them very small though. They are worth $24 billion and have over 1000 employees (the last two biotechs I worked for had <200 and valued at 50M-2B, those were small companies) Ramping up production is no small matter, but I’m not sure I agree they need a partner. They’re in Boston and just built a production facility. Further there’s plenty of late and commercial phase talent here to put in the supply chain in place in time for approval. 

I think the limiting factor for anyone is going to be just getting enough raw materials to meet production needs and that might be where a partnership could work. Especially if there is a custom material. 
 

 

Blue Me

July 3rd, 2020 at 11:21 AM ^

Don't confuse market cap with the capabilities of the company as the stock has tripled in the last few months.

The fact is that the company has never had a drug approved nor have they manufactured at scale. They don't have an international distribution network in place, either.

A lot of unknowns there.

Blue Me

July 3rd, 2020 at 11:14 AM ^

Two words: monoclonal antibodies.

One word: Regeneron.

They have an expedited PI-PIII trial underway and we should see some data by the end of the month.

Regeneron used the same approach with Ebola and will soon be the standard of care after a successful PIII trial.

Unicycle Firefly

July 2nd, 2020 at 5:57 PM ^

Oh, teams will fake or hide those test results. You think OSU is putting Justin Fields on the bench for the Michigan game because he tested positive and is asymptomatic? We might see a team do it prior to a couple cupcake games to show how compliant they are with testing, but never for a big game.

CFraser

July 2nd, 2020 at 6:22 PM ^

This is an extraordinarily extreme take on: well they fudge the numbers. Yea, they look the other way when a kid pulls up in a new BMW or whatever. Obfuscating a player’s medical diagnosis to play a game is a criminal event and isn’t a real take at this point. Sorry. That’s crazy. You’re going to risk a kid getting severe COVID so he can catch your winning TD? C’mon man. No way. And if they’re that dumb then they deserve the death penalty (NCAA version) they get.

 

edit: not to mention the extremely likely transfer  to everyone else on the field and the liability that comes with that. And that’s all I’ve conceived of. I guarantee that’s a worse idea than I’ve proposed.

Imagine it with HIV and extend the same thoughts to this situation. That’s where we’d be at. No way. 

Unicycle Firefly

July 2nd, 2020 at 9:02 PM ^

Uh, of course that's what I'm saying. Star player sits on the bench, the team loses a big game, coaches lose their jobs. You think they won't talk themselves into putting off quarantine for a week or two in order to win? When players start testing positive, it'll be near impossible to say exactly where/when they got it and who gave it to them.  

diehardwolve

July 2nd, 2020 at 7:11 PM ^

So, we can't do anything till we get a vaccine, BUT experts like yourself (I'm giving you credit here) are saying "I'm out on the vaccine for awhile."

So what's the point?  

Time to return to normal please.  Maybe not throw parties trying to catch the virus intentionally, but life MUST go on.

xtramelanin

July 2nd, 2020 at 6:00 PM ^

yes.

talked to a boatload of college coaches yesterday.   schedules shortened, some teams will play each other twice.  one coach had an insightful comment along the lines of:  throw the starting lineups out the window, referring to kids testing positive and having to sit out.  

Mr Miggle

July 2nd, 2020 at 6:21 PM ^

3 and 4 seem the most likely, but I'm undecided which to rank first.

The PAC-12 commissioner today raised the possibility of playing in the spring. Spring can be an unclear term in this context since what Michigan calls the winter term many schools call the spring term.

Michigan has now tested 322 returning athletes and athletic staff. 3 tested positive. That's encouraging, but I see almost no chance of teams flying across the country for games in September.