Okay Now It's Postponed For Real
ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference announced the postponement of the 2020-21 fall sports season, including all regular-season contests and Big Ten Championships and Tournaments, due to ongoing health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This knocks out football, soccer, volleyball, field hockey, and cross country. Notably, basketball and hockey are not yet on the chopping block. They probably will be, but let a man hold on to his hopes of seeing Kent Johnson and Owen Power and all the other super-talented guys in this hockey recruiting class while he can.
There is no content after the jump.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:33 PM ^
Warren has quite the "I-love-me" wall behind him, doesn't he? Every square inch is devoted to framed newspaper articles about him, diplomas, plaques, etc. He's very impressed by himself.
August 11th, 2020 at 3:45 PM ^
So are college sports done until there's a vaccine? I guess I don't see what is going to change between now and whenever that is that would cause athletic departments, university presidents, etc. to feel comfortable with games being played.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:10 PM ^
This is like a free-play hoping for a vaccine. The season can still be played, maybe even with fans, just not in the fall semester.
If there's no vaccine come spring, then they'll have to make a tough decision. But nothing has been lost today, just delayed.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:53 PM ^
There very well could be a vaccine by then, depending on how creatively they define "Spring".
Athletes in baseball and softball already play into June, after classes are done. They could play football in June if they wanted. There are no rules at this point.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:02 PM ^
Yes, I don't see college athletics possible until there is a vaccine. Heck, I don't plan on going back to the office via my train commute until there is a vaccine. Permanent lung and/or heart damage and possibly even death is some serious shit. And the virus contraction comes from random encounters which defines a "normal life" ... mass transit commute, vacation travel, restaurants, movies, theatre, museums, sporting events ... all too high risk situations until there is a vaccine.
August 11th, 2020 at 10:59 PM ^
At the place where we make vaccines, the only people who are working on-site are the process engineers, manufacturing associates and QC labs. That's it. We are taking this all very seriously. There's a good reason for that. People love to scapegoat "liability," but liability is there to protect people from employers who would readily risk the health of their employees. It's not a bad thing, even when it interferes with the football season.
August 12th, 2020 at 8:37 AM ^
Excellent piece on TTB.
At this time a major problem regarding the playing of college football is a reflection of our national conundrum-abysmal leadership at the highest level. If the NCAA had, early on, sat down with the "Michigans" of college athletics and developed a serious plan of action we could have likely had some football this Fall that was quite safe for all. But here, as with our federal government, the can gets (cowardly) kicked down the road and punted to individual entities-to figure out on their own. The federal government and NCAAs are formed for a purpose and when they are derelict of their duties the exasperation and suffering is wide spread. Anarchy is not the solution here but neither is "Oh well".
August 11th, 2020 at 3:48 PM ^
That sucks for guys like Nico that decided to come back for an additional year. I assume they’ll not be playing in the spring, if that even happens.
August 11th, 2020 at 3:53 PM ^
turn out the lights... the party's over (until March, when we'll make a half-assed attempt at turning them back on)..
August 11th, 2020 at 4:02 PM ^
At some point, we're going to have to own this and admit that we as a country are here because we ridiculed and defied leadership on every level to the point where the wise decided to have nothing to do with it. We are left to ourselves.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:08 PM ^
Corona would still be here regardless of who is in charge, we still would have no vaccine, and as a result, no contact sports until then.
They could have done a BIG season if all teams followed the same protocol.
The players are probably safer in the football bubble than out doing whatever with all their newly created free time.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:24 PM ^
NO IT FUCKING WOULDN'T. EBOLA ISN'T STILL HERE. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:00 PM ^
Very, very different transmission mechanisms between Sar-Cov-2 and Ebola.. if you don't understand how that makes comparing them apples and oranges, you're a special kind of stupid.
August 11th, 2020 at 7:59 PM ^
How anyone thought to themselves your post was worth an upvote, as if Ebola and covid are remotely similar viruses, just shows how dumb people are on both sides of the political spectrum. Of course it's no surprising coming from the right, but I've realized on mgoblog and reddit recently just how scientifically illiterate liberals can be while claiming to support sciences and facts.
Obama didn't save the world from Ebola and Trump didn't cause a pandemic. If you think that, you are just dumb as those you rail against. Two sides of the same coin of idiocy.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:15 PM ^
This is mostly a failure of leadership.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:15 PM ^
It is a failure of leadership, but you won't convince me red states would have acted any differently with a Barack or Hillary in office. Suddenly all these idiots who refuse to wear masks and have to protect their freedoms would listen to a liberal telling them what to do?
It's easy to blame it all on the idiot in charge, but in my opinion, the reality is spread since the initial outbreak has been due to a particular brand of anti-science and personal liberty American culture.
August 12th, 2020 at 2:04 AM ^
Plus the infected from China and Europe would have came over to the US to spread the virus even more in the beginning. The progressives were against all the travel bans early on. Testing and isolation of hot spots should have been ramp up early on, you can blame this lack of action on the Trump administration.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:46 PM ^
Wat??...Coach has done a helluva job handling this and laid out in detail why we should be playing in Sept.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:29 PM ^
Hahahaha, I love this argument. So flawed in so many ways I won't even debate it. Yes yes, blame the administration for our current situation. Let's all take a moment, cast judgement on ourselves and repent. That'll do it!
August 11th, 2020 at 11:33 PM ^
"I won't even debate it"
(debates sarcastically and fails)
"See, I told you"
Ah, you sly dog, Chuckie.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:08 PM ^
I will watch closely to see how the SEC, ACC & Big-12 conferences do this fall. Will they succeed or fail? That will make the B1G college presidents fools or geniuses.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:42 PM ^
They will “fail” or “succeed” based on whether you think they will right now. That’s where we are on this unfortunately. Judgement on any outcome is defined by the selective data that validates one’s opinion. Not the other way around.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:17 PM ^
Most teams can't even stop at least one of their players from committing a crime each year. Don't know why anyone thinks that the half-assed-bubble-because-we-cant-have-a-bubble-because-that-means-theyre-employees would work.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:24 PM ^
from now on can we rename OT season, 2020?
August 11th, 2020 at 4:32 PM ^
August 11th, 2020 at 5:39 PM ^
Exactly
Football season: every hour of your day controlled by staff
Off season: limited contact with staff to avoid violations
hmmm, which one is safer?
August 11th, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^
don't try to add logic to this emotional-irrational decision from the "woke" administrators around the country
August 12th, 2020 at 2:17 AM ^
Now the players are going to be more at risk, with more free time to party. At least if they were playing football they would have been tested and received free medical treatment and many young people do not even have symptoms after catching COVID. So the argument of getting Myocarditis will increase if these student athletes have no idea that they had the virus with only mild symptoms. May be devastating for many athletes during next spring or summer camp to find out they have heart damage that went undetected. So fear of lawsuits have trump student athlete safety! Pathetic!!!!
August 11th, 2020 at 4:37 PM ^
JH heading to NFL. No contract. No respect for UM’s President or AD. Financial resources drastically cut.
August 11th, 2020 at 8:28 PM ^
I'm afraid this could be one of the several unintended consequences of this. The reaction from all the coaches seem to indicate they were blindsided by this sudden change in course and not at all happy about it. I imagine the frustration level will grow if/when players start to transfer and recruits decommit.
August 11th, 2020 at 10:44 PM ^
Transfer to where? There is no college football in countries that have this under a modicum of control.
August 12th, 2020 at 2:23 AM ^
I don't blame him. It was huge mistake cancelling the season. They put student athletes health at risk over dealing with possible lawsuits. This one time having a woke president has hurt our university.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:48 PM ^
COVID-19 is serious you cotton headed ninny muggins. We should all just quit everything for six months until the virus dies. (Unless the vaccine arrives.) That will do it.
Oh wait, some of us work in healthcare ... well, until we lose our jobs too.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:55 PM ^
Good, hopefully this is the impetus needed to turn away from athletics and toward dedicated academia.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:09 PM ^
Because I can’t wait to have that academia tailgate.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:34 PM ^
I wish schools would stay in their lane and stop trying to make school about...school
August 11th, 2020 at 9:37 PM ^
The players aren’t going home, right? The great social experiment that is the Fall semester is still on at Michigan, right?
Princeton was going to open, but they have backtracked and cancelled Fall in-person classes. I don’t know about other schools, but I suspect this will be the reality.
August 12th, 2020 at 2:24 AM ^
We can have a major chess tourney at the big house, right on the 50 yard line. I'm sure that will fill the big house.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:10 PM ^
Let's say some or all of the SEC, ACC, and Big XII somehow make it through most or all of a fall football season for 2020. Let's also say spring football never materializes.
I imagine the NCAA will give all teams or players who "opted out" an extra year of eligibility, but what about overall scholarship count? I can't see the NCAA allowing "opt out" teams more scholarships than teams that didn't. Will the NCAA:
A) Reward teams that played in fall 2020 or spring 2021 w/ more scholarships so they aren't "punished" as the NCAA gives the programs that "opted out" of fall 2020/spring 2021 an extra 20 or 25 scholarships so they can accomodate all the players who were forced to involuntarily "opt out" of a season for which they were normally eligible?
Or
B) Will the NCAA refuse to increase the scholarship limits such that the schools that "opted out" of fall 2020/spring 2021 football will have to undergo an absolute roster bloodbath next year by having miniscule 2021 recruiting classes and/or kicking otherwise eligible guys off the team to maintain the 85 scholarship maximum limit?
August 11th, 2020 at 5:33 PM ^
No conference will finish a season this year. Only the SEC is asinine enough to attempt it, and there will be negative repercussions if they do
August 11th, 2020 at 6:00 PM ^
But they might complete more than 5 or 6 games & thus blow a lot of eligibility for their guys. So, just go with me here:
Say a good 15-30 teams end up getting through enough of a season where they've now burned the eligibility of a solid % of their starters. Then the rest of the teams in the FBS either totally "opt out" or only get through 2-3 games before calling it quits, thus preserving redshirts for a lot of the guys.
What happens then?
Does the NCAA:
A) Allow different FBS schools have a different scholarship maximum depending on how many on their roster "opted out" (voluntarily or otherwise) of the entire season and/or played less than 4 games? (The schools that played 4+ games this year will bitch up a storm that it isn't fair).
B) Totally screw teams & individuals who "opted out" (or who didn't compete in 4 or more games) and tell them they just lost a year of eligibility? (The kids who didn't play this year will bitch up a storm).
C) Tell those same kids they still *technically* have eligibility, but not raise the scholarship limit above 85 for anybody, thus forcing teams with a bunch of "opt out" & still eligibile kids to process the hell out of them (and/or the 2021 recruiting class) to stay at 85 scholarships? (The teams who wholesale "opted out" or didn't make it to 4+ games will bitch up a storm).
D) Tell the teams that didn't "opt out" & still played 4+ games in the 2020/21 school year that to keep things "fair" they too get to have extra scholarships for awhile just like the teams. (The teams who wholesale "opted out" or didn't make it to 4+ games will bitch up a storm).
Unless 100% of FBS teams don't make it beyond the 4 game mark this year, there is going to be a situation where some sub-group or other is going to get totally screwed in terms of scholarship #s and/or eligibility.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
So many "doom and gloom'ers" here.... try this... "adapt, improvise, overcome" !!
Play Ball !!
August 13th, 2020 at 1:24 AM ^
oh boy, a self-help aphorism
August 11th, 2020 at 7:13 PM ^
Only time will tell. I have a hunch that the BIG 10 will look stupid in a month or so as things get better and they have nothing going.
August 11th, 2020 at 11:04 PM ^
The ACC and SEC also have attorneys. They're just a little slower than the Big Ten attorneys and probably have a bigger hill to climb.
August 12th, 2020 at 12:21 AM ^
Or....
The SEC & ACC attorneys are just as smart, like the Big Ten & PAC 12 attorneys know where their bread is buttered, but unlike the Big Ten & PAC 12 attorneys, have clients that have a desire for legal justifications for why to proceed with a season versus a desire for legal justifications for why to cancel it.
August 12th, 2020 at 2:29 AM ^
There will be more students at risk being on their own without the supervision, testing and healthcare that the football program would have provide. You really think 18-22 year old are going to sit in their dorms or homes all semester! Not, they will be out partying every weekend spreading the virus all the fuck around. Pathetic that the University has to cancel the season due to the threat of lawsuits and placed that over student health safety.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:26 PM ^
Thank GOD they cancelled cross country. If there was ever a high risk sport for contracting an airborne respiratory disease, this was it.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:48 PM ^
How does a President rationalize bringing students back on campus if they can't get comfortable with sport teams gathering. Most Welcome Week parties at Michigan are like a 200+ person contact sport ... singing, dancing, drinking, hooking-up with boys/girls. The amount of droplets about to be exchanged between students is way higher than among players in any football game. The normal college kid has like zero self discipline and minimal structure away from home. Shit, its college !!!
Good luck Ann Arbor residents if the medical evidence is that dire to cancel fall sports. The spreaders are coming to town ... lock your doors and stay home.
August 12th, 2020 at 2:37 AM ^
And now the football players will be at the welcome parties and house parties during all the weekends through the semester. They will not be tested and many will get the virus and may not have symptoms and may develop Myocarditis. If they were in football camp, they would tested and early treatment could offset serious heart muscle damage. That is why I cannot understand those who say canceling the season will protect the players?
Comments