Agree that time will move quickly. With each week, the odds change and so far there is very little good news. If they haven’t already, the NCAA will likely come up with dates that are the proverbial “last straw”. Don’t want to come across as a minimizer or optimist...the tweeter’s conclusion that there is no way it starts on time is a bit of a stretch for me. He certainly is closer to it based on his job but it still seems a bit presumptive. Would I suggest anyone buy a season ticket package with no refund clause...? Not a good idea. The soccer foreign player and grad transfer market has got to be totally up in the air. All teams and sports will do their best to keep players in training regiments and stay in contact to be as prepared as possible if the window of opportunity opens. It would be interesting to be on the NCAA call to understand the long poles in the tent. I personally don’t think it will be getting football players “ready” for the games. Teams go week to week during the season with injuries, game plans etc Seems there would be the will to play games with very little notice. The lawyers would be the first ones I’d ask, then the facilities people...it may be logistical in terms of stadium staffing, security and stress on police and medical that are bigger issues than the teams or fans themselves not having enough time. Now, D3 or Ivy League...I could see some different perspectives but I have a feeling if they said Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and LSU there would be a “the show must go on...unless they literally make it illegal to do so” feeling. The governors of “football states” will be in tough spots to protect the population but not cancel football. Ironically, those teams tend to play FCS teams early and it may be those FCS teams are more at risk but also heavily dependent upon those games for revenue. After 9/11 people thought nobody would ever play again or no way could people enjoy sports or no team would want to be the first to play. Instead, sports became the first big return to normalcy. A lot of people will want to recreate that scenario (and there are multiple billions of dollars at stake). For me it has almost nothing to do with the sports themselves...I’m hoping there is a season only because it means we got through this. What would I be on the lookout for? What do baseball and soccer do? If they both cancel their entire season, that sends a big message. If they resume prior to the start of football season, that would be a big message too.
Just saw this on the twitter. Not good, Bob. https://goccaa.org/news/2020/5/12/general-ccaa-suspends-ncaa-competition-for-fall-2020.aspx
The Mid American Conference is not having post season for baseball, softball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s lacrosse and field hockey. https://saturdaytradition.com/big-t...ips-regular-season-schedules-due-to-pandemic/
I hope this is the near-end of conference tournaments (at least for soccer). Drop them. Add another game or two to the regular season. Automatic bids to national tournament for regular season winner. These tournament fetishes are absurd. No need for them. There's a regular season for a reason, it should be more valuable than a quick 1-3 match competition.
From a soccer perspective, I agree (although the FA promotion playoffs are very entertaining...). BUT tournaments are an important aspect of the college athletic experience. They allow more teams to play meaningful games deeper into their season. Also, some conferences simply don't play much of a conference season....6, 7, 8 games while half their schedule (or more) is non-conference. Some conferences don't have every team play every other team, or play some teams once and some teams twice. There's a bunch of reasons why tournaments won't go away, but that being said, I'd love to see more conferences switch their automatic bids to the regular season champs.
I'm very familiar with how college conference tournaments work -- I am a former college coach. I never liked them. It's terrible soccer. It's rushed. Injury risks. Postseason risks (injury, cards, etc.). For every "Cinderella story," there are 100 times where there aren't "meaningful games" for the majority in conference tournaments. [Note: the 100 is exaggerated on my part, I know.] I would venture to say that conference tournaments are also a major financial burden to schools, conferences, and whatever may go into them from NCAA.
Sounds like you formerly coached a pretty high level program, which, bad news, most programs in the country are not and they have different priorities (Injuries, I agree there. Slamming 3 games into 4 days or 2 into 2 is awful and some conferences just do it wrong, plain and simple). They want to extend their seasons as long as possible aren't as concerned with the quality of play or card accumulation when it comes to the end. Without a conference tournament, you have 2-3 teams playing meaningful games late in the season (outside of the Big East, ACC, Big Ten, etc.). With a 4-team tournament, you have probably 5-6 teams playing meaningful games. A 6-team tournament probably 8-9 teams fighting for positioning and that last playoff spot. This is more important than the quality of play and means a LOT to the players, coaches, the department, and - in a lot of places - to the college community as a whole. It's something to rally behind in late October/early November when the semester is turning into a grind.
From my biased point of view, thanks to the Raiders' win of their conference tournement, my beloved Jérémie was able to participate to two NCAA championship rounds. Invaluable souvenir! Especially that it was the last college soccer year of my sons' journeys….. And he enjoyed these games and the thrill of winning the finale.
I think this is a common misconception, sorry. Since I've been out of college coaching, I've been able to attend tons of college games. I've been to conference tournament games, I've been to national tournament games. There's a whole lot of "not caring" from the departments and campus communities. Sure coaches and players are typically going to care more, as everyone wants to play. I remember going to national tournament games and there being basically moms and dads in the stands of an $18m soccer stadium. Student section was empty. Standing room only sections were empty. The team just won their first-ever conference tournament too! Shouldn't everyone be excited for the national tournament? Nope. Also, card accumulation is important. Been there, done that. They hate the possibility of losing a player for the tournament, semifinal, final, or even the national tournament.
I think there's still a possibility that that can happen by adding more meaningful games. Teams will schedule opponents who can help them. They'll put more into the regular season instead of the mentality of, "well, we can just win our conference tournament." It will get some of these teams to quit scheduling the cupcake opponents who they beat by 10+ goals -- which I saw more of those games in DI in 2019 than I have in recent years combined!
Having a conference tournament or not will be a nice argument to have. When we have games. For now, it appears there are far more pressing issues for college soccer. Like if it will have a season? How many teams will survive? Will kids still go to school on campus? Here's a realistic look at a potential, but by no means certain, future of academia and if this happens, it will not be good for college sports, especially non-revenue ones. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/05/scott-galloway-future-of-college.html?utm_source=fb
How long as this talk happened though? There were these online schools supposedly revolutionizing higher ed. Trade schools taking over. NCAA running all athletics and being DIV and beyond. None of that has happened. There’s essentially few changes in the educational landscape for many years. Just additions to the classroom setting more than anything. The problem with anything changing from the traditional setting, there’s millions of students (and their families) who still see the university setting as “vital” to growth as a person and life. Go away to college. Learn. Build relationships and networks. Etc. That doesn’t come crashing down anytime soon.
And you didn't even mention the trillions of dollars invested in maintaining the status quo. IMO, that's the biggest hurdle to making any major change in our society as we know it. There's so much mass moving in one direction, it's hard to change its course even if there's a large scale desire to do so. (That's Newton. Thanks, IU Physics.)
With no conference tournaments - good luck keeping your team motivated after losing your 1st two games. For example in the MAAC could you imagine if your 1st two games are Akron and WVU. Season over - kids really have nothing to play for. If you look it happens in the Ivy League every year
^ FIFY. You probably just made a mistake. There is a MAAC conference - the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. It's composed of mostly Catholic schools in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey - Fairfield, Niagara, Marist, Iona, etc. Akron and WVU are in the MAC - the Mid American Conference. In recent years, though, Western Michigan has been more competitive than WVU. At the very least WMU has been as competitive as WVU. That said, your point is well-taken and very valid. Additionally, with such a small conference, there are not many conference games. If Akron has a year like they normally do and not last year's anomaly, they would almost be better off being independent. There are only 6 schools playing in the MAC now - Akron, Western Michigan, WVU, SIUE, Bowling Green, and Northern Illinois. It almost seems as if they could play each other twice in a season in a home and away fashion. Since the league post season has been done away with I think that is a good alternative. I am assuming that at some point we will be back to "normalcy" and can have a full season. If the elimination of the conference tournament is a permanent thing playing each team in the conference twice in a season should be a serious consideration.
This is part of the problem. The regular season has no value. All the value is put into a "second chance." As I said earlier, it's a simple fetish with postseason play. "I need another chance to win, since I couldn't do it earlier." If you are in the MAC and couldn't finish top 1-2 in the conference, then you don't deserve to play in the national tournament. Simple as that. A conference should want the best to represent them, not the "best" from a 1-3 game tournament. Same goes for something like the Big 10, why should a 1-6-1 Rutgers or Ohio State get the chance to continue to represent the conference? That is a joke. Wisconsin at 1-4-3, no. Michigan State won 3 games all season, all in conference. They do not deserve to play postseason.
Since we mentioned the MAC and Akron, this is notable and probably a reslt of lost revenue - https://gozips.com/news/2020/5/14/general-redesigning-the-univeristy-of-akron-athletics-update.aspx The Zips have eliminated men's XC, men's golf, and women's tennis. It's hard to imagine that those three sports wold significantly affect the athletic budget but the Akron AD claims that "the elimination of these sports, along with salary reductions for select coaches, staff position eliminations, scholarship and operating reductions will total approximately $4.4 million." I do know that the track and XC programs at Akron have a lot of tradition and are usually among the best in the MAC so this is not good.
Another trash move. Their overall athletic budget is $33 million. Any bets that their athletic budget doesn't go down to $29 million or below for 2020-21 and beyond? I mean, maybe for this next year due to unknown of COVID-19, sure that's a possibility.
A-10 m/w make some adjustments in schedule (-25%) and tourny (-50%). https://www.nesoccerjournal.com/a-1...edule-due-to-covid-19-pandemic-what-it-means/
Men's soccer survived the ax at Furman, which instead is dropping baseball and men's lacrosse. I guess producing a trio of Best XI/USMNT players, two of whom played in the World Cup, buys you some wiggle room. But non-revs are being dropped left and right - Bowling Green baseball, which has produced a couple of all-stars in Orel Hershiser and Roger McDowell, was cut last week to go with Cincinnati men's soccer and Old Dominion wrestling, among others. I imagine we'll see more men's soccer programs among the cuts.
Showing the love for teammates, Jonathan Leathers and Shea Salinas.... LOL... Dempsey and ???? Clark? Nope that doesn't sound right.
Ricardo Clark - 34 caps, 2010 World Cup, 2006 Best XI Clint Dempsey - 141 caps, 2006, 10, 14 World Cups, 2005, 06 Best XI Walker Zimmerman - 12 caps, 2019 Best XI Shea Salinas should get a lifetime achievement award.
Will give teams the opportunity to play teams closer. The conference schedule is cut but not full schedule.
https://www.frontrowsoccer.com/2020...te-cuts-mens-soccer-due-to-covid-19-pandemic/ Appalachian State cuts men’s soccer May 26, 2020