It is true that the conferences monitor what the NCAA is thinking. It also is true that the NCAA has not told conferences that the NCAA regular soccer season is going to be in the Spring. It is possible that is what will happen, but there have been no assurances. The conferences that are not playing in the Fall, which are saying they may play in the Spring, are not saying specifically what they will be doing in the Spring, if anything, because they know they do not know what they will be allowed or able to do. I do not bet, but if I were forced to bet at this point, I would say the NCAA season is going to be in the Fall. For conferences that elect not to play in the Fall, it is possible they will get a waiver to play extra games in the Spring but it also is possible they will not. (I suspect a good number of ADs would be very happy for the NCAA not to allow extra games in the Spring, and absent a groundswell of support for more games in the Spring, I think the NCAA is unlikely to allow it.)
One thing to consider is that the NCAA already cancelled a season without blinking and without rescheduling the Spring sports and especially the final four, where their own paycheck is.
I have trouble understanding why the ACC is effectively playing close to a normal football schedule--10 league games--but limiting soccer and volleyball to six conference games. Why? What's the logic in limiting soccer and volleyball to six matches when at least 9 teams, maybe 10, are within either easy or reasonably driving distance? ACC says schools can schedule additional soccer/volleyball conference games--but they won't count in standings, as I read it, so they'd effectively be exhibition games. How are you going to have a legitimate 4-team conference tournament when you've only got 6 conference games. Seems dumb.
I could see the season beginning on a ‘conference only play’ but as soon as a third of the teams can’t play because of outbreaks and self-isolating, there won’t even be an NCAA tournament as they will need to cancel. I think for the time being caution is perhaps the best option but at some point decisions will need to be made between protecting the vulnerable from the virus, and millions of people not having jobs or being able to afford their rent, mortgage, car payment etc. Not a fun time.
Given that the ACC has 14 teams, it appears they are splitting into two divisions of 7 teams each, with a round robin within each division. Then, the top 2 teams from each division will go to the conference tournament. Another post asked whether players would be willing to play if there only will be 6 games. The teams, however, are not limited to 6 games. They can play non-conference games -- against true non-conference teams as well as against teams from the other ACC division (or even against teams from their own division). If they create a north and a south division, it could be: North: Boston College, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, and Virginia Tech South: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest Alternatively, they could go with their current divisional split that attempts to balance the strength of the two divisions.
Sounds like a logical concept to quasi-isolate potential super-spreaders in society. I know there can be many counter arguments to that approach, some of which you already noted. I still like the out of the box thinking. I believe it is always good to wrestle with ideas beyond our current line of thinking.
I agree it's interesting to consider putting all the young folks in a bubble and how that might reduced community spread. Athletes will be trying to do exactly that but there aren't many colleges that have good contained campuses for all students. I may have said earlier some small remote privates or certainly military academies with gated entrances and already secure facilities should be better able to handle a pandemic and will be interesting to observe. But think about most p5 campuses? They're mainly the ones still planning to play. Thousands of students with private rental leases are ready to move in right now. What happens to towns like Stillwater, College Station, Auburn, Blacksburg, Morgantown, State College, etc etc. when thousands of college kids show up from around the country? I guess we are about to find out. (remember recently UW tested 1400 students and found nearly 10% infected but asymptomatic.) Talk about town-gown issues! These towns hate it when stupid drunk kids fill up their jails and hospitals on the weekends. Wonder what the local cops and health care folks are saying now in these big college towns? Mostly, I bet it is a version of "you need to take care of your kids on your campus". Some will struggle to do that.
Pac-12 approves 2020 football schedule & plans for fall sports https://pac-12.com/article/2020/07/31/pac-12-approves-2020-football-schedule-plans-fall-sports Men’s & women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, and men’s & women’s cross-country The Pac-12 CEO Group also approved Conference-only scheduling plans for men’s & women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, and men’s & women’s cross country, with competition to start no earlier than the weekend of September 26. The first permissible date of practice for these Conference-sponsored sports will be August 15. In all cases the Conference-only schedules to be developed will be designed to support health and safety, and maximize flexibility.
Heard this from a power 5 volleyball coach. NCAA board of governors will cancel all fall championships on Tuesday. The Power 5 schools will move forward with a power 5 championship. As she told me, football has to play and we will too.
so would this mean the season wouldn’t be moved to the spring? Fall sports just wouldn’t play till next August except for power five?
It would mean that schools and conferences will have the flexibility to make individual decisions but that the NCAA will not be holding a national tournament. I think the justification is likely to be that they didn’t move them for spring sports and the logistical challenges, and I think both of those are true but that the real reason is a loss of revenue from not having March Madness.
It's at least a little clarity for the season. For the football programs, athletes and fans of those schools who compete in the FBS, but are NOT in the Power 5, does this leaves them out? Will the Group of Five schools and Notre Dame and BYU have the option of being included in the "Power 5" 2020 Football season and championship? I wonder if the NCAA will address this with revenue share earned from this season to those programs in FBS but not included in the football season with the rest of the FBS / Power 5 schools?
All around disaster. The NCAA tournament is the big prize for many of these players. This sounds like it's going to be a glorified Spring season with scrimmages played in empty stadiums. What's the point? There is no revenue from women soccer. I feel bad for the seniors who will waste their last year of eligibility on a half-assed season.
This would be a bold move by the power 5. It could be essentially a separation from the rest of D1 in all sports but basketball. Covid just moved up the time line of the ultimate plan.
The point is that it’s better than nothing. I’m sure many players will red-shirt, but not everyone. Given the landscape of COVID across the country, at this point I think a glorified spring season is a win. Playing for a conference championship, if possible is still meaningful. Does not playing for a shot at the NCAA tournament/National Championship take some of the air out of it? Sure, but the same can be said for professional athletes not playing in front of thousands of fans. Honestly just getting to be back on the field and being around the game is enough for me at this point. Not to mention the fact that more cuts are coming. I think AD’s and presidents are waiting to find out just how much FB, tuition, housing, and auxiliary revenue is going to be lost.
Ah. Here all along I'd been thinking that coronavirus was an election year plot to help the Dems take down Trump. It was really those SEC football boosters who wanted to be shed of the NCAA and create their own professional league. Pretty sneaky.
What a joke this country has become. Six months of this BS and the virus is still wreaking havoc. Nobody can agree on anything--bunch of red-state fools; nobody knows what they hell they are doing. The whole thing has been the most ridiculous clusterf--k in our lifetime. Fully 80 percent of the infections are said to be mild or asymptomatic--and yet countries/economies/human lives around the world have been thrown into turmoil. Let's not even talk about how yet another pandemic got started in China.....Crazy, crazy, crazy.
One thing I've had some time to appreciate during this pandemic is how funny people can be. Sometimes it's intentional, sometimes it's not But I've been looking at loads more social media stuff for sure and been able to laugh a lot. Just search #covidiot I think we had this long discussion here long ago about the FBS. They should have left the NCAA when it was possible years ago and done a separate Football regionalized set up and could have avoided this entire D1 conference shuffle for everyone else. Now, folks are realizing while it's been fun to tag along and fly around the country and get a nice beautiful stadium and Nike everything for your soccer team...it's looking like the party could be over. The potential for big changes grows every week we don't have control of this virus and the likely outcome is a whole lot less money spent on all of college sports.
Lost in the news about the virus sweeping through the Marlins was the Washington Post's Dave Sheinin reporting that Washington Nationals overwhelmingly voted NOT to travel to Miami to play the games, citing the spiking of cases in Florida in general, and Miami in particular. On Monday, Nationals players voted overwhelming not to travel there for a series this weekend, but the series was eventually postponed because of the Marlins’ outbreak. That link leads to this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...-apparent-coronavirus-outbreak-among-players/ Now, in reading that article, I don't see any mention of the team vote, but it would seem a strange thing for a professional reporter to just make up, so I am going to presume that Sheinin is accurately reporting on the vote. On the football side of things, 8 players from the New England Patriots have decided to sit out the season. These are professional players. Power 5 college football appears to be heading full steam into playing, only their players simply do not have the agency that a professional athlete has. Certainly the pros are older and many have families to think about, and I know that 21 year-olds think that they are invincible, but I have to think that if pros are having these kinds of reservations than the "kids" will too. Yeah, these kids are adults, but if something goes wrong, someone dies, someone develops life-long debilitations, the universities are going to open themselves to a world of lawsuits. If schools feel they have to play football because they have too many bills to not to, well, then they can't afford the lawsuits that inevitably come. Some feel that if we don't play, that college sports will never be the same. I've come to the opinion that if we do play, it's going to wreck college sports.
Val1 I couldn’t access your Washington post link because of paywall. The below discusses how one Marlins player has mild symptoms and the rest are fine. Why should pro sports be shut down if the athletes are healthy and they can be isolated to their own rosters and the teams they play? Seems like there is almost no risk, or even zero risk for professionals just now. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cb...bble-plan-for-2020-season-is-a-good-idea/amp/