The "Corona" Season

Discussion in 'Women's College' started by Eddie K, Mar 10, 2020.

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  1. cpthomas

    cpthomas BigSoccer Supporter

    Portland Thorns
    United States
    Jan 10, 2008
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If the rumor is true and the NCAA decides on no Fall sport championships for the 2020-2021 school year and also decides to leave it up to schools and conferences to do whatever they decide on about Fall play, I will be interested to see what they say about teams being able to play in the Spring if they opt to do that, in terms of practices, numbers of games, and so on.
     
  2. First Time Finish

    Nov 4, 2016
  3. Germans4Allies4

    Jan 9, 2010
    Power 5 admins are no different than NCAA and just as greedy. They will make sure Olympic sports do something for the optics of Football.
     
  4. Gryphons Dad

    Gryphons Dad Member

    California Storm
    Oct 2, 2009
    Club:
    FC Gold Pride
    Nat'l Team:
    Philippines
    Sounds like the football players are sounding concerns now. Like I said before, these kids aren't stupid. When the Pac-12 says they value student athletes first, they are full of it. It's $$$.

    "College football players are being asked to save their sport while enduring worse conditions for no additional incentives. As Pac 12, SEC players have shown this weekend, that plan is bound to collapse."

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...ck-playing-amid-covid-19-pandemic/5566991002/
     
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  5. Collegewhispers

    Collegewhispers Member+

    Oct 27, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew

    I think it’s such a fine line. If they don’t play this fall they may not have a program by 2021. But if they do play they may be risking exposure; although it seems like infections to this age group don’t really cause any symptoms.
     
  6. Gryphons Dad

    Gryphons Dad Member

    California Storm
    Oct 2, 2009
    Club:
    FC Gold Pride
    Nat'l Team:
    Philippines
    Regardless of if you feel symptoms or not, it's dangerous and can cause all kinds of issues. It's very optimistic to think none of these players will catch it.

    My DD just got back to campus and even the coaches (both soccer and football) have no clue what's going on. I think the chips will fall Tuesday. Just have a feeling.
     
  7. Collegewhispers

    Collegewhispers Member+

    Oct 27, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew

    I totally agree they will catch it. Looking at professional athletes around the country, and most of the college athletes who have test positive this summer, there are no symptoms or mild at most. This age group is likely healthy enough to play. I personally believe if you don’t want to play you shouldn’t have to, and the majority that want to play should be allowed. If everything is shut down this year I don’t know if there will be college athletics at all in 2021.

    This Tuesday will be interesting; it seems the power five aren’t willing to give up the fight just yet.
     
  8. Eddie K

    Eddie K Member+

    May 5, 2007
    I keep hearing the "but kids don't get sick" argument so here's a summary and example. (And why no one should probably be playing sports.)

    Let's assume it's likely that young people do not themselves die or have serious symptoms from covid19 (you can assume zero symptoms if you like). We've also learned that what makes this virus so different and terrible is that - it can kill those with vulnerable immune systems or respiratory issues (we've all learned about comorbidity), AND that almost anyone can be infected and not realize it (we've learned about being asymptomatic).

    So, the big risk young people take is not for themselves in many many cases, but for those around them who could be at risk. Why we've learned about why and how to quarantine folks who have it, with or without any symptoms.

    The example below does NOT say that the teenager got the virus playing football or that he was the one who even brought the virus home. BUT - when college athletes or college students start going home after playing or being at school, they could be carrying the virus and not know it, AND will certainly come under lots of scrutiny when folks around them get sick, or worse. The schools and teams and their policies will also come under scrutiny and some have LOTS of assets worth going after in a legal claim.

    The risks for schools then include-
    1- losing students and revenue if you don't fully open or don't play sports (FB bowls esp),
    2- having students contract and spread the virus to vulnerable people- likely staff or family members or maybe their college communities,
    3- the risk of losing assets or defending those assets in legal claims if you do open or play and someone gets very sick or dies.

    I do not mean to demean or diminish this loss at all. It's a shocking tragedy. But how many of these will we have? How many will be linked to sports or dorms or colleges? What if this was a P5 player or draft prospect? or just someone more famous.

    Metro Atlanta high school football player loses both parents to COVID-19 days apart
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/m...th-parents-to-covid-19-days-apart/ar-BB17syp8

     
  9. Cliveworshipper

    Cliveworshipper Member+

    Dec 3, 2006
    They ave no choice but to try. where will the payments on billions of dollars of P5 stadium debt come from? In many states it is illegal to shift sports debt on the public. I know I’m sure not going to pay for Mathew Knight Arena or Austen Stadium. Just the service on the interest for knight arena was $14.5 million last year, of which the Athletic department retired less than $2 million, They going to sell it off for parts?

    and every school is in that boat.
     
  10. Collegewhispers

    Collegewhispers Member+

    Oct 27, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Totally agree with everything you said. However the counter point if there is no football season and no revenue is:

    - thousands of coaches‘ jobs lost
    - thousands of athletes lose their scholarships and cannot afford a college degree because the university can’t afford their scholarship
    - whole athletic departments cease to exist

    I am with you that this virus is real. We need to isolate the vulnerable so they’re protected. A lot of people are going to suffer if college athletics collapses too. We can cancel sports until this pandemic is over. The unfortunate part is most likely there won’t be college athletics anymore at that point and thousands upon thousands of people who wouldn’t be physically affected by it will now have a far more bleak future.
     
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  11. Collegewhispers

    Collegewhispers Member+

    Oct 27, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew

    Correct. Power five coaches I have spoken to have basically been told if they don’t have sports this year a lot of departments will be significantly downsizing, and there is a concern they may even be totally disbanded.

    If this pandemic is bad enough that we need to ruin college athletics as a whole, and screw the economy then we need to do it. But it seems like more people will suffer from this direction. Athletes that both myself and coaches I know who have tested positive haven’t had symptoms except for an occasional mild inconvenience. Hopefully there is a way to allow the healthy to proceed and the vulnerable to be protected. BTW before we get political etc with my MAGA perspective I will add I’m a democrat and won’t vote for Trump. I’m not being political just trying to be realistic.
     
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  12. Gryphons Dad

    Gryphons Dad Member

    California Storm
    Oct 2, 2009
    Club:
    FC Gold Pride
    Nat'l Team:
    Philippines
    So many hypothetical situations to all this. Star WR gets Covid and misses two weeks, WR coach get it and get seriously sick, entire team gets it (like the Florida Marlins) and has to postpone games. I could go on and on with endless bad scenarios. Just the fiasco of having to postpone games and juggle TV schedules at the last minute would cost them mega money. They have to be considering all this, because if it goes bad, it's going to go really bad. Then they are in the same financial situation as if they had cancelled.
     
  13. Collegewhispers

    Collegewhispers Member+

    Oct 27, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew

    I think that’s the hang up right now with the two weeks sitting out. Our baseball coach was saying the same thing about whole teams shutting down because of positive cases. The issue to me is every one of these cases (ok maybe a couple in a few hundred) have no symptoms and aren’t sick, so if these athletes feel great there is an argument to have a season. But we need a way to isolate the vulnerable. Athletes don’t seem to be getting sick from this so maybe we should be looking at ways to allowing them to play?
     
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  14. Cliveworshipper

    Cliveworshipper Member+

    Dec 3, 2006
    #765 Cliveworshipper, Aug 3, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2020
    You have it backwards. The term for somebody with COVID who has no symptoms and is free to enter society is superspreader. It you are going to isolate, those are the ones that need to be isolated, not vulnerable members of society. There is precedent. I’ll let you look up Mary Mallon.

    And The issue is still asking players to shoulder all the health risks without even workman’s comp ( the whole reason the term Student -athlete was coined by the NCAA). Instead, they expect unpaid amateur athletes who are predominantly black to shoulder the risks so administrators who are predominantly white and male can profit.
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...ck-playing-amid-covid-19-pandemic/5566991002/

    the athletes are rightly bringing up this reality and the P5’s have no answer.
     
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  15. Collegewhispers

    Collegewhispers Member+

    Oct 27, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    I think you’re right. The reality is though the athletes may have to choose at some point; do you play the fall season with an extremely low risk of serious side effects from the virus, or do you not play and the whole college athletics system crumbles, and you don’t have a team to play with in 2021 or a scholarship? There is no ideal solution either way but if there is no football season we will see athletics departments go belly up and some athletes who couldn’t afford higher education without a scholarship will no longer have one.
     
  16. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    To: Collegewhispers and Cliveworshipper

    One of the two of you need to get an avatar. Your user names are too similar and don't scan well, esp on a.phone.
     
  17. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Well, if these schools HAVE to play, then they're all just houses of cards. By playing, all we're doing is delaying the reckoning. We ought to be keeping these kids as safe as we.can.
     
  18. Cliveworshipper

    Cliveworshipper Member+

    Dec 3, 2006
    #769 Cliveworshipper, Aug 3, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2020
    if that was actually a path for most players that would certainly be a consideration, but it’s mostly lip service.

    another reality to bump up against is what percent of revenue sport athletes actually get an education.. the GSR in the P5 is pretty pitiful, really.
    For the class that entered school in 2010_2011, Georgia’s federal GSR was 41% for the team. It was lower for black athletes.

    even worse was UConn basketball under Calhoun, which by 2013 had an 8% graduation success rate for years.

    I don’t know, Maybe it’s time to blow it up and start over. The priorities seem backwards. If schools want to run a pro program, let them, but don’t pretend it’s academic so you don’t have to pay players.

    that appears to be where we are headed.
     
  19. cpthomas

    cpthomas BigSoccer Supporter

    Portland Thorns
    United States
    Jan 10, 2008
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It seems to me that posing this as a choice between playing and the whole college athletics system crumbling sets up a false choice. The whole college athletics system is unlikely to crumble if there are no sports for the school year. It is reasonable, however, to think there could be a very big re-thinking and re-structuring of college sports. It also is arguable that would be a good thing over the long term. There would be, however, a lot of short term pain, perhaps to the athletes themselves and very likely to athletics staffs.

    Many feel big-time college sports, in particular football and basketball, have gotten out of control and no longer are really consistent with the educational mission that schools espouse. Maybe it is time to ask seriously if that is true and, if so, to have some major reform. And, maybe something like our current situation is what it will take to get the educational institutions serious. So far, however, I am not hopeful that will happen: When the institutions publish statements about the health and well being of the students being their primary concern, I do not buy it so far as big time college football is concerned -- and so far as Olympic equivalency sports at big time college football schools are concerned.
     
  20. Eddie K

    Eddie K Member+

    May 5, 2007
    #771 Eddie K, Aug 3, 2020
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2020
    That's a good take @cpthomas I am not a P5 insider, but I'd bet one of the biggest problems keeping those big schools from going to a separate BCS/Group of 5 model is actually the money. The NCAA is certainly not going to give them any of their reserve or extend them any credit. So the P5 could create a new SuperD1 level of sports this week and could start it broke. And then have no Fall 2020 season and then go into debt. Maybe there's a bank out there to float them 2Billion or so until the pandemic is over but it could be a case of 'be careful what you wish for'.

    College sports is not going away but clearly could be very very different in 2021 and beyond.
     
  21. cpthomas

    cpthomas BigSoccer Supporter

    Portland Thorns
    United States
    Jan 10, 2008
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    From the NCAA.com website:

    The NCAA Board of Governors met Tuesday with no further announcements regarding how COVID-19 will affect the 2020-21 college sports season.

    [​IMG]
     
  22. Gryphons Dad

    Gryphons Dad Member

    California Storm
    Oct 2, 2009
    Club:
    FC Gold Pride
    Nat'l Team:
    Philippines
    Now that's leadership. Meanwhile the players and coaches are operating in an information blackout. I just spoke with my DD on the phone. Sounds like the coaches know as much as the players right now, which is zero.
     
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  23. Collegewhispers

    Collegewhispers Member+

    Oct 27, 2011
    Club:
    Columbus Crew

    There are coaches in the big ten, SEC, and ACC who are hearing differently. If no fall football season for some of these schools; sports cuts, scholarship cuts, staff cuts, staff furloughs. You may be right CP, but power five admins especially are terrified of no fall as they know they will have to cut all of these opportunities listed above. How college athletics will look coming out the other side of this if we don’t have a fall football season nobody knows for certain.
     
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  24. cpthomas

    cpthomas BigSoccer Supporter

    Portland Thorns
    United States
    Jan 10, 2008
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree completely. The choice may be between no football season and major changes. But, I do not think college sports will be going away. Maybe coming back at a different level than we are used to.

    Plus let us not forget that there are a bunch of D1 schools that do not have football. It can be done, although schools that have created athletics budgets and systems that depend on massive football revenues may suffer greatly.

    Of the possibilities I am most concerned about, staff furloughs and cuts are at the top of the list. A bunch of good people may be hurt.

    All of this, of course, explains why those in authority are having trouble making decisions.
     
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