Ironic, isn't it? The ones that are screaming the loudest and complaining the most about shutdowns and restrictions are the ones that have caused most of it as a result of their stupidity and "don't tread on me" attitude. My businesses have lost millions of dollars due to all of this. I am furious about all of the restrictions have caused harm to my businesses and others. I'm not angry at the governments that are issuing the restrictions, though, because they are necessary, I'm angry at the morons that have caused us to go down this road to begin with. If "adults" were not petulant and were smart about all of this, there would not be the necessary government intervention that we're experiencing now. The offenders are too stupid to realize that. I'm losing my patience with the idiots. I'm tired of the restrictions that they have caused, I'm tired of not being able to hug my parents, I'm tired of wearing a mask when I'm out in public and taking a flight, I'm tired of conducting business via Zoom and not shaking hands with business associates, and I'm tired of it all. I know, though, that it will pass and we will eventually be in a better place. Therefore, I'm willing to sacrifice now for the future. I wish that more people weren't so weak and were able to do likewise. I actually called someone out while I was in a store the other day. Some moron wasn't wearing a mask and was getting close to people and being all loud. He was itching for someone to say something to him so I eventually did. I told him to back off from me. He started getting closer to me and I said "if you keep it up, we're going to dance." He got the hint and stepped off.
I agree. It’s maddening. And the loudest and most obnoxious complainers are the most ignorant stomping their feet about liberty and ‘Murica. The most insane thing, to me, is that if we did a strict 14 day lockdown. Nothing except grocery stores and essential services open. No travel. Nothing. We could end it. But america won’t go for it. We are so far into idiot land that people legit wouldn’t do it. So we limp along letting the uneducated simpletons dictate policy as our dead pile up with no end or change in sight.
We are certainly not doing well, and there are many morons out there for sure, but to say it’s an American thing is way off though. Most high populated countries are having issues. Many in Europe that we were all told should be following are now shutting down again. It’s not an American issue, but a global humanity issue. Don’t think we are better than others, but no need to think we are worse than others either
The news is not any better folks. All the covid metrics in my area are very elevated. Nearing the highs from back in April/May in the mid-atlantic region. Colleges that planned to be done their semester by Thanksgiving look like they made a good decision. Many are worried about kids coming home, but others are worried about them coming back to their college town. Tonight (wed before Thanksgiving) is always a big 'home town' party night. Everyone is watching basketball with a hopeful eye toward the spring semester and spring sports, and spring soccer. Soccer is now considered "intermediate" risk by the NCAA protocols and so the decision to play might be separate from basketball (high risk). The point is, "high risk" basketball requires the most testing and virus mitigation measures. So, if they can't pull it off with 3 tests per week, it does not bode well for spring semester sports. As many will have to at least start training indoors in about 1/3 of the country. Here's a summary I found from Monday. More announcements since then I'm sure. Big time programs canceling already and some big name coaches contracting the virus. Hope and pray none of these older potentially at-risk folks get sick. https://sports.yahoo.com/college-ba...ns-problems-rick-barnes-baylor-201553209.html
Regarding the upcoming NWSL draft: National Women’s Soccer League Blanket Waiver Approved, December 15, 2020 The NCAA Division I Committee for Legislative Relief approved a blanket waiver to allow Division I women’s soccer student-athletes to enter the National Women’s Soccer League’s draft (and potentially be drafted), while maintaining collegiate eligibility to compete during the 2021 spring championship segment. In granting this request, the committee noted: This is a one-time request for the 2020-21 academic year only; The blanket waiver does not permit a student-athlete to sign with an agent or an agreement to join a team, if drafted; Any use of a student-athletes name, image or likeness by the professional league must be informational in nature; The unique and extenuating circumstances associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the pandemic on the 2020-21 soccer playing season; and The NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Experience Committee supported the waiver request. See Case No. 1115007 in Requests/Self-Reports Online via the search tab. Additional information regarding blanket waivers can be found on the Division I Committee for Legislative Relief homepage. [References: NCAA Division I Bylaws 12.1.2 (amateur status) and 12.2.4.2 (draft list)]
I've seen a few concerning things recently that are not good signs. Of course, the virus metrics are through the roof. Nationally and in many regions/states, records are being broken, hospitals are full, and the holiday period (combined with winter temps) could be very bad. The 7-day daily average death toll is over 2,500 per day in the US and still trending upward. Higher than in April. Many college towns are afraid to bring students back after the holiday. Without students on campus, you don't have sports. Funny that basketball players have always spent the holidays on an empty campus and in hotels and they could continue that for some time. Many schools will not be bringing kids back just for Spring sports, or fall sports in the Spring, without classes and the dorms fully open. The 2 clips below are from the Chronicle this week. Today they have a major story entitled "Are College Kids Killing Townies?" but behind their paywall. I'm not fully endorsing the NYT reporting on this but there is no question that in some college towns, college kids are a significant cause of spread in the community. And even if they might not be, they are being blamed for it. Example below shows that some in PA are encouraging all their schools to delay. So, while the basketball campus 'bubble' may continue, other students/athletes may not come back. Ironically, other students not returning may help basketball complete their season. So many tradeoffs. I'm also afraid many ADs will just start to think essentially, "the vaccine is only weeks away at this point so why spend all this money forcing a spring season? Let's just wait and plan for a normal Fall 21". Esp when they start to look at their remaining budget for the fiscal year. If schools don't open on time for the Spring semester, then no or less housing/board revenue, and then fall sports in the spring are toast in many places - imho. Pennsylvania Urges Colleges to Consider Delaying Students’ Return Two state agencies in Pennsylvania on Wednesday urged colleges to think about delaying students’ return to campuses for the spring semester, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The state’s education and health departments released a joint statement warning that Covid-19 hospitalizations could peak in January or February, and that colleges could act to help decrease transmission of the virus. “Colleges and universities play a critical role in mitigating the spread of Covid-19 and creating safe learning environments for students,” said Noe Ortega, Pennsylvania’s acting education secretary. “By delaying students’ return to campus, our institutions of higher learning can help slow the spread of the virus, help businesses to remain open, and protect regional health-care systems.” —Andy Thomason Campus Cases Near 400,000 as College Towns Suffer Devastating Human Toll American campuses have tallied nearly 400,000 cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to new data collected by The New York Times. More than 85 colleges have reported at least 1,000 cases each, the Times reported, with some logging well over 5,000. More than 75,000 of the cases have cropped up since early November. Perhaps more concerning than the sheer case volume, however, is the off-campus spread. The Times reported on Saturday that, according to an analysis of more than 200 counties with substantial college-student populations, their overall Covid-19 deaths have risen faster than elsewhere in the country. Deaths in those counties have doubled since the end of August, compared with a 58-percent increase elsewhere. Public-health experts long warned that the mass migration of college students back to campuses in August could result in dangerous levels of transmission to vulnerable people who live in those communities. The Times analysis suggests that that scenario — what one university spokesman called “our biggest fear” — came to pass, at least in some areas. —Andy Thomason
They played football and not other fall sports. Basketball playing isn’t the driver behind soccer playing.
Something to be aware of, for the Fall 2021 season, is that it probably is not going to look like traditional seasons. A good number of schools are going to be on reduced budgets which means, if nothing else, that travel for non-conference games may be much more restricted than in the past.
But, how can they justify not playing outdoor sports this spring when they are playing a lot of indoor games in a contact sport? What reason will they give? And, I suspect Title IX could be at play if they give more opportunities to the men under the same Covid conditions.
You can get to a lot of colleges with a bus ride of 1 to 4/5 hours, which would not be much of an expense, at all. But, yea, I doubt there will be any/many airplane trips for non-conference games.
I agree: I can't imagine why soccer can't be played in the spring by everyone assuming testing continues. Basketball games are being played now--and yet some conferences don't think it's wise to play an outdoor sport in 2/3 months, whenever the spring season would start? Crazy. How many Covid problems were there during the fall season? I can't remember any at all, really. There is cautious and then there is being over-cautious. I also think all public school teachers and administrative staff--high schools, colleges, state universities, community colleges--should be at the top of the vaccination priority list. After medical personnel and senior citizens/senior centers, yes, but high on the list. It's vital to get kids back in school.
If you are a college athletics supporter then you absolutely want March Madness to occur. $600 million of that NCAA $ goes to the colleges and conferences; last year with the cancellation that $ went down to $225 million which obviously was a huge blow. I don’t see how the NCAA (and a lot of athletics programs) can operate if that cancellation were to happen again. They need to do whatever they need for March Madness to happen and include testing as much as needed for basketball. As for the spring I don’t see why we need to play soccer or lacrosse this year. Sorry to say that (and like everyone here I’m a soccer fan). But there is no benefit with all the risk, plus no financial incentive to play at an institutional level. It would suck for these kids to not play for over a year, of course. But there aren’t many gains when weighed in with the real risks and financial obstacles of testing. I say take the spring off, get everyone vaccinated, and then get back to summer recruiting and a normally functioning fall season (with financial limitations for the next 1-3 years to make up for the 2020 March Madness shortfall).
So far, it looks like the Spring season will occur. Teams are in the process of doing their non-conference scheduling and are expecting it will happen. Only two conferences have cancelled for the 20-21 year -- Ivy and Big West -- and neither of those is a big surprise. And, as the weeks proceed more conferences are announcing plans to play and none that have announced plans to play have backed out -- so far. Before we get all excited, I think we should wait a while and see what happens.
It is not your eligibility at issue. And, don't tell me they are getting an extra year because not everyone has that available in their schedules. We all know basketball brings in money. But, how do you from a PR standpoint say we cannot play spring sports but we played fall football and winter indoor basketball? And, what is the risk of outdoor transmission of the virus? I have yet to see a single report of the virus being spread during competition. In fact 45 states are competing in youth sports right now.
A few things are in play here. I don't think an evaluation of gender equity is. WBB is running along with MBB and there's also swimming, ice hockey running some places for both genders. If you saw a school start soccer for men but not women or baseball but not softball, you'd have an issue but that's not likely to happen. My earlier post was making the point that virus conditions in college towns and counties are the big deal now. Much bigger than how the school is handling teams and athletes day to day. Another insidious aspect of this is that schools are not all publishing how many total athletes are positives as a proportion of their total cases. That number could be large and disproportionate. Not because soccer or any activity is the cause but because athletes live, eat, and uh oh, even sleep together. So, if our college town surged in cases when the college kids came back in the Fall, and the athletic teams are a major source of virus spread....then....athletes at the college are a reason old people are dying in our town. Esp now that most people are indoors and virus conditions are much worse. That's the logic of the Chronicle article I cited. Ironically, empty campuses and college towns will help the basketball season finish. So will 'herd immunity'. I think Sampson at Houston is the first coach to publicly state that his players have now all had the virus. This will come out for more and more BB teams. There is a situation setting up for the Spring semester where schools may not open dorms and stay virtual and so may not have student-athletes even in town, BUT the basketball season will still be finishing in the 'bubble' they created over the break. I would bet right now, some AD's are hoping for that scenario as I also mentioned how AD's are looking at their budgets and the vaccine timeline and will just calculate spring semester sports are not worth it. School Presidents also weighing the cost/benefit of in-person classes in Spring vs waiting for the Fall. Many individual athletes will be making the same calculation. Obviously, many colleges will open for the Spring semester no matter what the conditions (Purdue) but in some college towns, the locals are very anxious (UNC, Wisconsin, CA, PA, Michigan and Boston schools). Of course in SEC country, anything goes.
But how do these same President's justify playing winter sports, indoors, while making an announcement that outdoor spring sports will not happen? Especially when we are likely at a peak with the virus now that will go down in the spring.
I have a feeling we are all about to find out. For a lot of schools, it's not going to be about comparing indoor vs outdoor or high vs low risk sports. "restarting for spring sports" or "returning athletes to campus" is going to be a different decision than continuing winter sports. Many of these winter sports athletes live in hotels for the holidays and campus break and would benefit from an empty campus in Jan-Feb (from a covid perspective). "It is what it is"
The other difference is men’s/women’s basketball are making legitimate money for a lot of these small athletic departments in terms of guarantee games. It’s already been alluded to the NCAA Tournament being imperative, but for many small schools making money in the non conference schedule is also of vital importance. FAR more important than playing soccer and volleyball, etc. That said, I believe *most* of the division 1 world will play women’s soccer this spring. I don’t expect any other conferences to have sudden announcements of cancellations. I do think you will see more D2/d3s cancel, especially in the west, northeast, and Midwest.
They don’t have to justify it. How do they justify shoving the soccers in the fall with 10 days to prepare and 2 games on a weekend when it’s universally agreed on to be terrible for athletes? How do they justify paying to send cheer teams to bowl games while other sports struggle to have full staffs? How do they justify allowing charter flights for basketballs when other teams are told to bus or not schedule away games? How do they justify paying for summer school for some sports but not others? How do they justify having basketballs have a staff of 8-10 people when Olympic sports have 3? If it’s not financially worth it and the covid metrics stay where they are spring soccer will get pulled. The dead period was extended in large part not to have recruits on campus this winter and/or have coaches come back to campus from out of town and jeopardize men’s basketball. No justification needed. This is not an equal equation.
upprv no need to attack here. I understand the financial aspect of it. But, I also see presidents looking like hypocrites if they announce a cancellation of spring sports anytime soon. Especially when football got through the fall without any serious illnesses. The case numbers will go down as the weather gets better. They cannot issue a press release saying we are cancelling spring sports while they are in the middle of playing winter indoor sports at the height of the pandemic. Anyone with any PR background would advise them otherwise.
PR has nothing to do with it. They don’t care how it looks. The optics don’t factor in to the equation. the pac 12 offered football and no other fall sports and did you hear a word about optics? Basketballs can schedule out of conference games on the fly and that freedom won’t be given to other sports. Will we hear a word about PR? if you break down decisions made by presidents and AD the optics wouldn’t hold up 75% of the time. It just doesn’t matter. Money matters. And who exactly is holding their feet to the fire to fulfill the PR goal? Did you hear one reporter ask a Big 10 or Pac 12 AD why their football teams were playing but not their soccer? Why would they worry about optics when no one, aside from the team and parents care?