Will There Be a 2020 Football Season?

[Undone]

I'm convinced we don't want to do the hard work to think about long term. If we took 6 weeks and stopped everyone in their tracks to drive down transmission we could bring cases to a far lower level. In that time frame we could work hard to set up testing and tracing systems, produce more ppe for everyone in the country, create clear guidelines for transitioning back to a semi normal state. At that point you can focus on surveillance and containment of smaller scale outbreaks while the rest of society starts to move back into full swing. This balancing act should be able to be maintained until a vaccine is created. To me our response has been very confusing. Seems to me the fastest way back to normal is massive action, not half a$$ suggestions. 

And just so that I don't get quoted a bunch of times with people thinking the worst in some of these questions I'm asking, I agree with you.

A six week hardcore quarantine would drastically squash and/or eliminate cases. I want to make it clear that I'm not saying that isn't true.

 

[FrantzHardySwag]

I feel like we can acknowledge both realities. This virus is a dangerous public health crisis, we will need to take precautions like: mask wearing, social distancing, not packing into large crowds. But at the same time acknowledge that players will probably be better off with frequent testing, team docs, a structured schedule, a structured environment in general. If done the correct way, I don't see a reason not to at least give it a go. You would have to guarantee scholarships for players that opt out, you would have to have waivers for players who decide to play, you would have to have an iron clad testing strategy, and an iron clad strategy for quarantine and return to play. It seems a little silly that the players and coaches would be taking 100% of the risk, but seem to be involved with 0% of the decision making.

 

[Cdog923]

I wonder what percentage of the population in Italy contracted actually the virus. Could it have started to burn out at some point in time? I understand they are also practicing social distancing but it could be the combination of the two (high exposure rate and social distancing).

Yea, I don't know; it's an interesting question to ask. Given the wide variety of severity that this hits with, coupled with the seeming lack of herd immunity, it's probably hard to tell. 

And just so that I don't get quoted a bunch of times with people thinking the worst in some of these questions I'm asking, I agree with you.

A six week hardcore quarantine would drastically squash and/or eliminate cases. I want to make it clear that I'm not saying that isn't true.

It should have been done when the country shut down in March; we would not be anywhere near the position we are currently in. 

 

[Nebfanatic]

And just so that I don't get quoted a bunch of times with people thinking the worst in some of these questions I'm asking, I agree with you.

A six week hardcore quarantine would drastically squash and/or eliminate cases. I want to make it clear that I'm not saying that isn't true.

But what you seem to be saying is people aren't thinking about the fact that this is here and will be here likely a year from now. I don't think that is true, but I do think we realize unless we focus on the short term we are headed for the worst possible outcome long term. I think you confuse the focus on the short term with only thinking about the short term. Imo this focus on what we need to do now is because people are thinking long term and thinking about what we can do create a better outcome. 

 

[Danny Bateman]

I wholeheartedly agree with your second and third paragraphs, though. We are dangerously short-sighted with this at the moment, to the point where, if you want Husker basketball, you'd better hope legit, logical steps get taken now, or we're going to be having this same type of conversation in mid-November. 

Unfortunately much of our society operates pretty exclusively on short-term gratification and can't be bothered to focus on long-term effects, including many in leadership positions.

When we ping-pong back and forth between short-term fixes and bandaids willy nilly, it's no wonder we haven't even begun to seriously make any progress towards getting back to normal yet.

I'm convinced we don't want to do the hard work to think about long term. If we took 6 weeks and stopped everyone in their tracks to drive down transmission we could bring cases to a far lower level. In that time frame we could work hard to set up testing and tracing systems, produce more ppe for everyone in the country, create clear guidelines for transitioning back to a semi normal state. At that point you can focus on surveillance and containment of smaller scale outbreaks while the rest of society starts to move back into full swing. This balancing act should be able to be maintained until a vaccine is created. To me our response has been very confusing. Seems to me the fastest way back to normal is massive action, not half a$$ suggestions. 

The balancing act is very odd. Again, all about short-term gratification and just slapping a band-aid on stuff. I read an article on this recently and basically any serious ramping-up of testing is being left to a private organization of doctors and epidemiologists working together to try to create and meet progressive testing benchmarks.

Without a lot more buy-in, they are perpetually swimming upstream. There's just not enough support to ramp up testing and tracing as a bridge to a vaccine, certainly not in Nebraska. And isn't the problem with herd immunity the massive amount of transmission and new cases/deaths that have to occur before it has a substantial impact? Like the U.K. and Sweden were attempting or considering herd immunity-centric plans but ultimately scrapped them as the trade offs just weren't worth it.

Anyway, yeah, this all sucks. I wish we had approached things differently as a society, but we didn't and now we all pay for it with our football.

 

[Cdog923]

I feel like we can acknowledge both realities. This virus is a dangerous public health crisis, we will need to take precautions like: mask wearing, social distancing, not packing into large crowds. But at the same time acknowledge that players will probably be better off with frequent testing, team docs, a structured schedule, a structured environment in general. If done the correct way, I don't see a reason not to at least give it a go. You would have to guarantee scholarships for players that opt out, you would have to have waivers for players who decide to play, you would have to have an iron clad testing strategy, and an iron clad strategy for quarantine and return to play. It seems a little silly that the players and coaches would be taking 100% of the risk, but seem to be involved with 0% of the decision making.

I would bet all of the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that the thing pivoting talk of cancelling the season is less to do with Covid-19, and much, much more to do with the push for college athletes to unionize. 

 

[runningblind]

I would be all of the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that the thing pivoting talk of cancelling the season is less to do with Covid-19, and much, much more to do with the push for college athletes to unionize. 

Hey now, you are getting way to close to the truth here.

I WISH they would just give the finger to the NCAA, form a Power 5 league, start paying players and collectively bargain with a new players union.  Make it a true minor league using giant universities who stand to gain a whole lot of revenue by being a part of this.  The rest of the colleges can have amateur leagues/championships etc. still.

 

[Nebfanatic]

Yea, I don't know; it's an interesting question to ask. Given the wide variety of severity that this hits with, coupled with the seeming lack of herd immunity, it's probably hard to tell. 

It should have been done when the country shut down in March; we would not be anywhere near the position we are currently in. 

This is what is so frustrating. If we would have just handled it the first time how we should have, we wouldn't have to be talking about this. We may be talking about how many fans are going to be there, but we would without a doubt have football and it wouldn't even be in question I think. 

 

[Danny Bateman]

I mean isn't the NCAA screwed either way re: unionization?

Seems to me like we're hurtling towards a players union either way and whatever decision they make regarding the season is going to tick players off somehow.

 

[Cdog923]

I mean isn't the NCAA screwed either way re: unionization?

Seems to me like we're hurtling towards a players union either way and whatever decision they make regarding the season is going to tick players off somehow.

Yep. Cancelling the season and blaming Covid is a way to cover up what essentially would be a lock-out. 

 

[Farms]

And just so that I don't get quoted a bunch of times with people thinking the worst in some of these questions I'm asking, I agree with you.

A six week hardcore quarantine would drastically squash and/or eliminate cases. I want to make it clear that I'm not saying that isn't true.

 Didn't we already do this??

 

[Danny Bateman]

This is what is so frustrating. If we would have just handled it the first time how we should have, we wouldn't have to be talking about this. We may be talking about how many fans are going to be there, but we would without a doubt have football and it wouldn't even be in question I think. 

Again, band-aids and half-measures every step of the way got us here.

But the frustration component being discussed is also very real. Everyone is frustrated; politically, economically, socially, privately and lots of other ways. But I don't believe just because we're all so frustrated with the situation at this point means we should just throw the towel in, throw caution to the wind, accept any casualties and try to return to life like nothing we do matters anyway. Nihilism is dangerous right now.

 

[JJ Husker]

Since early July I've been saying I believed there was maybe only a 5%-10% chance of the season happening. So I agree that in that respect, I didn't expect to play a single game.

But when they released the schedules I really didn't expect that to be some kind of smoke & mirrors thing. And maybe it wasn't, and maybe something else came up in the past few days that we don't (and maybe won't ever) know about.

But point is, when they released the schedule I really thought we'd play at least a game or two.

I guess the revised schedule did not raise my hopes at all. It was just something they had to do at that time just in case.

And Frost's comments about looking outside the B1G also is doing nothing for me. When enough schools and conferences cancel, only fools will try to proceed with games. I don't think our program is full of fools.

 

[Nebfanatic]

 Didn't we already do this??

No, we didn't. It was piecemeal at best. Can't tell you how many times Louisiana people came to coastal MS to get away from their restrictions because MS was more lax. We never did it how we should have.

 

[knapplc]

 Didn't we already do this??

No. Nobody was forced to stay in their homes, nobody was prevented from going to Menard's (and Menard's has been packed since day one of this virus, mostly with people not wearing masks). 

Stamping out spread would require enforced isolation, enforced mask wearing, massing contact tracing, and we haven't done any of these things.