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The original goal was to “flatten the curve” or so we were told. Somewhere we shifted to cancel everything until it is gone or a vaccine is found.

he didnt say pure freedom. but hey keep moving those goalposts

Frost just crushed that presser. So glad he is our coach.

If people had worn masks all summer, we would have this under control. EDIT: Laugh it up, fuzzball, but you know I'm right.

It sucks, nobody disagrees. But our country has to many selfish individuals who equated doing the bare minimum, mask wearing and social distancing, to some form of government overreach. Our society ignored science. Losing football is one the many consequences. If you want somebody to blame, look in the mirror or at anybody not wearing a mask.

Meanwhile at the Big Ten Headquarters...

"Flatten the curve" was to keep our hospitals from being overwhelmed, and came from the CDC. "Cancel everything" is not coming from the CDC, it's coming from individual sources. Nobody is forcing D1 football to cancel from outside - that's an internal decision. Same for March Madness, same for any other sport.

No, we haven't. You've never been restricted from leaving your home. You've never been ordered to wear a mask. You've never been forced to socially distance. You've never been forced to wash your hands for x number of seconds. All of these have been directives, not legally enforceable, and nobody is enforcing them. We have done nothing required of us to slow this spread. Everything has been voluntary with zero leadership. We've been told all along that this thing would just "go away" while the guy in charge golfs. We have 160,000 people dead from this because we've taken no action.

Just as long as he wouldn't tell him to go play at Oklahoma

It’s possible we could have done better, it’s also possible that in the long-run, the virus is going to make its way through most population centers no matter the mitigation. Europe is increasing, parts of Asia increasing, parts of South America increasing. There are a few papers in medical journals that are starting to look at the herd immunity levels for Covid-19 being 20-40% of the population. Many of the highly hit population centers reached that point and then saw a drastic downturn in case numbers. It’s a VERY contagious virus and it’s possible that it’s going to run it’s natural course at some point no matter the mitigation. Remember this, regardless of sports being played or not, the whole point of mitigation back in March and April was to spread out the infection numbers across many months. It was NOT to necessarily completely stop the virus.

Nooooooooo!!!! Dude, all their fan are going to be pissed.

One game season - Nebraska vs Iowa for all the marbles

Some of that you should’ve learned in high school civics class, to be fair.

We do not enjoy pure Freedom. If you need a test for that, try walking into your local bank vault and helping yourself to whatever you see. Let us know in 10-20 years how that goes for you.

No its best to just jump to conclusions

Watching Ben Sasse beg for a season after punting the decisions to local governments and private entities is f#&%ing pathetic.

Correct but I’m asking why. I was under the impression we were closing everything down (and I realize it was not everything) not because the virus was so dangerous, but so we didn’t overwhelm hospitals. Ok we did that so now why are we making the decisions to keep schools closed and cancel sports. It’s simple, nobody wants the liability for this stuff so let’s just come out and say it.

Yes, flatten the curve, as was done in other countries was the goal. We failed. European countries did not just reach a plateau and call it good. They made sure that the incremental increase in cases per day was very small - so on an overall plot of new cases per day, they actually curved down from where they were. In many US states, things were reopened when the new cases per day had plateaued. While that is an important step (you don't want a situation where the number of new cases each day is increasing over the previous day), simply holding steady only means you've started to cope with the problem. If your plateau is at 3000 new cases per day in a state, that doesn't really help hospitals that much, since we know the treatment timelines for Covid, once hospitalized, can take weeks. We need to flatten things by making the line that represents the total number of cases be as flat as possible - meaning very few cases are being added per day. Following this methodology, European soccer leagues were able to finish their seasons (and are now playing the completion of EUFA Champions League) without any major outbreaks in positive tests among players/support personnel. I think there have been more positive tests among MLB players/personnel in the 2 weeks since restart than all of the major European soccer leagues combined. US new cases per day rates were still high in many states when things started being reopened. Also, a really low number where states don't have to worry about other states (which we have not had in place) would have really helped with trying to play football. How can we expect inter-state coordination on sporting teams when they struggle to coordinate on shutdowns? In the end, a coordinated Federal plan (all states follow the same shutdown criteria, interstate travel is greatly limited - even intrastate travel is limited), coupled with better compliance by American citizens (wearing masks) applied for 6 weeks or so would likely have had us in a much better situation today. It would have sucked worse than the ~4-6 weeks of inconsistent partial shutdowns we went through, but based upon what we see in other countries, we most likely wouldn't be having 50,000 new cases per day 5 months out. In the end, this is was a big factor that made playing football less likely.

I think most schools don't want the travel and the increased chance of individuals bringing it back on campus. They understand that just bringing students back on campus is a huge risk. Many schools that are still having in person classes, some have students on campus now, have adjusted their schedules to limit breaks. The presidents understand they can't limit people doing stupid stuff off campus but they will try to limit what they can on campus. The other part of this is protecting the faculty and staff. I sat through a zoom meeting with faculty and staff and there is a real fear about in person classes. Many are older with other health concerns. Undone, I wonder if the cold and flu season will be bad if we all practice social distancing and good hygiene. I mean, if it helps slow the spread of COVID, you would think it would help slow the spread of cold/flu.

Comparing a vast U.S. population and area that has many unique population centers to a small island with a total population half of NY is pretty dumb.

Oh...the inconsistencies in rules is mind blowing. My son is in charge of the kitchen. This guys will be living together all year in small rooms. But....when they go eat, the kitchen has to have plexiglass up everywhere. So....it's OK to be in the rooms together. But, when your food is served, you have to go behind this glass and put on masks. Then, when all done....go back to your rooms and classes together. And...yet....athletes can't play a game that's outside after being tested constantly. I say join the SEC for the year and go play.

You really need to stop with this myth and I'm not even talking about the collapse of the economy since COVID hit. Trump is the epitome of politicizing the military for his own personal gain. It's absolutely disgusting and his followers eat it all up.

I'm at the point of such frustration over this whole thing. I've tried taking this seriously and doing what I can to prevent the spread. I wear my mask when appropriate and have avoided large crowds when possible. It's clear that countries that have populations who have taken it seriously are over the hump and their lives are getting somewhat back to normal. However, the US is full of such selfish imbeciles that refuse to believe science and instead believes every conspiracy theory that comes across Facebook that this is where we are at. My kids are all going back to college this week in Lincoln. They are going to be in class rooms in a couple weeks and around large groups of other kids. My son lives in a fraternity and says "I know I'm going to get it, it's just a matter of time". Other kids are living in dorms/apartments/houses with many other kids. I'm sure there will be social gathers and parties. BUT.....football teams that are monitored continuously and probably some of the healthiest kids on campus, can't play games. The players want to play. But....they probably won't be allowed to. I'm at the point where I'm saying "f#&% it". If society isn't going to take this serious so we can move forward, then we should just open up and not even try. We are doing more harm by doing this half assed. We had an entire summer to try to get a hold on this and it's been a complete failure because of societal attitudes and miss information. Now we are going into the school year and winter where it's going to be much tougher to do what is necessary. So....I'm at the point of throwing up my hands in frustration.

Edit: Sorry, should I have put this in the 'Is Iowa a rival' thread?

It's a little of Column A, a little of Column B. You're right that nobody wants the responsibility of anyone else's death, or even their serious illness. That could be catastrophic for an organization. The reason they have that fear is, we didn't have the top down leadership on this nation's response to this virus and we have uncontrolled spread. Without a good handle on sources of the virus, nobody knows who has it or who's going to transmit it. In that scenario, why would a college want the liability of being responsible for these students? That's what they're thinking. Frost is correct that canceling football/sports will be a disaster. The institutions just don't want to be the epicenter of that disaster. It's hard to blame them.

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.

Way to conveniently ignore your own strawman in your last post. You are deliberately not understanding what I'm saying. we have been 'taking action' for 5 months and this thing still exists. You can't mask this thing away. You can do a shutdown but its still going to be out there when you open up again. There is either a vaccine OR there is being as safe as possible but accepting some risk and we go back to real life.

My brother is on the team, I can say with great confidence he is much better off there than anywhere else. I know he’s just one kid but he was really struggling with some things in life and was quite honestly in a dark place. This opportunity has breathed new life into him, excitement I haven’t seen in years. I’m a lot less worried about him contracting Covid than I am about his mental and physical health if this is taken away. Even just one season away I worry about the paths these kids can go down. There are so many other things to factor in I really hope they are taking all this into consideration..

I don't know if any other coaches have held pressers recently, but I think Frost is the only one. This gives him a very tall pulpit to speak from, and he's NAILING it. If there's an argument to play, right now, this Fall, he's making it. If the decision-makers can be influenced, this would do it.

Coach, how does it feel to have completed a season without a loss, for the second time in 4 years?

The NCAA/Confs are no more prepared for this, than they were the day they cancelled the NCAA tournament/Conf Tournaments. You'd think 5 months would have allowed for a consensus plan.

Wives across the country:

That cold and flu season might not be as bad since we are already practicing social distancing for COVID.

Great, now how am I supposed to get out of doing things my wife wants to do all fall?

Good thing there are a bunch of other examples that prove without a doubt we have failed miserably.

Another reason I hate the Big Ten...they think they are the Ivy League.

This doesn't necessarily belong in this topic but I didn't want to create a new one. We already had a lot of problems before Trump. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6827090/we-are-witnessing-the-fall-of-a-great-power/?fbclid=IwAR2L8vTOAqNKnKUSiLCHdvfBb2tkStFLL7SA2LPnmp67jvnYzS6YxXoERzg

No way, let's play 9 times and get this rivalry blazing. Not ten so there is no tie.

Did you go to Menard's during this period to observe this yourself in person, or did you hear about this second hand?

There's no reason to make personal attacks against Roxy like that.

Hacking into it would be great! Change Iowa's AD to a potato

So this would have all just done away had we all worn masks? Do you seriously think this? This isnt going away whether people wear masks or not. We are either waiting on a vaccine or we accept the risk and move forward.

I wonder if the vote last night actually did happen, it leaked before it was announced, and now that everyone is blasting the conference, they're going to "really vote this time" tonight.

Oh the irony...

EXTREME LEE CORSO VOICE: NOT SO FAST MY FRIENDS

I, for one, cannot believe this happened.

I feel your frustration. When the administration made the decision that the economy came before health considerations, they doomed us to a very, very long 'recovery' period. Failed leadership ... but that is a discussion for the related political thread. At a time when we all need a sports outlet like football, public policy failed us and it has only increased the 'misery index'. Here in Oklahoma, we had the hard shut down until May. I was working from home until June 1. Since then cases have spiked & our company called all employees back to the office - it all is backa$$ward.

"Things happened that I didn't like and the news covered it" is not "sensationalizing" the news.