Will There Be a 2020 Football Season?

[Branno]

1 hour ago, krc1995 said:

I saw everyone wearing the masks and bars are closed.  If these precautions significantly reduced the spread you would think the numbers would should it soon.  Everyone everywhere wore masks but I was only there for a week. Nowhere will you get 100% compliance.  

Multiple bars in Austin had their liquor licenses suspended before the recent ordered closures because they weren’t following occupancy restrictions. 
 

People have packed green spaces and public springs, causing them to be closed. 
 

Now that there are restrictions in place we hopefully we see a reduction, but it’s going to get worse before it gets better because of how lax people were here. 

[kansas45]

More doom and gloom. No one here has talked about the NCAA guidelines; the death knell is in the guidelines for a season.

https://www.deseret.com/sports/2020/7/18/21328307/college-football-ncaa-football-season-jeopardy-covid-19-coronavirus-testing-donld-trump

From the article: 

College medical guidelines for athletic teams, obtained by Sports Illustrated, is in the following edict. This paragraph has a chilling impact if you are hopeful for a college football season:

“When an athlete tests positive for COVID-19, local public health officials must be notified, and contact tracing protocols must be put in place. All individuals with a high risk of exposure should be placed in quarantine for 14 days as per CDC guidance. This includes members of opposing teams after competition. The difficulty is defining individuals with a high risk of exposure, and in some cases, this could mean an entire team (or teams).”

[kansas45]

This just in. More doom and gloom; of course, this pertains to the Big 12; but is near the geographic's of the Big 10.

https://sports.yahoo.com/west-virginia-announces-28-members-of-football-program-have-tested-positive-for-covid-19-234649357.html

 

The West Virginia athletic department announced Saturday that 28 members of its football program have tested positive for COVID-19. In total, 41 members of the department have reportedly tested positive out of 518 coronavirus tests since June. Five members of the men’s basketball program have also reportedly tested positive.

 

Here are the guidelines if anyone is interested. 

http://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/resocialization-collegiate-sport-developing-standards-practice-and-competition

 

Pay particular attention to the bottom of the page:

Campuswide or local community test rates that are considered unsafe by local public health officials.

 

If there is an outbreak and/or rise in cases in Lincoln or any of the college towns, or if students are back on campus AND student health services gets a few cases, it is all over. 

 

But this one was unique:

Universal Masking

As part of agreed-upon competition protocols, schools and conferences should contemplate universal masking for all coaches and other personnel who are present at the event. This can help prevent the unwitting spread of infection to others with whom they may have close contact, especially when talking at a close physical distance as is so common on the sidelines or bench area. Similarly, because wearing a mask/cloth face covering/face shield will not adequately protect a coach from infection by an infectious athlete, schools and conferences should contemplate a policy of universal masking for all student-athletes when they are not playing and when they move from the court/field to the sidelines for timeouts or between-period strategy discussions

 

I think the NCAA has just told everyone that no one is playing this season without really saying it. 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by kansas45
added ncaa guidelines link

[Hilltop]

The kids I know would wear masks on the sidelines, no problem.  They want to play!

[suh_fan93]

 

[kansas45]

I wonder how many lawyers were out and about in 1918? 

 

I am going to make some predictions:

1. First P5 conference to have a student-athlete to have to be hospitalized due to C19: SEC

 

2. First P5 conference to have a death of a student-athlete due to C19 related complications: SEC

 

3. First P5 conference to have a lawsuit from a student-athlete due to C19. PAC-12

 

4. First P5 conference to call the whole thing off after Aug 1: PAC-12

 

5. First P5 conference to call the whole thing off after Sept 1: BIG 10

 

6. First P5 conference to call the whole thing off because one state will not allow competition: PAC-12

 

7. First P5 conference to call the whole thing off because student-athletes will protest: PAC-12

 

8. First university in a P5 conference to cancel football without the conference approval/unison conference decision but based on governor shutting down the state: California or Stanford in the PAC-12 or Rutgers in the Big 10 or Michigan/Michigan St in the Big 10. 

[knapplc]

 

[kansas45]

It gets even crazier. I thought when I posted 7. First P5 conference to call the whole thing off because student-athletes will protest: PAC-12, I heard a whisper on the news of some "protest of demands" but could not find the original source that I stumbled upon but now, I found this one.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/karenweaver/2020/07/19/can-2020-get-any-crazier-now-theres-word-of-a-college-football-boycott/#62561aeb21bf

• “better” Covid-19 testing and protocols.
• 50/50 revenue sharing;
• 6 years of health insurance upon graduation;

[teachercd]

Shoot, in about 2-3 weeks thousands of college kids will be on campus...you think they are going to stand 6 feet apart and wear masks?  

 

They are not...there is going to be a huge explosion of positive cases by the end of August.

[kansas45]

54 minutes ago, teachercd said:

Shoot, in about 2-3 weeks thousands of college kids will be on campus...you think they are going to stand 6 feet apart and wear masks?  

 

They are not...there is going to be a huge explosion of positive cases by the end of August.

 

Exactly!!! If you read the NCAA guidelines I posted

http://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/resocialization-collegiate-sport-developing-standards-practice-and-competition

 

Campuswide or local community test rates that are considered unsafe by local public health officials.

 

This right here gives the college presidents that "out" that they need from a legal standpoint.

 

AND what college president wants to have to answer questions of being an epicenter of a Covid crisis? And how are they going to rationalize player safety when it is not safe for the rest of the student body to on campus? Oh sure, they can say "we stand to lose millions if we don't play" but don't you stand to lose millions without student on campus anyway? But students do not bring in TV revenue that we need. Ok, then your student-athletes are essentially employees then right? 

 

This notion of a whole amateur model is going to fall apart very fast if they do not cancel the season and do not allow the entire student body on campus. AND, in my opinion, the college presidents should cancel the season based on this because they stand to lose more money long term than short term if they lose this amateur athletic model. I will bet you anything that some of these folks are calculating this right now. 

 

U of Southern Cal has already signaled its intent to cancel the season.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-02/usc-will-move-most-undergraduate-classes-online-cancels-reopening

 

While this article says "10 to 20% of classes will be face-to-face or on campus such as labs", do not be surprised if this changes. What is to stop a professor who teaches a lab or one of these face-to-face courses from refusing to do such OR the student who needs the course to graduate on time cannot or does not want to come on campus to take this course? As well, a lawsuit or series of lawsuits, if a student gets C19 is just as good as someone who is a student-athlete. Remember, ALL colleges have re-opening plans but the keyword is "tentative" meaning that it can change in a moment's notice. A mask is just a small part of this whole calculus as well as as hand washing.

 

A lawyer could go through a litany of things such as "did you do ample cleaning measures of the classroom or lab before and after the class? And was the entire building properly sanitized? Did you offer the student adequate testing for C19? And were all your employees in the building C19 free even though they were tested upon arrival to campus? Oh, you had your teachers tested before they arrived on campus but did not require them to be tested routinely? Were your professors checked, prior to coming into the building to teach, temperature checked? Oh, you only had them do a symptom log daily? Oh, your student-athletes were tested routinely but not available to the rest of the campus community? Would this have changed if my client was a student-athlete? 

 

This whole thing is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. So do not think that "wearing a mask and testing will solve this problem." Oh sure, wear a mask on the sideline, the kids want to play. I think it is more about the fans wanting to play than actually considering the overall situation. 

 

And this is what gets me. We were told as a nation to shut down and watched others lose their jobs and get furloughed or work from home and college football went on like they were too big to fail. Sorry folks. Everyone is stammering for equity. We are all in this now. 

 

But I ask these questions.

1, if your son was playing college football, what would you do?

2. if you son or daughter is planning on going to college or getting ready for college, what would you do?

3. what are you, individually, willing to give up or sacrifice just to see or hear (I listen to games on the radio) the Huskers play? 

 

This whole thing about delayed schedules and spring football is nothing more than...

 

 

[knapplc]

I've been wearing a mask in public since March. Most of my friends say I've never looked better.

 

 

[southernoregonhusker]

Not wearing a mask in a business is a Class C misdemeanor in Oregon.  It's punishable by up to 15 days in jail and $1,250 in fines. Sadly, no police chiefs or sheriffs are enforcing it and are having officers educate the public.  I went to the grocery store two days ago saw roughly 30% of people weren't wearing masks at all and a handful wearing them with their noses exposed.  Of those not wearing masks, most were college aged people.   Young people around here aren't worried about it.

[kansas45]

The problem with this mask wearing for six weeks thing is that it is nothing more than the next big thing to promote. First, we were to shutdown everything in an attempt to flatten the curve and stay home but no need to wear a mask in order to mitigate the spread. 

 

Although I am wearing a mask out in public, I do find this "finished in six weeks" to be nothing more than wishful thinking. Because you know what the answer will be when there is an uptick in cases: "well, not everyone followed the guidelines; see, not our fault; your fault." This is a way by which to have a convenient escape route when their measures ultimately fail to diminish the virus that they claim all the time "we are learning so much more than what we previously knew." Because in six weeks the flu/influenza season will be very close by. And does anyone really think that c19 is going to miraculously go away?  And really, when is this second wave supposed to come about? 

 

And really, like this mask wearing business for six weeks is going to save college football? 

[teachercd]

1 hour ago, knapplc said:

I've been wearing a mask in public since March. Most of my friends say I've never looked better.

 

 

Again...most people that are not wearing masks are not doing it for freedom.  They are doing it because they don't want to wear one.

[kansas45]

15 minutes ago, teachercd said:

Sure...or politics.

 

And you mean what by this?