Will There Be a 2020 Football Season?

[WyoHusker56]

I wonder if they can give the kids the ability to opt into or out of a season with restrictions. For example, if you want to play you can but you have to live in separate dorms, follow off hour restrictions, testing, etc. It feels weird making amateurs do that if they don't want to, but maybe if the kids opt in it will work. Then maybe they can opt out but maintain a scholarship, workout, etc but not be held to restrictions or forced to play if they don't think it's safe. The MLB outbreak just isn't really promising though.

[Hilltop]

If they plan to separate them, they have their work cut out enforcing it.  I saw one of the student trainers yesterday hanging out with 30+ of his friends at a public function.  There was no social distancing going on at all... The vast majority of the kids I know and see aren't even making an effort.   

 

 

[bugeater17]

30 minutes ago, kansas45 said:

 

Will be impossible to do. Let's take this point by point.

1. I really think the Power 5 teams and Big Ten should really look at quarantining/separating players on campus from the larger student populations. It will be impossible due to the fact that you have a number of students who are either student-trainers, student equipment managers, work-study students in the athletic department, you still have maintenance and janitorial staff coming in to clean, you have coaches who will go home and be with spouses and children. You would have to quarantine the entire enterprise. You simply cannot just quarantine the student-athletes. And what about those student-athletes who need tutoring in an online class? Quarantine the tutors as well? 

 

2. This would include separate dorms and fall sport athletes going to online/virtual classes. The athletic department does set up class schedules for student-athletes; but what of the upper level courses that students take that are not available online or the faculty member or department or even the college that the courses are in does not elect to go fully online and their is only one section of the class? You would essentially have an athletic department dictating the academics and this is a no-no. We know it is done but in this day and age, there are probably a lot of faculty members that want to be contrarian to the whims of the athletic department. Trust me, they are there.

 

Here is another problem: you simply do not have "just the football" team to consider; you have the entire student-athlete population to consider as well. As well, you have different travel schedules for the other student-athletes and their sport; plus, can you imagine simply just quarantining and being in isolation and just being around the same people 24/7 without seeing any other signs of civilization? And really, what are you going to do? Put armed guards at the dorm entrance and secure all the exits so the football players do not go out? What is this? East Berlin? 

 

Agree that #1 will be tougher, but if you can separate the players and as many student managers as possible it will help control monitoring and checking student managers who do have access to the team (or limiting their access and/or number of student managers).

 

# 2 is much easier. A lot of campuses are going to live streaming and/or zoom classes.This involves the professor teaching in real time and students log-on and participate just as they would in person. 

[kansas45]

17 minutes ago, knapplc said:

Sure, but Joe Athlete doesn't have access to the advanced technology that some students in a scientific field have access to. Everyone has different access to different things based on their major.

 

This is a non-argument. Why would the English major have to have equal access to the particle collider that the physics student has access to? Or the music major who has access to the trombone room to practice?

 

But this is the sticking point: you are not majoring in college football. 

 

But we forgot about the college football player who may be married and/or has children to boot? Keep a father away from his kids? Or his wife? Especially when you are young? At my age and how long I have been married, sure, I dream of four months away from her (if I hear one more honey-do, I will scream) but that is not reality. 

 

And we talk about "team cohesion" but there is also the thing called "getting away from people"; you all remember living in a dorm right? The things I was involved in ruined any potential political career that I had in mind. Young men will come up with some of the most foolish things to do (and some of them sound like a good idea at the time) and there will be the aspect of fights and arguments and someone getting on someone else's nerves. I believe you will see the breakdown of team cohesion in a bubble with college students. Disaster is written all over this. 

[nic]

1 hour ago, FrantzHardySwag said:

Yankees Phillies cancelled tonight. If MLB can’t get through a week, no way NCAA football gets through a season. 

Didn't the Big Ten delay the start of the season by 3 weeks? That might help...sorry, ever the optimist. 

[Mavric]

26 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

If they plan to separate them, they have their work cut out enforcing it.  I saw one of the student trainers yesterday hanging out with 30+ of his friends at a public function.  There was no social distancing going on at all... The vast majority of the kids I know and see aren't even making an effort.   

 

[Hilltop]

3 minutes ago, nic said:

Didn't the Big Ten delay the start of the season by 3 weeks? That might help...sorry, ever the optimist. 

I don't believe it has been formally announced but it has been rumored to be in the discussion.

[Tom Brokejaw]

Hello All!  GO BIG RED!

 

Just signed up looking for info.  Without having to read through 150+ pages of comments, what is the current hard news on football happening this Fall?

 

Thanks in advance.

[nic]

MSU might be in the best boat...the whole team gets it, quarantines for two weeks while practicing....comes out ready to practice/play with antibodies. 

[kansas45]

9 minutes ago, bugeater17 said:

# 2 is much easier. A lot of campuses are going to live streaming and/or zoom classes.This involves the professor teaching in real time and students log-on and participate just as they would in person

 

Trust me, this is not as easy as it sounds. You have some students who work during the class period and will complain about that. Oh sure, you can make a class schedule and if it is face-to-face you are supposed to be there. However, when the pandemic hit, students went home and got jobs and that really messed up a schedule. Faculty had to switch around class times so that the students could meet. Like you expect the professor to be teaching 24/7? No way. When it says online, it means that the professor can establish the times that he/she demands OR they can be diplomatic and try to get a class time that fits for all the students (like herding cats in my opinion). Online classes are listed as Online and not given a class time schedule such as Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 11:00 to 11:50. Such blows the whole concept of online distance delivery based on the paradigm of "go to school at your pace and on your schedule." And if I am a professor and I have a set time to meet in the classroom I am not going to look to kindly to the person who gives the excuse of "I cannot make it, I have football practice; can I just do all my stuff online?" And there are professors who use the zoom attendance as part of the grade. Now, take all this information and couple it with the student-athlete that has a 15, or 16 or 17 or 18 hour schedule. Not all classes are created equal and not all of them are your typical 3 hour classes. Some classes could be a four hours with a separate lab component that is built into it that meets at another time. Here is an example: Biology 186 Principles of Biological Systems 1. This class meets MWF from 11:00 to 11:50; the lab portion is a one hour component to supplement the class; it meets on Tuesday from 1:30 to 3:15. 

 

Oh but the professor can meet with the student individually....sorry, that's called an independent study and no professor is going to do more than they have to. 

 

Oh but the professor can have a zoom and do a 50 minute class and simply meet for a 25 minutes to accommodate the football players....sorry, there are accreditation standards that strongly suggest that classes are to meet for the full time period and meet the prescribed "minutes"; 

 

Oh but the professor has academic freedom.....not until their Dean finds out what they are doing. No professor wants to have to explain themselves. 

 

Now, if the class is hybrid and let's say a class is to meet on Monday and Wednesday, but one half meets on Monday face to face and the other half meets on Wednesday you still have the aspect of being exposed to the general student population. If the class is completely online, you are going to have problems in scheduling a class time where all the students can meet for the Zoom at the same time. 

 

And you cannot simply have classes set aside for "just the football team" unless you have a cohort model but even this get's difficult at times as the student has a major and there are not multiple sections of an upper level course. 

 

Now, does this sound like this is "easier"? It is a logistical nightmare. 

[Rochelobe]

On 7/26/2020 at 9:10 AM, teachercd said:

Yeah, the idea of hiring a bunch of young/new teachers...well...I know most of us just think that teaching is easy but the hardest part of teaching is not so much the content but the ability to control the class.

 

That comes with experience (most of the time)

 

I remember how immature my friends and I were when we were in Junior High.  Looking back, I think people that teach, in particular grades 6ish through 9ish, have to have incredible patience, a relatable demeanor, and the ability to get the kids to trust them as well as know the material.  Like you said, I would hope most 6th grade math teachers understand math well at that level - that is not the hard part. 

 

Not to take cheap potshots, but just being young and eager as a teacher doesn't automatically mean those other important traits are present.  Some people seem to have them innately, others learn them over time.

 

I do some part time community college level instruction (physics) and I am thankful that for the most part class control is not a significant issue at that age.  I would never have the patience to teach K-12.

[kansas45]

9 minutes ago, Tom Brokejaw said:

Hello All!  GO BIG RED!

 

Just signed up looking for info.  Without having to read through 150+ pages of comments, what is the current hard news on football happening this Fall?

 

Welcome. I am new here as well. A very good group of people who are passionate but they are not vulgar. A very intelligent group of people here. I have been very impressed. 

 

As far as football happening this fall, we are still waiting for the decision but we have interesting theories and very deep discussions. 

 

 

[knapplc]

12 minutes ago, Tom Brokejaw said:

Hello All!  GO BIG RED!

 

Just signed up looking for info.  Without having to read through 150+ pages of comments, what is the current hard news on football happening this Fall?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Hello, and welcome.

 

Unfortunately, although this thread is 150+ pages long, none of us know anything.  

 

We know the Big Ten is only playing a conference schedule. We don't know if our existing schedule has been modified, or when the season is going to start. 

 

Check in frequently, though, because seconds after the news comes out, it'll be posted here.

[kansas45]

7 minutes ago, Rochelobe said:

I remember how immature my friends and I were when we were in Junior High.  Looking back, I think people that teach, in particular grades 6ish through 9ish, have to have incredible patience, a relatable demeanor, and the ability to get the kids to trust them as well as know the material.  Like you said, I would hope most 6th grade math teachers understand math well at that level - that is not the hard part. 

 

Not to take cheap potshots, but just being young and eager as a teacher doesn't automatically mean those other important traits are present.  Some people seem to have them innately, others learn them over time.

 

I do some part time community college level instruction (physics) and I am thankful that for the most part class control is not a significant issue at that age.  I would never have the patience to teach K-12.

 

Change the word "sales" for "teaching." 

[Rochelobe]

2 hours ago, FrantzHardySwag said:

Yankees Phillies cancelled tonight. If MLB can’t get through a week, no way NCAA football gets through a season. 

Opinion columns already starting to appear regarding these cancellations:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2020/07/27/mlb-season-suddenly-jeopardy-after-covid-outbreak-miami-marlins/5517567002/

Quote

In hindsight, MLB never should have permitted the Marlins to take the field Sunday against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park after three players tested positive for COVID-19, just two days after another player tested positive.

Now we'll see if any members of the Phillies test positive after being on the same field at Citizens Bank Park.

The last part of that is probably the most significant issue - did the Marlins players catch the virus from team/game activities or from off site actions?  If several Phillies test positive this does not bode well for the college football season.  On the other hand, if no Phillies come back positive, maybe baseball can recover ok and move forward.  Social distancing is almost a natural part of baseball - except when in the dugout.  I would guess outside of the dugout the highest probably for transmission would be when a player is at bat.  In which case I would think we'd see umpires and catchers start to get infected disproportionately.  Since we only have a few days worth of data, we don't know enough yet.

 

However, since football cannot obviously meet social distancing, I'm not sure of the impact.  If no Phillies test positive, maybe a glimmer of hope stays alive.  If several Phillies do test positive, that may be the final curtain coming down on a viable college football season.