No 2020 Season

[The Jackal]

Cases were down again by 300 in S.C. on Monday. Just over 700 cases, much lower than it has been. When this all started the premise was to not overload the health systems. That was accomplished. Now the obsession is cases and the vast majority of those are irrelevant but it now seems we have to eliminate the virus before things can return to normal. The new norm is no one can get sick from anything. Everyone has to be “safe“. Ridiculous. The world is not a “safe” place, never has been, never will be.

At this rate of testing, I wonder how low the new case number can go. It may not be possible to get below 100 or so even if the virus is completely gone. Nobody knows. But since deaths and cases are slowing down the story has predictably shifted to side effects. The media and the experts should be able to generate a bigger panic than ever with that one.

I'm not a statistician, but "case" is not equivalent to "test."

If tests are slowing down, you are moving in the wrong direction.

Cases (positives) are going down. The point is that if you maintain the current rate of testing you may never get below “new case” numbers that some find frightening. That’s because even a low false positive rate in a huge number of tests will generate a pseudo plateau that isn’t real. I just wonder where that plateau will be. Seems like something the experts would care about, but they don’t.

At bottom, I don't really trust what most of you think about the game of football, and certainly don't put much stock into your thoughts on viral epidemiology and statistics.

This is becoming 2020s version of "THROW THE BALL DOWNFIELD"

[FurmAlum]

James Madison and Elon are out. Holding out hope for a season, but except for the ACC and the SEC, it looks bleak. Administrators are not going to take the risk. Hope I’m wrong.

The reason JMU is out is because no one would play them. Not the virus. According to JMU no P5, no G5 etc.. They could not find games which is understandable. If you were a P5 or G5 would you want to play them?

As I noted earlier, it's not college football's job to bail out James Madison's scheduling problems.

At the moment, not many teams are looking to add out of conference games regardless of the opponent.

True. But some of our SoCon brethren have been able to add last minute FBS games to the schedule. Samford (Fla State) and VMI (Virginia).

I bet we're looking.

[Roundball]

James Madison and Elon are out. Holding out hope for a season, but except for the ACC and the SEC, it looks bleak. Administrators are not going to take the risk. Hope I’m wrong.

The reason JMU is out is because no one would play them. Not the virus. According to JMU no P5, no G5 etc.. They could not find games which is understandable. If you were a P5 or G5 would you want to play them?

As I noted earlier, it's not college football's job to bail out James Madison's scheduling problems.

At the moment, not many teams are looking to add out of conference games regardless of the opponent.

True. But some of our SoCon brethren have been able to add last minute FBS games to the schedule. Samford (Fla State) and VMI (Virginia).

I bet we're looking.

Again I point out, none our SoCon brethren added “last minute” FBS games to their schedules. Those games were officially announced back in January.
https://samfordsports.com/news/2020/1/1 ... edule.aspx

https://vmikeydets.com/news/2020/1/28/v ... edule.aspx

[gofurman]

Not that anyone cares but I would say we are 5% that we play fall football .. 25% to play in the spring? and 70% that we (and most FCS) don't play at all this year which is a shame but may be the reality.

QUESTION. If we don't play this year what OTHER issues will we, and others, run into? Here is what I think of off hand: /what are some things I have Not thought of?? Thank you in advance
- The real confusion of seniors with eligibility vs incoming freshman recruits - a logjam of scholarships
- Financial difficulties for FCS teams that never got a payday this year? Is one 400K check that much of a bid deal to Furman?
- Will we or other programs face the reality of shuttering programs ??

*What issues am I not thinking of?

[The Jackal]

[Furmanoid]

Yep, this was predicted yesterday. No more sports ever I guess.

[cavedweller2]

SoCon, Sun Belt, Big 12, ACC, SEC. All play. Noon, 3:30, and 7:00. All televised. If you the only game in town you get showcased.

[Furmanoid]

If the ACC keeps their wits about them for another few days, we may have some sort of football. Supposedly they meet tomorrow. Big 10 is hoping they bail thinking that if they don’t, neither will the SEC or Big 12. The Big 10 is then destroyed recruiting wise. Hard to imagine ACC bailing now when the chair of their medical board (ID guy from Duke) just publicly gave them the green. But who knows. If Duke is playing it gives cover to somebody like our Prez.

[apaladin]

According to ESPN the ACC and SEC say their plans are unchanged. Urban Meyer and others have said there will not be any spring football. They say playing 2 seasons within a calendar year would be much more detrimental to players health than any virus thingy. Look up what Dabo said. He hits the nail on the head.

[Rokawaylifer]

Good piece.

Because he lived at woodwinds.

[The Jackal]

According to ESPN the ACC and SEC say their plans are unchanged. Urban Meyer and others have said there will not be any spring football. They say playing 2 seasons within a calendar year would be much more detrimental to players health than any virus thingy. Look up what Dabo said. He hits the nail on the head.

You're going after the straw man.

This is not specifically about the players. Sports media wants you to think its about the players because they have a lot invested in football. You think Dabo Swinney and Urban Meyer don't have a lot of skin in the game of whether there's college football?

This is about more than just football.

[apaladin]

Big 12 says they are in, planning on playing!

[The Jackal]

Big 12 says they are in, planning on playing!

No conference is saying they are "in." They are all using some sort of variation of "comfortable with their procedures" and "moving forward."

They are committing to practicing tomorrow, but not necessarily the next day. The door is wide open for them to do something different.

My guess is that the big decisions for the holdouts will come once the general student body is back on campus. That is when these conferences will find out quickly whether they are able to make this work.

[Roundball]

[Furmanoid]

According to ESPN the ACC and SEC say their plans are unchanged. Urban Meyer and others have said there will not be any spring football. They say playing 2 seasons within a calendar year would be much more detrimental to players health than any virus thingy. Look up what Dabo said. He hits the nail on the head.

You're going after the straw man.

This is not specifically about the players. Sports media wants you to think its about the players because they have a lot invested in football. You think Dabo Swinney and Urban Meyer don't have a lot of skin in the game of whether there's college football?

This is about more than just football.

I sort of agree. The “player safety” argument is turning out to be a straw man easily destroyed by dumb old athletes and coaches like Lawrence, Saban and Dabo. Even one university, Nebraska, called BS on it. But I’m pretty sure the sports media really believes it.

But if player safety is only a straw man that we mistakenly thought was the point (because that’s what the presidents say), what is the real point? Obviously this isn’t about student safety because students are moving in as we speak even in hot spots like SC.

Is it liability? That’s something I truly don’t understand. There is a pretty good list of known hazards that are associated with sports and cause life altering illness or death: heat stress, sudden cardiac death, CTE, MRSA, spinal injury (probably the most expensive possible in terms of medical care), rupturing of various internal organs, bus crash, plane crash etc. But for some reason sports were always played despite the liability. Why would liability be an issue now when a mountain of data exists showing that there is virtually no risk from Covid? And all the other problems I mentioned could be clearly tied back to sports participation. A Covid infection can’t be. Are lawyers just afraid that all jurors are hopelessly biased by the nonstop propaganda? I honestly don’t get it.

I suspect this isn’t about safety or liability. The map of cancelled vs not cancelled schools gives a pretty good hint what this is all about.