SI: The Machinery Is in Motion to Postpone the 2020 College Football Season

[Lith]

https://www.si.com/college/2020/08/08/postponement-fall-college-football-season-mac-big-ten

The Machinery Is in Motion to Postpone the 2020 College Football Season
ROSS DELLENGER AND PAT FORDE13 MINUTES AGO
After an arduous summer of trying to push the 2020 college football season through a pandemic and toward kickoff, conference leaders abruptly hit the brakes on a chaotic Saturday that felt like the beginning of the end.

First, the Mid-American Conference announced that its presidents unanimously voted to postpone fall sports until the spring. That was the first FBS league to take such a step, and it puts the other nine in a precarious position trying to justify playing. “There are simply too many unknowns to put our student athletes in these situations,” commissioner John Steinbrecher said. “This is simply a miserable decision. I am heartbroken we are in this place.”

Then, the Big Ten released a statement saying that it has halted progress toward full-contact practice. From the statement: “We believe it is best to continue in the appropriate phase of activity referenced above while we digest and share information from each campus to ensure we are moving forward cautiously.” The conference had a regularly scheduled presidents meeting Saturday, with rumors percolating nationally that the wealthiest conference is considering postponing fall sports as well. A Detroit Free Press report Saturday cited league sources saying commissioner Kevin Warren is in favor of a spring football season.

Later, a prominent industry source opined to Sports Illustrated: “I think by the end of the week the fall sports will be postponed in all conferences.”

The news whiplash was jarring. Just Friday, the Southeastern Conference announced every member’s opponents for a 10-game season. Earlier in the week, the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference released full schedules. Kickoff for the Big Ten was set for Sept. 3, and the ACC for Sept. 10.

Now? Many people around the sport are bracing for a decision that would be devastating both culturally and financially—a national postponement to spring, at best.

What happened? The closer we got to kickoff, the more misgivings have mounted. There was never a unified belief at the FBS level about how to proceed, and those fissures have become more clear as time went by and the data did not alleviate concerns.

“Almost everything would have to be perfectly aligned to continue moving forward,” NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline said Friday night on the association’s weekly Social Series.

Not much has aligned in recent weeks. From a national health perspective: COVID-19 infections soared through July, and deaths have correspondingly risen during August. From a local campus perspective: Colleges have been faced with the reality of trying to curtail athlete outbreaks in a non-bubble setting, while bracing for the return of the full student body en masse. Then there have been individual athlete testimonials about lingering effects of the disease, including heart issues; the large-scale player movements within conferences that articulate their health concerns; and the dozens of players opting out of the season.

As one SEC administrator put it: ”I think the commissioners, presidents and ADs have just started looking around and asking, 'What are we doing?’ ”

The answer, now, is pausing. And in some cases backtracking. And perhaps ultimately a full stop.

It would be somewhat ironic if the multi-billion-dollar college football industry was felled by the MAC, which would rank either ninth or 10th in a hierarchy of the 10-conference FBS. Even more specifically, it could be Northern Illinois—coming off a 5-7 2019 season—that ultimately pushed the first domino.

Sources told SI Friday that NIU was the school advocating hardest for a fall postponement, and that it was likely the Huskies simply would not play in the fall even if the league voted to proceed with the season. Ultimately, the vote went the other way.

“The science told us what we need to do,” a MAC source said. “Health and safety was our primary concern, and not other factors.”

But there is an alternate viewpoint regarding the MAC decision: that it saw which direction Big Ten leaders were contemplating going and simply decided to go there first.

"My theory is they know what the Big Ten is going to do,” said one administrator from a Group of 5 conference. “I think the Pac-12 is ready to go as well and everyone else follows suit.”

SI confirmed that Pac-12 presidents have a previously scheduled meeting Tuesday. The Pac-12 has been more closely aligned with the Big Ten than any other league, following the Big Ten’s decision to play a conference-only schedule with their own identical decision a day later.

If the Big Ten or Pac-12 (or both) bail on the season, it would be a virtual impossibility for the rest of the FBS conferences to continue. "I think it looks too bad,” an SEC source told SI. “I don’t think you can. What do you accomplish? How do you win a national championship?”

Thus the next few days could see a succession of announcements that bring the season to a halt, with the vague hope of starting over in the spring. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on ESPN radio Saturday cited the events of March 12, when each conference independently but unanimously shut down their basketball tournaments.

“That’s an indicator of the future, but not guarantee,” Sankey said. “I can’t provide certainty but I can provide clarity.”

Over the past five months, since the shutdown of March Madness and all spring sports, college administrators have sought ways to avoid their worst-case scenario: losing the football season. Hopes rose and fell over the course of the summer, depending largely upon the nation’s ability (or failure) to combat the virus.

Even when things looked bleakest, in July, the sport stayed determined to try to carry on. That’s because the alternative is too painful: the loss of tens of millions of dollars in revenue, a financial catastrophe that could lead to wholesale cutting of Olympic sports, athletic scholarships and jobs.

Way back in April, a Power 5 athletic director put the specter of a fall without football in perspective: “We’re all f---. There’s no other way to look at this, is there?”

But the financial imperative to play has, in August, run into the hard reality of where the nation and higher education stand in dealing with the pandemic. After failing to win the summer, we are on the brink of losing the fall.

This story will be updated as news develops.

[UntouchableCrew]

This was always inevitable. College sports just don't make sense.

[JoJoTownsell1]

A spring college football season can't work since the draft is in the spring and I can't see the top end players risking injuries days before the draft and weeks before NFL training camp starts. They need time to recover for the NFL season. Are they going to have games during the NFL combine?

A spring football season would also be tough because it will finish pretty close to the start of the following fall season. 

 

[HawkeyeJet]

Was just about to come and post something similar.  MAC is the first Domino.  I expect the Big Ten to be the first power 5 to follow suit.  I would expect that within a few days.

I'd also anticipate many of these MAC level or lower programs will never make it back.  College football could be a Power 5 only sport going forward.  Would not surprise me in the least.

[nico002]

It makes no sense to play college football. Completely irrelevant to the NFL though- they should play. 

[14 in Green]

The whole NCAA football/basketball thing has gone so far beyond anything resembling what it should be.

Its become way too big, and way too important to the schools. There’s something wrong when a football and basketball coach are the highest paid state employees.

Everything about it is wrong. The term student/athlete is a joke. Half of these kids don’t belong on a college campus in the first place. The fact that they’re able to stay there for 3 or 4 years and leave without either being able to formulate a sentence, or in some cases read, is all you need to know about how corrupt the system is.

I’m a diehard sports fan, and look forward to the seasons as much as anyone, but if the last few months have taught me anything, it’s that sports are not that important.

It would be far from the worst thing to see these school and their athletic departments take a crippling financial hit, and eventually return as what they were intended to be, which is a healthy outlet for the students who participate, and as entertainment for the students who attend the games. The rest is all nonsense.

[Jetster]

The guys who are positive they will be drafted in April will be like eff that sh*t. 
College football is f*cked if they postpone. 
 

[HawkeyeJet]

1 minute ago, Trolly McTrollface said:

 

Everything about it is wrong. The term student/athlete is a joke. Half of these kids don’t belong on a college campus in the first place. The fact that they’re able to stay there for 3 or 4 years and leave without either being able to formulate a sentence, or in some cases read, is all you need to know about how corrupt the system is.

 

That's straight up ignorant.

[Paradis]

Smh. Just had to eat that Bat, didn’t ya buddy. Everyone else all up in that chicken and beef. But not you. Nope. Now look at what you’ve done motherfcker. 

[T0mShane]

And to think, they never found those 30,000 e-mails anyway.

[Jet Nut]

19 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

That's straight up ignorant.

It’s straight up accurate.

[HawkeyeJet]

3 minutes ago, Jet Nut said:

It’s straight up accurate.

If you think that's accurate, then you have never been anywhere remotely close to a division 1 program or athlete.  Half can't form a sentence or read?  That's ******* stupid.

[14 in Green]

30 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

That's straight up ignorant.

It wasn’t meant to offend anyone but the schools themselves.

im not sure but I think you’ve mentioned working with the Iowa program in some way?

Perhaps not every school is the way I said, but to me it seems like many schools bend over backward to admit an athlete who would never be otherwise considered, except for the fact he can run fast or dunk over a 6’10” forward.

Then once he’s admitted, the goal isn’t to educate him, but to keep him eligible.

Maybe I’m wrong, and as you said, I’m ignorant. However,  I’m pretty sure most outsiders (and quite a few of their fellow students) feel the same way I do.

[Jet Nut]

6 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

If you think that's accurate, then you have never been anywhere remotely close to a division 1 program or athlete.  Half can't form a sentence or read?  That's ******* stupid.

Yeah, you’re right.  1-3 year athletes, they’re students.  They define everything I think about a college when I look at them. 
How the F*** do you learn anything when you go to school, play one year of basketball and leave for a check?  
That’s a student, that’s college to you?  

Yes Most of it is wrong. The term student/athlete is a joke. Half of these kids don’t belong on a college campus in the first place. Exactly.  And if they couldn’t play they wouldn’t be on the campus as students.  
 

[T0mShane]

2 minutes ago, Trolly McTrollface said:

I’m pretty sure most outsiders (and quite a few of their fellow students) feel the same way I do.

It’s an old-guy way of thinking. These kids are significantly more literate because of social media and the internet in general. There are still dummies COUGH OMG JAMAL COUGH but it’s not like the sixties and seventies where they were pulling meatheads out of cornfields and the hood. 

[T0mShane]

Yikes

[14 in Green]

6 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

If you think that's accurate, then you have never been anywhere remotely close to a division 1 program or athlete.  Half can't form a sentence or read?  That's ******* stupid.

I played D1 baseball, albeit 40+ years ago. We were given a lot of help both academically as far as tutors and also in other areas, however we played what was considered a non revenue sport. Therefore, in order to get into the school, we had to meet the same requirements other students did.

 Even back then, it was a different world for the football and basketball players, and we all knew it.

[T0mShane]

1 minute ago, Trolly McTrollface said:

40+ years ago

You had to study and also avoid polio.

[HawkeyeJet]

1 minute ago, Jet Nut said:

Yeah, you’re right.  1-3 year athletes, they’re students.  They define everything I think about a college when I look at them. 
How the F*** do you learn anything when you go to school, play one year of basketball and leave for a check?  
That’s a student to you?  That’s stupid

That's not that kids fault he's forced to go to a year of school when he doesn't want to.  Bashing these kids for something they have little to no control over is ridiculous.

For the record, I'm not advocating for the term student athlete.  But it's not because they aren't academics.  The OVERWHELMING amount are students and take their studies seriously.  Obviously there are exceptions to that. 

[y2k8]

1 hour ago, JoJoTownsell1 said:

A spring college football season can't work since the draft is in the spring and I can't see the top end players risking injuries days before the draft and weeks before NFL training camp starts. They need time to recover for the NFL season. Are they going to have games during the NFL combine?

A spring football season would also be tough because it will finish pretty close to the start of the following fall season. 

 

You'd have a couple of hundred players sit out the season.  Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

[14 in Green]

5 minutes ago, T0mShane said:

It’s an old-guy way of thinking. These kids are significantly more literate because of social media and the internet in general. There are still dummies COUGH OMG JAMAL COUGH but it’s not like the sixties and seventies where they were pulling meatheads out of cornfields and the hood. 

John Campari and a host of other D1 coaches say hello.

Their programs have become one, two year pit stops for NBA prospects. 

Zion Williamson and Duke would’ve never been a thing 15 years ago. It’s a cesspool, and they all swim in it.

Football is just as bad, it’s just that there are 90+ players per team, we don’t know the individual stories as well.

[T0mShane]

1 minute ago, Trolly McTrollface said:

John Campari and a host of other D1 coaches say hello.

Their programs have become one, two year pit stops for NBA prospects. 

Zion Williamson and Duke would’ve never been a thing 15 years ago. It’s a cesspool, and they all swim in it.

Football is just as bad, it’s just that there are 90+ players per team, we don’t know the individual stories as well.

Zion Williamson is incredibly bright and clearly articulate, as are most of Calipari’s players. Most colleges are profit-driven entities designed to be incredibly easy to muck through for even the dimmest of students as long as their FAFSA comes back with funding stapled to it. Why single out athletes? 

[14 in Green]

5 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

That's not that kids fault he's forced to go to a year of school when he doesn't want to.  Bashing these kids for something they have little to no control over is ridiculous.

For the record, I'm not advocating for the term student athlete.  But it's not because they aren't academics.  The OVERWHELMING amount are students and take their studies seriously.  Obviously there are exceptions to that. 

This all started with you calling my post ignorant.

Now you post this. Where did I bash the kids for going to the school? I bashed the schools for allowing the programs to get so big, and abusing the kids by not educating them.

I like you and most of the points you make when you post are excellent, but I’m not getting what you’re trying to say in this thread.

[Jet Nut]

16 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

That's not that kids fault he's forced to go to a year of school when he doesn't want to.  Bashing these kids for something they have little to no control over is ridiculous.

For the record, I'm not advocating for the term student athlete.  But it's not because they aren't academics.  The OVERWHELMING amount are students and take their studies seriously.  Obviously there are exceptions to that. 

No one said it was the kids fault.  Who bashed them?  Who’s overly sensitive and acting like they never heard this before?  It’s just not college for most athletes.  Isn’t a school.  They’re not there to learn, they’re in school because they have to in order to get their NBA check.  Or need to do their 3 years for the NFL.  So really a lot of them don’t belong on a college campus, they belong on a minor league field.  

[14 in Green]

3 minutes ago, T0mShane said:

Zion Williamson is incredibly bright and clearly articulate, as are most of Calipari’s players. Most colleges are profit-driven entities designed to be incredibly easy to muck through for even the dimmest of students as long as their FAFSA comes back with funding stapled to it. Why single out athletes? 

Only because we’re talking about canceling the ‘20 college football season.

My problem isn’t with the athletes. I think a kid like Zion should’ve charged Duke at least 150k for the privilege of having him play for their program.

My issue is with the schools themselves for allowing themselves to get to a point where Jimbo or Coach K is making more than any state employee and has more power than the University President.

[T0mShane]

1 minute ago, Trolly McTrollface said:

My issue is with the schools themselves for allowing themselves to get to a point where Jimbo or Coach K is making more than any state employee and has more power than the University President.

Surely problematic but, on the other hand, UConn just shut down football because they suck and nobody pays attention to it and they lack cash reserves as a result. If they put some alumni together to hire Calipari and/or Saban, they’re perennial contenders and have all the revenue they could ever want.

[HawkeyeJet]

51 minutes ago, Trolly McTrollface said:

It wasn’t meant to offend anyone but the schools themselves.

im not sure but I think you’ve mentioned working with the Iowa program in some way?

Maybe I’m wrong, and not every school is the way I said, but to me it seems like many schools bend over backward to admit an athlete who would never be otherwise considered, except for the fact he can run fast or dunk over a 6’10” forward.

Then once he’s admitted, the goal isn’t to educate him, but to keep him eligible.

Maybe I’m wrong, and as you said, I’m ignorant. However,  I’m pretty sure most outsiders (and quite a few of their fellow students) feel the same way I do.

I was a baseball player for 2 years at Iowa.  After I was done with that, I spent a year as a student equipment manager for the football program.  I also can't speak for anything outside of that experience 

Yes, certain players are provided eligibility into a university that they likely could not get into otherwise.  There are a limited number of exceptions people can be granted for that though.  Iowa's football program gets one "non-qualifier" a recruiting class.  I'm fairly certain that's an NCAA rule, but could be wrong there.  Let's not kid ourselves, most of these public universities aren't that hard to get into.  Would all these athletes be admitted if they weren't an athlete? No.  But that doesn't meet they don't meet admission standards.  That sort of stuff goes on outside of the athletes though too.   Not every rich Doctors kid is getting into the school of their choice on their own merits either.

I don't agree the goal isn't to educate them.  I can't speak for anyone else, that was not my experience or the experience for most I saw.  Do some athletes pick a degree in a field that might be easier to stay eligible in?  Sure.  But I didn't come across many professors who liked to take it easy on athletes.

To your point about tutors etc, yes that is a great benefit scholarship athletes have that a common student doesn't.  The athlete still has to put in the work.  I think stories like the UNC story from a few years back makes people think that's the norm, but in my experience I don't think it is.  Does it happen?  Yes.  Is it the norm?  I don't think so personally.

[HawkeyeJet]

19 minutes ago, Trolly McTrollface said:

This all started with you calling my post ignorant.

Now you post this. Where did I bash the kids for going to the school? I bashed the schools for allowing the programs to get so big, and abusing the kids by not educating them.

I like you and most of the points you make when you post are excellent, but I’m not getting what you’re trying to say in this thread.

Saying that half of them are essentially illiterate is what is/was ignorant.

If you don't think that's bashing them, when it's absolutely not accurate, then I guess we will leave it at that.

[14 in Green]

3 minutes ago, T0mShane said:

Surely problematic but, on the other hand, UConn just shut down football because they suck and nobody pays attention to it and they lack cash reserves as a result. If they put some alumni together to hire Calipari and/or Saban, they’re perennial contenders and have all the revenue they could ever want.

Not to belabor this, but, no.

UConn was a victim of the very type of greed we’re talking about here.

Not that they were an innocent victim, but yes,  they were a victim of Conferences wanting to become SUPER conferences.

What is now the Power 5 wanted even bigger and more tv markets, and the ACC broke up conferences like the Big East to take schools like Syracuse and Pitt. Same thing with the Big Ten and Maryland and Rutgers.

That left schools like UConn on the outside looking in. They’re still more fortunate than a lot of schools who were in that spot. They at least have a strong basketball program, and the Big East seems to have survived by returning to It’s roots as a hoops driven league.

[HawkeyeJet]

17 minutes ago, Jet Nut said:

No one said it was the kids fault.  Who bashed them?  Who’s overly sensitive and acting like they never heard this before?  It’s just not college for most athletes.  Isn’t a school.  They’re not there to learn, they’re in school because they have to in order to get their NBA check.  Or need to do their 3 years for the NFL.  So really a lot of them don’t belong on a college campus, they belong on a minor league field.  

That doesn't mean they get a free pass on academics.  That is just simply not true. 

You are essentially saying student athlete is a dumb term because they are students, they don't have to worry about academics.  In my experience, that is overwhelmingly not accurate.

I think student athlete is a dumb term because it's a method to try avoiding calling them what they really are, employees.  

[14 in Green]

9 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

Saying that half of them are essentially illiterate is what is/was ignorant.

If you don't think that's bashing them, when it's absolutely not accurate, then I guess we will leave it at that.

If my saying “half” was what caused you to use the word ignorant, I’m sorry, but I think that’s you being overly sensitive. 

I obviously don’t know the exact percentage, but was simply making a point. Exactly like what you’re doing when you say “maybe a few”. That doesn’t make you ignorant, it just means you see it differently then I do.

I think it’s fairly wide spread, you don’t.

[HawkeyeJet]

2 minutes ago, Trolly McTrollface said:

If my saying “half” was what caused you to use the word ignorant, I’m sorry, but I think that’s you being overly sensitive. 

I obviously don’t know the exact percentage, but was simply making a point. Exactly like what you’re doing when you say “maybe a few”. That doesn’t make you ignorant, it just means you see it differently then I do.

I think it’s fairly wide spread, you don’t.

That D1 athletes can't read?  No, I don't.

[Aaron Hernandez]

Everyone is concerned about this or that. What about me? I think they'll be fine and I like to watch football on Saturdays sometimes as I sober up before getting drunk again Sunday. What the **** am I supposed to watch? Shark Tank reruns?

[Jet Nut]

8 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

That doesn't mean they get a free pass on academics.  That is just simply not true. 

You are essentially saying student athlete is a dumb term because they are students, they don't have to worry about academics.  In my experience, that is overwhelmingly not accurate.

I think student athlete is a dumb term because it's a method to try avoiding calling them what they really are, employees.  

I never said anyone was dumb.  Though now that I think of it, student athlete is a dumb term for too many of the athletes who dress up as students.  

I'm saying that for too many students school isnt for what it is intended for.  Otherwise you dont go for one year and leave.  Not one of Caliparis players who are one and done are there for the academics.  And when you get into a college that most them would never get into if left to their HS academic achievements like the rest of the world, yes, its a free pass.  

You need to discuss without putting words in the mouths of those who dont agree with you

[Aaron Hernandez]

7 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

That D1 athletes can't read?  No, I don't.

I don't actually think they can't read, but also dont think a lot of these programs care about helping them get past a 4th grade level if it benefits them and they're eligible.

https://www.businessinsider.com/ncaa-unc-athlete-essay-decision-sanctions-2017-10