2020 NCAA Football

SoxJox

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Starting off the new thread with some obvious unpleasant current news injecting a great deal of uncertainty in the upcoming season.

Hopefully, COVID-19 issues will have resolved themselves by season start, but the whole recruiting and training cycle has been disrupted.

Here is the NCAA's COVID-19 Q&A Guide.

First, the COVID-19 recruiting dead period for Div-I sports is in effect and currently lasts through "at least" April 15.

I hope the season is not disrupted, but, among other things, once the dead period expires, I am interested in what effect the disrupted football training cycle might have on increased injuries during the season.
 

HriniakPosterChild

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With the pandemic casting uncertainty on the 2020 season, programs are starting to wrestle with two weighty issues: Getting ready to play some kind of season if it is safe to do so and trying to manage what for many would be a substantial financial blow if the season is shortened or canceled.

The NCAA this week formed a working group to look at issues such as how much preseason practice and conditioning would be required once play is green-lighted again. The NCAA said “it is premature to establish a timeline for when these scenarios may be put into place.”
“If you look at statistics historically on concussions, injuries … the most concentrated time that you practice and not play is in fall camp,” Saban said on a conference call with reporters. “You have more practices, you have to spend more time on the field. So I don’t know that increasing that is going to be beneficial in getting people ready to play
Ohio State’s athletic department will finish with the fiscal year June 30 with about $10.2 million in the bank and money saved on travel when spring sports were eliminated and football coaches not traveling to visit recruits, Smith said. That could get used up quickly if the seven home football games are affected.

Smith said he can’t see the players playing in Ohio Stadium in front of more than 100,000 empty seats even if it would bring in television revenue. If it’s not safe for the fans to be together, it probably wouldn’t be safe for the players, either, he said.
Amid uncertainty, college football trying to plan for season
 

CFB_Rules

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The rumor mill in my neck of the woods is that the NCAA is preparing for a 6-week delay in starting the season right now. Whether that means they truncate the season or just push everything back, I don't know.
 

Ale Xander

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Perhaps play an 8 game conference-only season from Mid-October to Mid-December. Get rid of non-conference (move the early conference games to December). Get rid of conference CG's. Play an 8 team playoff, P5 , 1 non-P5, plus 2 at large. Not fair to PAC but whatever.
 
Perhaps play an 8 game conference-only season from Mid-October to Mid-December. Get rid of non-conference (move the early conference games to December). Get rid of conference CG's. Play an 8 team playoff, P5 , 1 non-P5, plus 2 at large. Not fair to PAC but whatever.
Don't schools sign contracts with each other regarding their scheduled non-conference games? If a small university is struggling financially and has a game scheduled in 2020 with a Power 5 school, I don't see how you can just ignore that contract without paying off the small school. (I'm sure most of those contracts have clauses which cover weather-related cancellations; I rather doubt they cover pandemics.)
 

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Don't schools sign contracts with each other regarding their scheduled non-conference games? If a small university is struggling financially and has a game scheduled in 2020 with a Power 5 school, I don't see how you can just ignore that contract without paying off the small school. (I'm sure most of those contracts have clauses which cover weather-related cancellations; I rather doubt they cover pandemics.)
Not pandemics specifically, but there is probably a force majeure clause in there.
 

RedOctober3829

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Vice President Mike Pence was a good listener Wednesday on a conference call with the College Football Playoff Management Committee to discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on college athletics. That was one conclusion drawn by those on the call because the message to Pence from that group was clear: There will be no college football until students are allowed on campus.
"Our players are students. If we're not in college, we're not having contests," said Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who was on the call.
"Our message was, we need to get universities and colleges back open, that we were education-based programs, and we weren't going to have sports until we had something closer to normal college going on," he added.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/commissioners-tell-vp-mike-pence-college-sports-wont-be-back-until-students-return-to-campus/
 

cornwalls@6

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Perhaps play an 8 game conference-only season from Mid-October to Mid-December. Get rid of non-conference (move the early conference games to December). Get rid of conference CG's. Play an 8 team playoff, P5 , 1 non-P5, plus 2 at large. Not fair to PAC but whatever.
So Notre Dame gets the year off?(I know that wouldn't break a lot people's hearts).
 

axx

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Now it would be weird if it was just the SEC and perhaps the Big 12.
 
Funny thing is, if the SEC did play an intra-conference schedule of 10-12 games, the strength of schedule of pretty much every team would be *way* better than it is during a normal season. Imagine, say, Florida not getting to play Eastern Washington, South Alabama, New Mexico State and Florida State (their current out-of-conference schedule for 2020) and instead - assuming a 12-game schedule - having to add four of Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Arkansas in their stead, with LSU and Ole Miss already lined up from the SEC West. That is a season, right there.
 

tims4wins

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Funny thing is, if the SEC did play an intra-conference schedule of 10-12 games, the strength of schedule of pretty much every team would be *way* better than it is during a normal season. Imagine, say, Florida not getting to play Eastern Washington, South Alabama, New Mexico State and Florida State (their current out-of-conference schedule for 2020) and instead - assuming a 12-game schedule - having to add four of Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Arkansas in their stead, with LSU and Ole Miss already lined up from the SEC West. That is a season, right there.
There are 14 teams right? The SEC could do a full round robin - play all 13 teams. Then crown the winner the champ. Or even have a 2 or 4 team playoff. It'd be epic.
 

j-man

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There are 14 teams right? The SEC could do a full round robin - play all 13 teams. Then crown the winner the champ. Or even have a 2 or 4 team playoff. It'd be epic.
epic for who bama lsu the funny thing is arkansas would go 3-9 with a non conf sch or 1-11 with a all sec schedule if i ran arkansas i wouild vote for a Feb-April season because then u hope 10 bama 10 lsu guys 10 auburn guys all have to go pro
 

johnmd20

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California State University Campuses to be closed through the fall semester. That puts the 2020 season in doubt for those 23 teams, at least. And there could be more.

It's gonna be a weird fall, following a weird summer, following a weird spring.
 

RedOctober3829

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Take the source with a grain of salt, but nonetheless.....
Told by two people I trust — USC v Alabama isn’t happening. Trojans can’t even practice in LA potentially for several months. This is why Bama already talking to other possible opponents. Not official but understood. Feeling now that Pac 12 football in spring — much more likely

View: https://twitter.com/ColinCowherd/status/1260367991469834240
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Seems odd, the scenario with football and not basketball. From the attendance side, would 50,000-100,000 fans outside be better than 10,000 fans inside? Indoors is definitely the worse scenario, but football stadiums still have indoor bathrooms and covered concessions more at risk than the outdoor seating area.

Conversely, if you play to empty stadia isolating 24 total players and maybe 8-10 coaches between basketball teams seems easier than the 100+ players and dozens of coaches and staff in a football game.
 

Average Reds

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You could do football at 50% (or less) capacity.
Trying to reduce capacity at games strikes me as the worst of both worlds.

You won’t placate fans who want to attend, because there’s no way to equitably choose among students and alums, including folks who have been loyal ticket holders for decades.

A half empty stadium also won’t mitigate the risk to any real degree, because with bleacher seating you don’t just need to create room within rows, but between them. Which means you can’t create meaningful social distance unless you reduce capacity to the point where it’s a silly concept. (Maybe 10%.)

In my view, the only practical choices are (1) play in empty stadiums, or (2) accept a full herd-immunity strategy for your university, which would be foolish. (Which is why I’m assuming the SEC embraces it.)
 

TheRooster

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I'm not advocating for it, I just figure they'll try something rather than forgo the season. At 30% capacity, they'd still generate meaningful gate revenue to pair with the TV money.
 

SoxJox

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I'm thinking that empty stadiums will be the only option. And I see the NCAA - and players perhaps more so - being motivated to play the games because for at least some, even if only a small percentage, there are tangible and meaningful outcomes impacting potential professional careers.
 

SoxJox

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I'm wondering. IF the 2020 football season is cancelled, how many rising juniors who might otherwise declare for the draft at season's end stay put for their senior years?

Of course, this does not account for what likely would be NCAA relaxation of eligibility rules to extend all players by one additional year. But wouldn't that effectively make these "junior" players athletically junior all over again. And, if so, they would in most cases be academic seniors. How will the NCAA true that square?
 

RedOctober3829

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axx

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Err, don't you think they should not have practiced until the tests came back?
 

genoasalami

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Kids are all over campus during the week. One tests positive at practice during the week and then what? Maybe there is an elaborate plan to make college football happen in the fall, but how that plan would work escapes me. The NFL may be able to pull it off, I struggle to see how it's gonna work with college kids.
 

SoxJox

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Penn State announces a phased return for football., beginning June 6 with 75 football student-athletes.

Following CDC and local government guidelines, as well as tracking and implementing recommendations coming from the NCAA Sport Science Institute and the Big Ten Conference’s task force for Emerging Infectious Disease, the Penn State Athletics sports performance team developed in-depth protocols for the student-athletes and staff. Student-athlete feedback and concerns also were part of the development process. The protocols include wearing of masks, daily health screening and small group activities, as well as additional usage and sanitation regulations facilities, including carefully guided access to buildings.

Student-athletes have begun a prescribed quarantine in preparation for their return to campus and will be tested and quarantined upon their return. Those student-athletes who are medically cleared may then participate in voluntary on-campus workouts beginning June 15. Those workouts will be limited in size (groups of less than 20 student-athletes) and will be supervised by Penn State’s performance enhancement and sports medicine staffs.
 

terrynever

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Gonna be weird if they play in an empty Beaver Stadium, because fans aren't going to be allowed.
Penn State President Eric Barron says he will announce no later than June 15 whether students will be allowed on campus when fall classes begin in August.
Probably doesn’t impact football. They’re going to play a season somehow, whether with 20,000 fans or 2,000.
 
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Awesome Fossum

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Utah DC suspended for (I think) using the n word in a 2013 text:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29272833/utah-suspends-dc-morgan-scalley-texting-racial-slur-2013
Iowa strength coach on administrative leave for basically being a dick to black players. Shockingly, this is all news to Ferentz:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29279270/iowa-strength-coach-chris-doyle-disputes-claims-biased-behavior-based-race
I imagine there are quite a few college football coaches sweating bullets right now.
 

Nator

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Iowa strength coach on administrative leave for basically being a dick to black players. Shockingly, this is all news to Ferentz:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29279270/iowa-strength-coach-chris-doyle-disputes-claims-biased-behavior-based-race
I imagine there are quite a few college football coaches sweating bullets right now.
Ferentz has got to be fired. There is no way he didn't know that this was happening over 20+ years. I can accept that he didn't know the extent of it. It is more likely he didn't want to know the extent of it. No investigation will be seen as credible if he is still onboard.

On another level way down below disregarding basic human dignity, Iowa will not come even close to being able to recruit black players while he is associated with the program.

I hope they are not crafting some press conference where the AD regretfully accepts his resignation or some such horseshit, and they just fire him for enabling systemic racism for over two decades and leave it at that.
 

SoxJox

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Saw this in a Penn State-focused site, but it applies across the NCAA.

NCAA Football Oversight Committee finalizes proposed preseason model

Under the proposed model, assuming a school’s first scheduled football contest is on Saturday, Sept. 5, student-athletes may be required to participate in up to eight hours of weight training, conditioning and film review per week (not more than two hours of film review per week) from July 13-23.

Then, from July 24 through Aug. 6, student-athletes may be required to participate in up to 20 hours of countable athletically related activities per week (not more than four hours per day) as follows:

  • Up to eight hours per week for weight training and conditioning.
  • Up to six hours per week for walk-throughs, which may include the use of a football.
  • Up to six hours per week for meetings, which may include film review, team meetings, position meetings, one-on-one meetings, etc.
During this 14-day period, student-athletes are required to get at least two days off.


And,


These are the key dates:

June 1-July 12: Teams may conduct voluntary workouts on campus limited to eight hours per week.

July 13-23: Teams may conduct mandatory workouts limited to eight hours per week. These sessions can include weight training, conditioning and film review.

July 24-Aug. 6: This is an important, two-week period that will serve essentially as a training camp primer. In this 14-day stretch, teams may conduct 20 hours per week of workouts and team meetings. The time will be broken down into eight hours of workouts, six hours of walk-throughs (with footballs) and six hours of meetings and film study. Coaches are permitted to be part of these sessions.

Aug. 7: Training camps may begin for teams that open their seasons Sept. 5, as Penn State is scheduled to do against Kent State. Camps will include a five-day acclimatization period, followed by 25 practices.
 

canderson

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Part of the demands are to kill The Eyes of Texas.

Until today I was unaware of its sordid history. My god. I’ve sang it literally thousands of times, there needs o be a serious evaluation of everything and openly discuss any racial history.
 

Kremlin Watcher

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Proud of those players. As emotional a thing that singing The Eyes is for me, I can totally get behind this. 100% in favor of putting everything on the table, no conditions.
 

Ale Xander

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