2020 NCAA Football

ninjacornelius

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Aug 18, 2005
584
Austin, TX
I don’t know what P5 football looks like a few years down the road, but it’s not going to be what it was previously. This is Curt Flood fighting the reserve clause. He may not have won, but he changed the landscape for those who came after him, and I think that’s what we’re on the verge of here.
Well said. While I don't doubt that Trevor Lawrence et al really do want to play this year, this is a brilliant finesse by them.
 

RedOctober3829

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Jul 19, 2005
55,298
deep inside Guido territory
I’m still not fully convinced that the SEC will cancel. They obviously should, but that’s a hell freezing over type event.
What school’s President is going to open their institution up for potential lawsuits down the road if anyone gets long term health effects from Covid let alone a death? Not cancelling would in my opinion be a pure political decision because red state politicians pressure college presidents to push forward.
 

JCizzle

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Dec 11, 2006
20,530
What school’s President is going to open their institution up for potential lawsuits down the road if anyone gets long term health effects from Covid let alone a death? Not cancelling would in my opinion be a pure political decision because red state politicians pressure college presidents to push forward.
We already saw two schools vote against the Big Ten’s decision, so there are Presidents out there who will do it. Again, I don’t agree with it at all, but I think the decision is going to be different at schools like Alabama and Auburn. I agree with DJ that they’re going to hold out for awhile.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
53,840
What school’s President is going to open their institution up for potential lawsuits down the road if anyone gets long term health effects from Covid let alone a death? Not cancelling would in my opinion be a pure political decision because red state politicians pressure college presidents to push forward.
It's not political. It's financial.
 

Gdiguy

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Jul 15, 2005
6,231
San Diego, CA
I don't think this had been explicitly posted here before, but it makes a lot of sense with what we've been discussing above

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29633697/heart-condition-linked-covid-19-fuels-power-5-concern-season-viability
Myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, has been found in at least five Big Ten Conference athletes and among several other athletes in other conferences, according to two sources with knowledge of athletes' medical care.
 

dirtynine

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Dec 17, 2002
8,394
Philly
This will play out in such a perfectly American way. Performative toughness will put on a good show, but legal liability will ultimately prevail.
 

Bernie Carbohydrate

writes the Semi-Fin
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Dec 2, 2001
4,047
South Carolina via Dorchestah
It's not political. It's financial.
Why not both?

State politics has an enormous influence on the SEC schools; these are states where the governors are almost all Republicans, have ties to SEC schools, and are vested in "getting back to normal."

SC Governor Henry McMaster (two degrees from the University of South Carolina).
GA Governor Brian Kemp (UGA graduate)
AL Governor Kay Ivey (Auburn grad)
AR Governor Asa Hutchinson (University of Arkansas)
TN Governor Bill Lee (in an upset, went to Auburn, not UT)

And the other (R) SEC governors (DeSantis in Florida, Parson in Missouri, Reeves in Mississippi, etc.) have publicly invested in and amplified the Trump administration's messaging about staying open despite the pandemic. Any SEC president voting on the football season has called their governor and gotten marching orders, I assure you.
 

Swedgin

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Jun 27, 2013
701
Wish someone with a platform would call on Harbaugh, Swinney et al to put their money where their mouth is. If college coaches are going to make (ridiculous) claims that you can safely run a college football program during an uncontrolled pandemic, then Harbaugh and his ilk should have no problem indemnifying his players.

Happens all the time in negotiations. One side identifies a source of risk/concern in a deal. Other side down plays the risk. Make an ask for indemnification. Other side balks, now we all know that the risk is not so minimal and can have a real discussion about it.

So college coach who now fancies himself an epidemiologist, agree to indemnification secured by a portion of this years (say half, in escrow) and all of future years salary, nike deals etc.
 

Bergs

funky and cold
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Jul 22, 2005
21,613
I would love to see the plan for playing football in the Spring. I don't see how it would work, especially if they're going to turn around and get back on the regular fall schedule in 2021. And how does the NFL draft fit in?
It sounds good, but I don't see how it happens.
8 week season starts in JAN, week off, bowls. I could see it.
 

OurF'ingCity

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Apr 22, 2016
8,469
New York City
If you are the other conferences, regardless of whether you care about the safety of the coaches and players (clearly, they don't), wouldn't you now want to also move your season to spring to increase the chances that teams will be able to play inter-conference games with the Big 10, Pac-12, etc.? In other words, there is a small chance we could get something approaching a normal CFB season next spring, but the Big 12 wants to eliminate that chance and go forward in the fall because...why, exactly?
 

snowmanny

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Dec 8, 2005
15,667
If the argument is that it is safer to have football players on campus and monitored and tested and bubbled as opposed to them being off elsewhere, why wouldn’t that be true for other fall athletes as well?

I mean I know the answer to that question, but I object to not just saying it’s mostly about money when it’s mostly about money. And I am not saying that they aren’t going to make a good faith effort to keep the players safe, I’m saying they are mostly doing that to protect their money rather than some primary concern for student safety.
 

Mystic Merlin

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Sep 21, 2007
46,767
Hartford, CT
Man oh man are there some takes out there. I guess Holtz can be waved away for obvious reasons, but Reece Davis popped up on ESPN to criticize the conferences for not explaining ‘specifically’ what led to their postponement decisions....but, look, he isn’t DISAGREEING with the postponement decisions, mind you....but if the conferences know something about the medical risks associated with COVID they should tell us because society with benefit from knowing.

Sorry this inconveniences your entertainment plans and professional schedule for the fall, Reece.