one thing that is being neglected is that we haven’t asked our college athletes if they are comfortable playing this fall? We just sort of assume that they are? We’ve seen a number of professional athletes opt out (mostly in baseball). I expect there are many athletes that have some serious family and personal distractions in their life at this point and maybe football just seems less important than it used to?
I think it’s going to be a weird FB season, if it happens at all.
If players don’t want to take the risk, I don’t think we’re going to cut their scholarships.
Presumably the protocol if a player tests positive is 14 days of self-isolation, at the minimum. Depending on the player(s) involved, this could quickly turn into something like the NFL strike season, where free agents were playing, but at the college level, it may be anyone who is healthy.
(I remember one preseason game in the strike season where a team started running the wishbone, and the opposing coach looked at his counterpart across the field, like “Are you serious? The wishbone?” It was kind of a joke… but it was football.)
I like this guy’s take on things.
Why would their heads explode? (other than the fact that the human cranium isn’t equipped to hold that many contradictory thoughts at once)
1 Like
Michigan State just shut down football for 14 days and told everyone to quarantine.
There’s no way this season is happening.
1 Like
Watched parts of MLB games with the abbreviated season, just started, no crowd.
If the PAC decides on a max caution scenario, I’m good with that.
We can do this!
1 Like
one weekend in baseball and the virus is rearing its ugly head
1 Like
I think this outbreak with the Marlins will kill the baseball season and football will be right behind. I genuinely hope I’m wrong.
5 Likes
sadly, there is a Red Sox pitcher that had the virus and is now having some heart issues . Its just not worth the risk.
1 Like
From Jon Wilner’s Hotline this morning:
Timeline Trouble?
The Pac-12 won’t release its conference-only football schedule until the presidents and chancellors approve the revised plan.
They are meeting (remotely) on Friday, so we probably won’t have schedule news prior to that point.
The Hotline expects approval of the general framework – 10 games, delayed start, windows for makeup games, a flexible date for the championship game – but we’re particularly curious about one aspect: The opening week.
The working model, as we reported, calls for the season to begin Sept. 19, which represents a two-week delay from the normal start.
That feels overly optimistic.
To hit the Sept. 19 start, teams would need to begin training camp by Aug. 21.
Given current coronavirus metrics, public health restrictions in Pac-12 cities and the overlap of training camp with students returning to campus, we’re deeply skeptical that training camp can begin three-and-a-half weeks from today.
And the disparate academic calendars add a layer of complication:
Seven schools are on the semester system and start fall instruction in just over three weeks; five schools are on the quarter system and don’t start for nine weeks.
Conditions in Los Angeles and Berkeley in the middle of August could be markedly different than conditions in Seattle and Eugene in late September.
Finding a competition schedule and practice calendar that suits everyone is an added complication.
“They are assuming some success in the next month or two (against the virus),” a source told the Hotline. “Some of it will be up to the public health people.”
The beauty of the Pac-12’s aggressive schedule is the flexibility provided by the moveable date for the championship game, which could be played on the weekends of Dec. 4-5, 11-12 or 18-19.
If they can’t make Sept. 19 work, those matchups could be moved to the back end of the schedule.
If they can’t make Sept. 19 or 26 work, both weeks could be moved to December.
In our opinion, the keys to Pac-12 football this fall are 1) campuses and communities getting control of the virus by the middle of September, and 2) the presidents being willing to wait out that process before pulling the plug.
Time is an asset – the asset – but only if accompanied by patience at the CEO level.
Because of the flexibility with the title game, the conference could start competition on Oct. 24, play eight games – enough for a legitimate season – and finish on Dec. 18-19.
Such a delay would allow schools to wait until late September … two full months from today … before opening training camp.
That seems more realistic than starting the show in three weeks. – Jon Wilner
2 Likes
1 Like
Please let Mandel be right about something for once:
https://twitter.com/slmandel/status/1288895272714608640
Can I embed tweets here? What do I need to do?
3 Likes
[quote=“sancho, post:78, topic:3864, full:true”]
Please let Mandel be right about something for once:
https://twitter.com/slmandel/status/1288895272714608640[/quote]
I agree, that would be awesome.
Doing a quick cross-check on CB - “Why would the MWC agree to a scheduling agreement with BYU?”
Hits all the right notes, this idea.
2 Likes
An added plus: The Utah Legislature wouldn’t be able to audit the PAC-12. 
1 Like
SEC just announced that they are going to a 10 game, conference only schedule too.
1 Like
I thought for sure the SEC would ratchet down to a 3 game conference schedule and then they’d force every SEC school to play a home game against Citadel, Jackson State and Middle Tennessee
insert Dueling Banjos music
3 Likes
From Jon Wilner’s PAC-12 Hotline, published a day early this week:
Part 1
Recent Series of Right Turns
(Note: This edition of the newsletter has been moved up from the scheduled Friday publication date.)
The Pac-12 is one day from taking another significant step on the road to fall football: The presidents and chancellors on Friday are expected to approve the revised, conference-only schedule.
We’re always wary of assumptions when it comes to CEO-level decisions on athletics, and our hesitancy triples with those decisions cast against a pandemic.
But if the 10-game model is approved and the weekly matchups are released to the public, the developments would conclude a well-played stretch by the Pac-12.
A conference often viewed as lagging its Power Five peers on football matters has been out in front in numerous regards over these past four months.
The Pac-12 had a medical advisory committee in place before the coronavirus shutdown and quickly formed a Covid-19 football planning group that plunged into schedule models.
The health and safety protocols for voluntary workouts, crafted by the medical advisory team, set a standard.
None of the coaches have issued he-said-what public comments about player welfare or football’s at-all-costs necessity.