FOOTBALL MAC cancels fall football, intends to play in spring
- Thread starter SpaceRaider
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Cases are falling thanks to mask use. Good job everyone. I think we will play. We might not finish, but I think we will start.
Interesting read. After doing some research, looks like we will know something this week. Most think we are doomed.
bureaucrats are easily stampeded. One beast spooked and soon the whole herd takes off.
I am not a medical expert by any means, and don’t pretend to have all the answers. That said, these are some thoughts I have had as I think about this situation.
The speed at which these football news updates has moved just defies understanding given that the virus situation is basically the same as it has been for the past 4 months (at least in my rudimentary understanding). Within days of conferences finalizing their schedules, and basically 48 hours after Massaro and Stock were on a zoom press conference talking about scheduling Troy and so forth, now we’re apparently barreling toward a nationwide cancellation this weekend.
If that’s true, why not just say two months ago that barring some change in circumstance, it appears unlikely we will play in the fall but we will keep exploring ways we can alter the dynamic and continue to monitor relevant data? Instead they spent that time talking about how they were going to play in the fall with appropriate safeguards in place. Now we’re just suddenly pulling the plug?
If the standard is “no risk of Covid to players” then this is potentially a multi-year thing. How do you justify even continuing to operate a football or basketball program at a G5 school when there is no prospect of playing games anytime soon?
And at what point does the risk posed to players of not playing exceed the risk of playing? The athletic scholarship is a student-athlete’s ticket to a degree and an opportunity for a better future. But it would seem we’re getting dangerously close to just chucking that out the window.
I’m not oblivious to the risk of playing games. However, it doesn’t seem there has been good perspective on the very real risks that exist of shutting down college sports either.
Hoping for the best overall solution somehow to emerge.
The speed at which these football news updates has moved just defies understanding given that the virus situation is basically the same as it has been for the past 4 months (at least in my rudimentary understanding). Within days of conferences finalizing their schedules, and basically 48 hours after Massaro and Stock were on a zoom press conference talking about scheduling Troy and so forth, now we’re apparently barreling toward a nationwide cancellation this weekend.
If that’s true, why not just say two months ago that barring some change in circumstance, it appears unlikely we will play in the fall but we will keep exploring ways we can alter the dynamic and continue to monitor relevant data? Instead they spent that time talking about how they were going to play in the fall with appropriate safeguards in place. Now we’re just suddenly pulling the plug?
If the standard is “no risk of Covid to players” then this is potentially a multi-year thing. How do you justify even continuing to operate a football or basketball program at a G5 school when there is no prospect of playing games anytime soon?
And at what point does the risk posed to players of not playing exceed the risk of playing? The athletic scholarship is a student-athlete’s ticket to a degree and an opportunity for a better future. But it would seem we’re getting dangerously close to just chucking that out the window.
I’m not oblivious to the risk of playing games. However, it doesn’t seem there has been good perspective on the very real risks that exist of shutting down college sports either.
Hoping for the best overall solution somehow to emerge.
What real risk is there to shutting down sports? There is immense risk to playing through this given the ease with which this novel and deadly virus spreads. It may not be deadly for 20 year olds for the most part but what about coaches, staff, professors, their families, etc? My wife’s cousin died today after a five week battle with COVID so perhaps this is a little too close to home at the moment, but there are a lot of people dying who shouldn’t be because we want to go to a bar, dine out, watch football or pretend everything should be business as usual. But it's not. Sometimes, shit happens and we have to suck it up for a little while.
Schools will in all likelihood honor scholarships, so where is the risk? If we are really saying the only way these kids will stay in school is if they can play ball this year that’s actually a completely different problem.
That said, two months ago you had a bunch of politicians telling everyone this virus would just magically disappear in the summer. Well, what we saw was the virus spread even in spite of the heat and humidity as everyone went back to pretending like nothing was happening. I've said all along dating back to March that we wouldn't play this year especially college ball, because eventually everyone was going to see that putting athletes on planes, buses, locker rooms, etc. in all these confined spaces would do nothing but continue to serve as localized incubators. Hell, MLB with much more sophisticated testing regime and less bodies per sq foot in a clubhouse vs a locker room, chartered flights, etc. with smaller entourages already had two teams just in week one be hit. The Cardinals have still only played five games. Some have played 17.
But what's probably played into this more than anything is that a) there's still a lot of unknowns about long term implications; and b) this is a systemic virus and for those who aren't lucky enough to get away with the milder symptoms face serious health consequences. And again go back to how easily it spreads from person to person. One of those long term implications is that the virus has the ability to cause damage and scarring to the heart. If you're an athlete that's the last thing you need to have happen and that damage to the heart is occurring in young healthy adults even with otherwise mild symptoms. The long term implications from this virus won't truly be known for some time, and it has finally sunk in that placing young men in tightly confined spaces like a football locker room probably isn't the smartest thing to do given the long term health implications aren't known yet in totality. And as such preventing spread should still be the goal even for those who are young healthy stud athletes.
Schools will in all likelihood honor scholarships, so where is the risk? If we are really saying the only way these kids will stay in school is if they can play ball this year that’s actually a completely different problem.
That said, two months ago you had a bunch of politicians telling everyone this virus would just magically disappear in the summer. Well, what we saw was the virus spread even in spite of the heat and humidity as everyone went back to pretending like nothing was happening. I've said all along dating back to March that we wouldn't play this year especially college ball, because eventually everyone was going to see that putting athletes on planes, buses, locker rooms, etc. in all these confined spaces would do nothing but continue to serve as localized incubators. Hell, MLB with much more sophisticated testing regime and less bodies per sq foot in a clubhouse vs a locker room, chartered flights, etc. with smaller entourages already had two teams just in week one be hit. The Cardinals have still only played five games. Some have played 17.
But what's probably played into this more than anything is that a) there's still a lot of unknowns about long term implications; and b) this is a systemic virus and for those who aren't lucky enough to get away with the milder symptoms face serious health consequences. And again go back to how easily it spreads from person to person. One of those long term implications is that the virus has the ability to cause damage and scarring to the heart. If you're an athlete that's the last thing you need to have happen and that damage to the heart is occurring in young healthy adults even with otherwise mild symptoms. The long term implications from this virus won't truly be known for some time, and it has finally sunk in that placing young men in tightly confined spaces like a football locker room probably isn't the smartest thing to do given the long term health implications aren't known yet in totality. And as such preventing spread should still be the goal even for those who are young healthy stud athletes.
I’m beginning to think they put our schedules and plans to play just to keep the public hopeful.
MT01 I’m sorry for your loss. I fully understand how this disease can be deadly to my age group. One of my college teammates never got off the ventilator after being intubated in April and passed away April 18th. He waited with symptoms for weeks until finally being admitted to the hospital in Detroit. Unfortunately, the hospitals were completely overrun when he got sick.
Thanks FR. Sorry for the loss of your friend as well. Shitty way to go especially for the families, because they can't be near them while they are dying.
