News Article: Time to face reality: ‘No one is playing college football in the fall’ (or are they?)

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crimsonaudio

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Time to face reality: ‘No one is playing college football in the fall’

“Right now, I don’t see a path in the current environment to how we play,” said a Power Five athletic director. “I’m confident we’ll get back to what we all think of as normal, but it may be a year before that happens.”

Here’s the cruel truth about how college football leaders approached football this fall: The entirety of their plan to return was based on hope. Hope that the COVID-19 would go away. Hope that college campuses wouldn’t be a petri dish for the virus. Hope that they could figure out a way to play a contact sport in a time of mandatory social distancing. Hope for a vaccine to keep players healthy and seats full.

A strategy of hope isn’t much of a strategy, and a half-dozen coaches and officials told Yahoo Sports this weekend that hope is being vanquished. It’s all over in the minds of many coaches and athletic directors, as the sport will keep pushing back to buy time until the inevitable happens.

“Ultimately, no one is playing football in the fall,” said a high-ranking college official. “It’s just a matter of how it unfolds. As soon one of the ‘autonomy five’ or Power Five conferences makes a decision, that’s going to end it.”
The spring option still has some support, but it’ll only be after every option to play in the fall is exhausted. Those options are dwindling by the day, as the strategy of hope that’s defined college football’s plan for the season is predictably falling apart. Hope is free, and college officials are getting what they paid for.

“The thing that’s starting to settle in for us,” said a high ranking official at a Power Five school. “We’ve been talking about this as a one-year problem. I’m not sure it’s a one-year problem anymore. To me, it’s more likely we’re in this situation the same time next year than we play college football in the fall.”
 

B1GTide

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Good article. This part is dumb:

Here’s the cruel truth about how college football leaders approached football this fall: The entirety of their plan to return was based on hope. Hope that the COVID-19 would go away. Hope that college campuses wouldn’t be a petri dish for the virus. Hope that they could figure out a way to play a contact sport in a time of mandatory social distancing. Hope for a vaccine to keep players healthy and seats full.

The schools themselves are not to blame for where we are. All the schools could do was hope. What were they supposed to do differently on campuses across America.
 

BamaMoon

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Good article. This part is dumb:

Here’s the cruel truth about how college football leaders approached football this fall: The entirety of their plan to return was based on hope. Hope that the COVID-19 would go away. Hope that college campuses wouldn’t be a petri dish for the virus. Hope that they could figure out a way to play a contact sport in a time of mandatory social distancing. Hope for a vaccine to keep players healthy and seats full.

The schools themselves are not to blame for where we are. All the schools could do was hope. What were they supposed to do differently on campuses across America.
I had the exact thought as I read that. It was impossible to plan what to do because it's been a moving target the entire time.
 

crimsonaudio

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Good article. This part is dumb:

Here’s the cruel truth about how college football leaders approached football this fall: The entirety of their plan to return was based on hope. Hope that the COVID-19 would go away. Hope that college campuses wouldn’t be a petri dish for the virus. Hope that they could figure out a way to play a contact sport in a time of mandatory social distancing. Hope for a vaccine to keep players healthy and seats full.

The schools themselves are not to blame for where we are. All the schools could do was hope. What were they supposed to do differently on campuses across America.
Yah, hope is all they had - he made it sound like they threw out every other option and just relied on hope...
 
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B1GTide

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My question - if it is not safe enough to play sports to empty stadiums, how is it safe to bring these kids back into the dorms and classrooms? You might be able to control small groups of kids, but it is impossible to control thousands of them. But schools are already bringing kids back, and none of them is talking about reversing that.
 

4Q Basket Case

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As stated in another thread, I expect a stair-stepped escalation, ending in no football until Fall, 2021.

It appears we skipped limited or no fans, and went straight to conference only. That won’t last long (AL-UGA on 9/20 ain‘t happenin’, at least not on time).

So no non conference. Then delayed conference. Then spring football. Then nothing.

It’s like when your flight gets delayed and delayed, and delayed, then finally cancelled.
 

BadgerTidefan

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Yes, no doubt the virus is very dangerous. However getting a treatment is I think more likely than a vaccine in the near future. Some of the grammer and high schools are discussing not having in-person classes this fall. Knowing the most severe cases according to CDC studies are people with pre-existing conditions such as lung problems, heart problems and diabetes, my main concern in not having school, playing football etc is that this could potentially last 2, 3 or maybe more years. No one can say with certainty that next year will be any better or even the year after at this point. Will we cancel everything for several years? The devastation to businesses is bad enough, are we also prepared to cancel school and sports for lower risk groups indefinitely? I hope not.
 

B1GTide

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Yes, no doubt the virus is very dangerous. However getting a treatment is I think more likely than a vaccine in the near future. Some of the grammer and high schools are discussing not having in-person classes this fall. Knowing the most severe cases according to CDC studies are people with pre-existing conditions such as lung problems, heart problems and diabetes, my main concern in not having school, playing football etc is that this could potentially last 2, 3 or maybe more years. No one can say with certainty that next year will be any better or even the year after at this point. Will we cancel everything for several years? The devastation to businesses is bad enough, are we also prepared to cancel school and sports for lower risk groups indefinitely? I hope not.
We need to innovate, not cancel. We can do just about everything if we innovate - and if everyone wears a mask. Without masks, nothing works and millions will eventually die.
 

Con

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Yes, no doubt the virus is very dangerous. However getting a treatment is I think more likely than a vaccine in the near future. Some of the grammer and high schools are discussing not having in-person classes this fall. Knowing the most severe cases according to CDC studies are people with pre-existing conditions such as lung problems, heart problems and diabetes, my main concern in not having school, playing football etc is that this could potentially last 2, 3 or maybe more years. No one can say with certainty that next year will be any better or even the year after at this point. Will we cancel everything for several years? The devastation to businesses is bad enough, are we also prepared to cancel school and sports for lower risk groups indefinitely? I hope not.
Another thing I haven’t seen mentioned is without sports, kids have more free time which leads to them doing stupid things. They work hard on their schoolwork because they know that to play they need good grades, no detentions, good attendance and other things. The trickle down will not be good for education.

A lot of people will have to learn self discipline to make it through all of this. When football does return the teams that have been “doing their jobs” will be heads and shoulders above the rest. Their will be another great dynasty out there for @selmaborntidefan to break down in a few years.
 
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crimsonaudio

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A lot of people will have to learn self discipline to make it through all of this.
This is society-wide. Can't tell you how many people have mentioned gaining the "Covid 19 (pounds)" during quarantine and while gyms were closed, etc. They lacked the self discipline to control eating out of boredom and to make themselves do the work daily to improve.

This is a great time to build mental toughness and self discipline - I hope the Bama football team does this universally, and I hope posters here do so as well. You either get better or get worse every day.
 

Tideflyer

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I could be wrong ( It`s been known to happen, just ask my wife ), but if just one Power 5 says , " No football this fall ", that`ll be it. How do you have a legitimate season with a legitimate playoff structure?
 

B1GTide

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I could be wrong ( It`s been known to happen, just ask my wife ), but if just one Power 5 says , " No football this fall ", that`ll be it. How do you have a legitimate season with a legitimate playoff structure?
You are probably right, but the legitimacy of the season would not be diminished if some teams or conferences opt out. It has happened before.
 
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We_are_Bama

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Yes, no doubt the virus is very dangerous. However getting a treatment is I think more likely than a vaccine in the near future. Some of the grammer and high schools are discussing not having in-person classes this fall. Knowing the most severe cases according to CDC studies are people with pre-existing conditions such as lung problems, heart problems and diabetes, my main concern in not having school, playing football etc is that this could potentially last 2, 3 or maybe more years. No one can say with certainty that next year will be any better or even the year after at this point. Will we cancel everything for several years? The devastation to businesses is bad enough, are we also prepared to cancel school and sports for lower risk groups indefinitely? I hope not.
If it gets so bad that everything has to be cancelled for years to come, then it's RIP sports. Just the prospect of no football this fall has already had a HUGE ripple effect on other sports. No way all of these sports can survive a 4-5 year hiatus. It would be the equivalent of receiving the death penalty, SMU style....multiplied by 10.
 
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davefrat

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I saw a joke the other day that is probably not far from the truth...that if you told people in the south that quarantine and wearing a mask would mean we would have college football in the fall the entire south would have stayed indoors until kickoff.
 
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The Ols

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This is society-wide. Can't tell you how many people have mentioned gaining the "Covid 19 (pounds)" during quarantine and while gyms were closed, etc. They lacked the self discipline to control eating out of boredom and to make themselves do the work daily to improve.

This is a great time to build mental toughness and self discipline - I hope the Bama football team does this universally, and I hope posters here do so as well. You either get better or get worse every day.
"You either get busy living or get busy dying"...Red
 

CoachJeff

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My question - if it is not safe enough to play sports to empty stadiums, how is it safe to bring these kids back into the dorms and classrooms? You might be able to control small groups of kids, but it is impossible to control thousands of them. But schools are already bringing kids back, and none of them is talking about reversing that.
Covid is not something college kids should fear. I’m 37 and I’m not worried either. More college kids will die of alcohol poisoning, or a car crash, or suicide than from covid.

It’s “safe” to bring kids back into dorms now.
 

BamaMoon

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I'm still holding out with hope...

It's a multi-layered issue that involves money (still think this plays a bigger factor than "physical health"), culture, emotional well-being and probably a bunch of other things that all equal up to "living."

I'm not saying we should whistle past the graveyard on this but it involves more than just Covid cases.
 
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