Big Ten Cancels Fall Football (CFB Thread)

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#51      
The permanent end of much of college sports is much closer than people realize. The costs and risks to the institutions are getting close to outweighing the benefits.
 
#52      
I imagine most fall athletes had been trying to follow protocols in order to save their seasons. So now it is party hard tonight at the cool kid’s apartment.
 
#54      

cabmaker

eastern IA
The true ? of the day is this. fans want sports, players want to play. how will it come about.
 
#55      

Deleted member 654622

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If I’m Illinois I’m on the phone right now with the big 12. The consequences are gonna be severe if they don’t play.
I don't know enough about the consequences to have an opinion on that aspect. I do know that this board does nothing but speak highly of Lovie's character. No he is not a medical export but do any of us need a degree in rare disease to know at this point what we should and should not be doing? Lovie and JW think we are good to go. If other institutions are following similar protocol, then I say start making phone calls
 
#56      
I'm going to make a bold prediction right now. Between now and the end of 2021, Illinois will have played as many, of not more games than the average SEC or ACC school.

Let's be honest here. Who actually thinks these football teams are going to keep COVID out effectively? These are very large rosters filled with college kids. Do you remember what you were like when you were 20? Just look at what's going on with the St. Louis Cardinals. Once someone on the team gets it, it spreads, and you're probably looking at canceling all of that teams games for 3-4 weeks or more. Fall football is going to be riddled with games being canceled, and I could easily see a scenario where one of these conferences that goes forward ends up pulling the plug in mid-October.

Maybe the Big10 experiences the same thing in the spring, or maybe not. But it's pretty much a lock to happen in the fall.
 
#57      

Deleted member 654622

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I'm going to make a bold prediction right now. Between now and the end of 2021, Illinois will have played as many, of not more games than the average SEC or ACC school.

Let's be honest here. Who actually thinks these football teams are going to keep COVID out effectively? These are very large rosters filled with college kids. Do you remember what you were like when you were 20? Just look at what's going on with the St. Louis Cardinals. Once someone on the team gets it, it spreads, and you're probably looking at canceling all of that teams games for 3-4 weeks or more. Fall football is going to be riddled with games being canceled, and I could easily see a scenario where one of these conferences that goes forward ends up pulling the plug in mid-October.

Maybe the Big10 experiences the same thing in the spring, or maybe not. But it's pretty much a lock to happen in the fall.
I am not disagreeing with your likely outcome. What will disagree with is the comparison of players that are trying to make it to the show and one that already has made his money.
 
#58      

Deleted member 746684

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If I’m Illinois I’m on the phone right now with the big 12. The consequences are gonna be severe if they don’t play.
Illinois is one of the most prestigious and scientifically literate universities in the country. They're likely driving the decision not to play. Our President got a vote and he voted "no". It's clear Whitman and Smith respect that.

I don't know enough about the consequences to have an opinion on that aspect. I do know that this board does nothing but speak highly of Lovie's character. No he is not a medical export but do any of us need a degree in rare disease to know at this point what we should and should not be doing? Lovie and JW think we are good to go. If other institutions are following similar protocol, then I say start making phone calls
We voted to cancel. We're not going anywhere.
 
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#59      

sbillini

st petersburg, fl
If I’m Illinois I’m on the phone right now with the big 12. The consequences are gonna be severe if they don’t play.

So your boss and your boss' boss just voted against playing football, and you're saying the response to that is to make some calls to play somewhere else? Not following that logic....

And I've already laid out the argument as to why this shouldn't be catastrophic to Illinois football in another thread. Besides the fact that this shouldn't be the primary driver in the decision making process anyway, if DIA (for Illinois or pretty much any P5 school) can't find a way to get through this, then they have bigger problems than a missed football season.
 
#60      
I am not disagreeing with your likely outcome. What will disagree with is the comparison of players that are trying to make it to the show and one that already has made his money.

Are you suggesting college football students will be more responsible than pro athletes because they don't want to jeopardize pro careers? It really takes 1 or 2 irresponsible guys to bring down the whole ship. If you had to bet your life savings on one of these two teams dodging COVID, which would you really choose:

Team 1: Baseball team, 28 man roster, average age of 28.7, playing with real money on the line.

Team 2: Football team, 85+ man roster, average age of let's say 21, a handful of these players may play professionally, keeping in mind average NFL career is less than 3 years
 
#62      
I'm trying to think of the last post I saw that held CFB players (including our own) in such low regard.

Did you miss where Ra'Von Bonner laid out exactly the case for not playing? Here it is, in case you'd like to read it.
Great ra'von made the best decision for himself others want to play let them make theirs. Freedom of choice that used to mean something in this country.
 
#63      
Are you suggesting college football students will be more responsible than pro athletes because they don't want to jeopardize pro careers? It really takes 1 or 2 irresponsible guys to bring down the whole ship. If you had to bet your life savings on one of these two teams dodging COVID, which would you really choose:
Are you suggesting college football students will be more responsible than pro athletes because they don't want to jeopardize pro careers? It really takes 1 or 2 irresponsible guys to bring down the whole ship. If you had to bet your life savings on one of these two teams dodging COVID, which would you really choose:

There has already been surveys of college students suggesting that a significant percentage are not likely to follow mask and distancing rules upon returning to campus. Does anyone envision groups of football players getting together to party, play video games, ect, and masking and social distancing? Many argue that unless "Cyrus the Virus" is brought under greater control, many universities who open will likely have to return to virtual/remote classes. It that happens, whether athletics should continue becomes a moot point.
 
#64      

Deleted member 29907

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If I’m Illinois I’m on the phone right now with the big 12. The consequences are gonna be severe if they don’t play.
Yeah, that post didn't age very long. I am not sure what the severe consequences are. "Severe" to me would be risking lives (via normal contact) to play a sport when taking some time to get this pandemic under control is a viable option (Spring ball).
 
#65      

illini80

Forgottonia
I get the move, but I don't necessarily agree with it. A large chunk of our team has already had the virus, and I'm sure the same is true for many other teams. Myocarditis is definitely a concern, but this exists for all viral infections, it hasn't new for Coronavirus.
This.
A thousand times THIS! We act like this is the single source of risk in our lives.

I don’t disagree with the decision to cancel and it seemed inevitable. Covid is a pandemic and a massive problem, but the willingness to throw away everything in our current and future lives over it is astounding. I wear a mask and am careful, but I refuse to accept that life as we know it needs to end because of it. Thank God our ancestors had more fortitude than we have in today’s world or we would all still be living in caves and afraid to go outside.
 
#66      

Deleted member 29907

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Great ra'von made the best decision for himself others want to play let them make theirs. Freedom of choice that used to mean something in this country.
The players have the freedom to go out and play pickup games in their neighborhood if they want. This is not a freedom of choice issue. Societies, Governments, Companies, Universities, etc. have to make regulations, laws, rules, etc. all the time that limit complete freedom of the individual. That is nothing new.
 
#67      

Deleted member 29907

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The same pandemic we thought we were gonna be in control of months ago? Yeah spring ain’t helping anything bud, especially when cold and flu season is over the winter months. What would you call 80 million dollar loses? I would call that severe. What about thousands of people losing jobs or thousands of students losing the ability to pay for school! Is that severe enough. Athletic programs were requested yesterday to cut their budgets 25%. Where do you think those cuts are gonna happen? Also our roster is about to be poached just watch. Why would broderick perry or anything other transfer follow through and sit around for an imaginary spring season? What would they even be playing for? There is no postseason.
So what's your point "bud"? I never said there were any guarantees. If we can't get control of this then the spring is out as well - but that doesn't mean playing now makes any more sense. If we continue to 'try to gut this out' half-assed - we will be in this mess much longer and with many more lives lost. I seriously doubt we lose key players to other teams because of either 1. Top leagues aren't going to have room for them, or they wouldn't likely be much of a factor, and 2. Lesser leagues are not that attractive. But it we do, so be it. We'll survive. I'd rather take my chances things will improve by spring than having to shut the program down 2 games into the season and call the season lost. MLB has proven this model, in this environment is a huge challenge.

Cuts are happening all across this country so Athletic programs unfortunately should not be immune and given that we just got and spent a ton of cash to build a building - its pretty hard to compare that environment to the individuals trying to work tables or other jobs that are at risk because of this. If your point is that health and science doesn't matter, only money does - then we'll have to agree to disagree.
 
#68      

Deleted member 654622

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Are you suggesting college football students will be more responsible than pro athletes because they don't want to jeopardize pro careers? It really takes 1 or 2 irresponsible guys to bring down the whole ship. If you had to bet your life savings on one of these two teams dodging COVID, which would you really choose:

Team 1: Baseball team, 28 man roster, average age of 28.7, playing with real money on the line.

Team 2: Football team, 85+ man roster, average age of let's say 21, a handful of these players may play professionally, keeping in mind average NFL career is less than 3 years
Good Points. I see more Team 2 as having young impressionable men who will fall in line a little easier than a 30 year old who is already a millionaire.
 
#69      
Kids are gonna jump ship because those conferences are at least attempting to play. Just saying we can’t just ignore the financial issues regarding this decision.

I mean how financial of a hit is it really if B1G under recruits for the next 5 years? It's not like we are missing out on that NC we were owed or going to see a drop of potential media coverage. We either play or we don't, the players side of it is health and safety related and not at all about money unless you're bringing in the liability perspective.
 
#70      

Deleted member 746684

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And playing 20 games in 8 months is in the best interest of players? I mean that isn’t helping long term health of an athlete. And you 100% make decisions based off the repercussions of those decisions. The big ten just hand cuffed their entire conference moving forward. Kids are gonna jump ship because those conferences are at least attempting to play. Just saying we can’t just ignore the financial issues regarding this decision.
The bold makes no sense. They can leave, but they have to sit out a season. Assuming that season is 2020, they're going to be able to play in 2021 and not before..

...so the same as staying in the B1G
 
#71      
I get the move, but I don't necessarily agree with it. A large chunk of our team has already had the virus, and I'm sure the same is true for many other teams. Myocarditis is definitely a concern, but this exists for all viral infections, it hasn't new for Coronavirus.
I think our Big Ten leadership is probably really scared now. I would be if I were them. If B12, SEC and ACC play, we will have a grand experiment before us. I think it is a very likely result that when people look back on this in hindsight they fill find, as some of our players already suspect, the players sitting out will be at greater risk than the players playing.

I think we are on the wrong side of this. As a society we have become irrational, and think that there are no risks for being "over conservative." That is naive, and it is wrong.
 
#72      
Okay so what about big ten tv deals? Who is gonna pay for the network when there are no games? What about the 25% across the board cuts every sports team was just told about. Where is that money gonna come from? What about the fact that football produces the most revenue for every athletic department? What happens to all those other non revenue producing programs? And then what happens to all the kids on those teams?

The same people who've paid for ESPN and FS1 for the last 5 months. They are built into contracts just like any other business that knows there will be lulls. You think the BTN is just getting dropped and cancelled if there aren't sports for 12 months? No. I'm not sure what you expect to happen here. This was a clear cut safety decision, but like I said to you already in reply to your post the financial impact of losing players to other schools is zero.
 
#73      

Illwinsagain

Cary, IL
No, it's the country in general - but unless the university is putting itself in a complete bubble, there is no way to contain this from the football team.
The university is not putting everyone in a bubble, but, they are putting in a lot of restrictions. Testing twice a week for all students, contact tracing, no outsiders allowed without a recent (within 4 days) negative covid test, and very few in person classes. I know there is more, but that sounds a lot safer than life elsewhere.
 
#74      

mattcoldagelli

The Transfer Portal
Thank God our ancestors had more fortitude than we have in today’s world or we would all still be living in caves and afraid to go outside.

I'm confident our ancestors - who died via communicable diseases in numbers we can barely comprehend - would empathize with a society using the tools that it has to try to minimize that.

I'm even more confident they would point and laugh at those who think "continuing my calendar of leisure activities uninterrupted" is evidence of "freedom" or "fortitude."
 
#75      
This decision makes no sense to me. Players are just as likely to get Covid if the season is canceled as if it goes on.

While true, I think there's an overemphasis on just the players here. Sure, they're the ones that suffer from this decision so that's understandable. But college football (or anything really) doesn't happen in a vacuum and needs tons of support staff to make it function, all the more so when things are not held in a bubble. There's coaching and athletic staffs, medical, support, transportation, food, I'm sure there's more I'm missing. We've clearly reached a point where for the majority of decision makers in the B1G, the reward is not worth the risk. Clearly other schools/leagues have some different risk-reward measurements at the moment, but at the end of the day, are you really going to blame someone for not wanting to support the resumption of activities that could directly lead to numerous people to get extremely sick, developing health conditions that affect them for the rest of their lives, or the worst case outcome?
 
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