Illini Football & CFB 2020
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I'd bet a lot of beach houses on a spring season never taking place. Very similar to thinking we'd get a delayed march madness or big ten tournament.
Unless there is widespread and easy access to a vaccine by November.
Unless there is widespread and easy access to a vaccine by November.
I'll take those beach houses. I expect many things will be different by Spring semester.
Hopefully, but there's so much uncertainty right now.
The MLB is a good example of how things can turn sour quickly. Without forcing quarantine (real quarantining, as in bubble situations), you're going to have outbreaks. I think it's easier for the MLB and other professional leagues to mitigate the risk and liability of players getting ill.
If you're assuming major leaps in vaccine availability then I agree things will look dramatically different in 6 months. But it's never been done before on a global scale.
That isn't even to mention the whole timeline of this WRT the NFL. It's been posted previously, but I really believe a lot of guys will opt out of a shorten season that will butt directly against the NFL combine and preseason.
I don't see 10 game, conference only schedules taking place--or anything more ambitious than that.
Deleted member 746684
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I don't. At this point, if you're a top two round draft prospect, it would be silly to play. Just stay in shape and get to the combine.
And without getting to into the weeds on this, MLB players are compensated with health insurance and financial considerations. College players get a scholarship, which is good, but it's really a waiver, not truly a monetary payment. They can't use it to pay their medical bills if they get in a serious bout with COVID-19.
Actually that is completely untrue. If the players gets Covid while on campus the university flips the bill. If they get Covid at home the bill falls to the player.
Based on my daughter's experience as a SA, initial cost is picked up by student's insurance and the remainder is covered by the DIA.
Deleted member 746684
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Yeah, but if baseball has taught us anything, if one player gets it from outside the locker room, 12 of them will get it from him in the locker room.
Schools clearly have their legal experts saying "This is not okay, we can't do this".
Well I hope they don’t have those experts on retainer. Cause if we cancel football then we won’t be able to pay for anything. And all those AD’s that don’t wanna play won’t have a job in 2021.
Deleted member 746684
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The loss of money is happening regardless.
Heart inflammation is a major side effect of COVID19 among healthy people. Linemen are likely high risk. The schools do not want to pay for players' chronic injuries.
If the B1G schools can't survive one cancellation, the whole college football system needs to collapse and be replaced with something better.
This will never happen the because logistics of doing this are too complex. It's not just picking dates. Other necessary people have their own schedules that might not be that flexible.
I respectfully ask why you expect many things will be different by spring semester.
illini80
- Forgottonia
Correct me if I’m wrong, but if they get sick the school is on the hook whether they are playing or not I would think. Unless they are sent home, which is unlikely at this point.
Even if what Dan Patrick was reporting was just a polling of opinions, I really hope he got the names/schools wrong. I speculate that when summer workouts started, there was a conversation between the coaches/administration and the players. The players were sold on what the school would be doing to mitigate issues. The players wanted to play and put their trust in the schools. Recently players and coaches from tOSU and UI have come out voicing their trust in their school administrations and how things are being run. For those 2 ADs to then vote "NO, we don't feel comfortable with how we are doing things." I would think that would cause some serious trust issues and problems with future communications.
chiefini
- Rockford, Illinois
From what I’ve read, it’s the presidents of the universities, not the ADs who are making the decision. I think Josh wants to play...
To me it's way different of you are a professional being paid a lot of money for your play. Subjecting college players to the risk when they aren't making a living is vastly different and yeah, I think it subjects schools to liability.
Vaccines.
Deleted member 654622
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This is all about money and not about the players and that SUCKS
Deleted member 746684
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The universities have a lot of ground to stand on here, though. It's arguable they can do the right thing for the wrong reasons. No one can blame them for not wanting to expose their players to COVID-19.
Although, then again, it's arguable that all player safety efforts are about money in sports.
Deleted member 654622
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You hit the nail there. It is about the unknown liability of the medical bills outweighing the revenue of football.
I disagree.
This is about playing football and living life.
Many (most?) kids want to play, witness Trevor Lawrence's posts and new group that is skyrocketing in popularity among players.
sbillini
- st petersburg, fl
My understanding of the economics of D1 sports is that the university itself does not directly financially benefit from sports programs. It's the athletic depts that have self-funding cross-subsidization structures (though the schools may indirectly benefit through increased alumni engagement, donations, etc.). In fact, in most schools, the schools actually sending funding to the athletic programs (with some major programs like Michigan being exceptions). With that model, if I'm the president of the university, what real motivation do I have to force a season to occur? The risk/reward is asymmetric. I don't lose much if the season doesn't happen (esp. if it's only one season and it's for obvious and ostensibly safety-related reasons), but if a player/staff members gets seriously ill, then the liability could potentially be massive (not to mention the impact on health systems, etc.).
If I'm an AD, head coach, etc., obviously the calculus is very different. But sounds like the presidents are the ones making the final call. If the B1G commissioner is leaning towards their side, I find it unlikely that a season is going to happen.
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