1 of 1- Gwmayhem
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Another Possibility
I've read a little bit about how a handful of small schools (primarily D2 and D3 schools) have already decided to forego playing football in 2020. Simply put, there isn't enough money at these levels to begin to justify taking any risks. The Ivy League is now considering a 7 game, conference only spring football season.
This prompted the following scenarios:
1) The 5 power conferences plus the Big East play their basketball seasons while all other conferences cancel theirs. The logic here is that the money is substantially greater at the highest levels, while essentially all other conference schools not named Gonzaga do not have a realistic chance at winning a national championship anyway (nor do these conferences receive anything close to NCAA basketball money via broadcast revenue, ticket sales, and tournament results). Am not sure what Gonzaga would be able to do about this except to say that after taking advantage of a marginal conference for decades, their conference affiliation finally bit the hand that feeds it.
2) If a trend develops where much if not all of college football moves to the spring, could college basketball also play its season from say February-June?
Thoughts on whether either or both scenarios are plausible in your mind?
- fungerhall
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Re: Another Possibility
1. Either they all play or they all sit out. I don't see a scenario where only teams from power conferences play.
2. Sure it's possible. Probable? Not really.
- GWRising
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Re: Another Possibility
1. With basketball I think it is mostly an all or nothing scenario, Hard to justify Georgetown playing but AU and GW not right next door.
2. Not only is it possible it's actively being discussed now especially if COVID 19 doesn't start declining again in the next 4-6 weeks. You could have scenario where basketball starts after the first semester and goes until late-April or May and football starts in February and goes until April or May. The only issue with this is television and resources due to the almost 100% overlap in seasons. You could have a Saturday afternoon with college football and a Saturday evening with college basketball on the same campus..The major hurdle will also be scheduling and transportation having to re-done. In some cases, facilities may be booked for other events. I wouldn't say it's a likelihood yet but it is definitely being discussed.
- Thomas
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Re: Another Possibility
Either everyone plays or everyone cancels their season. I understand that the BCS conferences only care about the millions or billions of dollars that they'll lose, and not the safety of the football and basketball players, but the optics of them playing(while lower conferences cancel their season) will be disastrous, it won't be worth the PR hit. I think it would be similar to when some of the BCS conferences were reluctant to cancel their conference tournaments last March, but eventually they had to give in. As long as we continue to see COVID spikes with no cure or vaccine, I don't see how you can have any sort of college or professional team sports.
I believe there have been double digit numbers of COVID cases among LSU and Oklahoma football players recently, so playing games when you could lose a large number of players(for an unknown period of time) from game to game seems like a bad idea no matter how much of a "bubble" you put the players and coaches in.
- Gwmayhem
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Re: Another Possibility
Thomas, not sure if you heard about Boomer Esiason's comments this week. Without making an accusation, he speculated that a number of the country's major college football teams (Clemson, LSU, Alabama) might be seeking Covid-19 herd immunity, getting sick on purpose now so that they will be well and raring to go come September. A dubious theory to begin with and certainly a risky one considering that there is no evidence supporting the notion that those who recover from the virus are immune from ever getting it again.
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Thread Starter- GW0509
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Re: Another Possibility
As we all know college sports is about money, especially gambling money. I can only imagine the outrage if COVID positives are announced 30 minutes before kickoff or tipoff after the bets have been locked in. If it looks like players will be withdrawing left and right, it may make sense from a business stand point to try and buy more time so there aren't so many unexpected absences from games.
- Thomas
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Re: Another Possibility
Gwmayhem wrote:
Thomas, not sure if you heard about Boomer Esiason's comments this week. Without making an accusation, he speculated that a number of the country's major college football teams (Clemson, LSU, Alabama) might be seeking Covid-19 herd immunity, getting sick on purpose now so that they will be well and raring to go come September. A dubious theory to begin with and certainly a risky one considering that there is no evidence supporting the notion that those who recover from the virus are immune from ever getting it again.
Sorry guys, but I've got to get somewhat political with this response to Gwmayhem, What sort of tone did Boomer Esiason have when making these comments? I'm hoping B.Esiason said this in a tone which indicated that college football teams intentionally going for Herd Immunity is a RIDICULOUS thing to do!! Having 60 to 70 percent of your team contracting a virus with a lot of unknowns is not smart, regardless of what people claim on certain social media outlets!! I've only seen Boomer Esiason on pre-game shows or in interviews from time to time, so I have no idea about his political ideology. Unfortunately, we seem to have a few local sports radio guys in this area who may think that teams intentionally contracting COVID for Herd Immunity would be a great idea!!
GW0509, the gambling aspect of these COVID-delayed games is a huge factor that is being overlooked!! I'm glad you brought it up. If baseball and basketball(football still has a few weeks before they have to make some hard decisions) do start up later this month, I'm assuming that a lot of games will be off the board as some players will test positive and may be forced to quarantine for 14 days. Can you imagine a scenario where the NBA playoffs start and a top seeded team has 3 or more starters test positive!!!