- FredD
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Re: 2022-23 Roster looking scary good
Thomas wrote:
I mentioned this in the another thread('Is The Bubble The Answer'), but paying the players until we rid of ourselves of COVID 19 is the only way you can justify having them play while most colleges are pretty much closed. If the players are playing and not attending classes, they truly are professionals at that point, you can't sugarcoat it anymore. It would be funny if a school president just came out and said, "I'm Living In A Million Dollar House, My Kids Go To Private School, We Have 3 Cars and A Vacation Home...We Need These Guys Playing So I Can Maintain This Lifestyle"!!! LOL
I agree with Fred D, its hard to even think about the future of college(some pro sports can still go on in a bubble) sports at this point because of COVID. The BCS college football conferences acting as if its going to be business as usual starting in September is ridiculous. Things SHOULD be cleared up by 2021-2022(GW's 2021-2022 team could also be very good too) and 2022-2023 but what will things look like if this upcoming season is cancelled? I'm assuming everyone on the team will remain at GW because they committed to Jamion Christian, but what will everyone's eligibility status be? How would the scholarship situation be handled if there is no 2020-2021 season?
GREAT POINT! Where are the freaking Presidents on this one?
- Gwmayhem
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Re: 2022-23 Roster looking scary good
Thomas, since your assumption is different than mine, I'll ask this question: if the players were taking online courses just like the student body, only they'd be taking them in DC rather than at home since they would be playing their season, would you have a different opinion about this? In my write-up, I assumed that players would be undergoing the same academic workload as they normally would. So, I was never thinking in terms of the players having to have to play while not pursuing academic degrees. That scenario would clearly be wrong in my mind.
I think it is very easy and very natural to conclude that as long as a single player is at risk, the sport must be shut down. In taking my position, I am not at all valuing a school's right or need to make money above player safety. This is why for starters, I feel all players should have the right to opt-out without any penalty. If enough players were to do this, then we'd have no season.
However, there is nothing wrong with a school wanting to receive revenue, particularly at a point in time in which it is desperately needed. Hank Gathers and Reggie Lewis are two examples of young men who tragically passed away while playing basketball. As much as we try to minimize risk, and we always should try to minimize risk as best and as realistically as possible, there is no such thing as removing all risk.
So to me, the better questions and solutions have to do with monitoring the spread of the virus and determining if there is a way to safely play this season. If we assume that a season will not start until say January at the earliest, I don't see how it is possible to conclude today that there's no way the sport should be played. We may rightfully reach this conclusion by December but not today.
If students are back on campus by January, this makes things even more challenging, unless either a vaccine is approved and can be distributed by then or if a herd mentality is achieved. Without the student body on campus, I could foresee the team living together in a dorm and creating as close to a bubble situation at least among themselves as possible. Of course, other teams will need to proceed in the same manner so none of this will be easy.
The point though that should not be so cavalierly swept under the rug is that schools do need this revenue. GW has undergone some pretty massive cuts and you're deluding yourselves if you think that the cuts are over with should the school continue to fail to receive revenue which it has historically received. This means far more people out of work, fewer course offerings (which is already happening albeit by design), fewer if any room and board fees, dining fees, etc., and a college experience that can not begin be justified by a mere 10% reduction in tuition. If you believe the only real ramification in a cancelled season is the loss of tv and tournament revenue, you'd be mistaken.
To be clear, I am not at all putting money ahead of the health and safety of student athletes. My point is that as wrong as it would be to do this, it would be just as wrong to conclude that no basketball should be played based on if even one player could contract Covid. The reality is that a balance must be achieved between the need for revenue along with a more normalized college experience compared to the probabilities of one or more players contracting Covid, getting badly ill from Covid, and God forbid dying from Covid. Science and data, several months from now, should hopefully put decision-makers in a much better position to undergo this risk/reward analysis.
- 22ndandF
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Re: 2022-23 Roster looking scary good
I mentioned this in the another thread('Is The Bubble The Answer'), but paying the players until we rid of ourselves of COVID 19 is the only way you can justify having them play while most colleges are pretty much closed. If the players are playing and not attending classes, they truly are professionals at that point, you can't sugarcoat it anymore. It would be funny if a school president just came out and said, "I'm Living In A Million Dollar House, My Kids Go To Private School, We Have 3 Cars and A Vacation Home...We Need These Guys Playing So I Can Maintain This Lifestyle"!!! LOL
I agree with Fred D, its hard to even think about the future of college(some pro sports can still go on in a bubble) sports at this point because of COVID. The BCS college football conferences acting as if its going to be business as usual starting in September is ridiculous. Things SHOULD be cleared up by 2021-2022(GW's 2021-2022 team could also be very good too) and 2022-2023 but what will things look like if this upcoming season is cancelled? I'm assuming everyone on the team will remain at GW because they committed to Jamion Christian, but what will everyone's eligibility status be? How would the scholarship situation be handled if there is no 2020-2021 season?
Thomas and Fred D, I feel you both make the most perfect points. Fred D., I also wonder what the other side of COVID-19 is going to look like. And, I feel if students are not going to be on campus, athletics should be put on hold. I read the GW Form 990 and thought compensation was out of control. However there are some here who told me I was wrong. Well, maybe I am. However, like Thomas suggests, these highly compensated people are, in some ways, making their money on the backs of our great student athletes. Well, I am against that. And I am especially against it while the decision has been made make eduction virtual (at least) this semester. And I think that's a good idea. Thomas, I feel these Form 990 people aren't going to come out and say they enjoy their big incomes and excessive lifestyles because of the student athlete (especially basketball players) and generally overcharging for education, but I believe a lot of them think it!!! And if GW management is so hungry for revenue, maybe they should take a good long look in the mirror and realize when revenue is hard to come by, they can always cut some costs, like the inflated and blubbery compensation they pay to themselves. In fact, they could probably lay-off half of those overpaid staff, save millions of dollars, and the quality of education provided by GW wouldn't even decline even a little bit.
As for 2022-23 roster, I am super excited because of the amazing job done by JC and his staff. However, with more than 1,000 people dying ever day from COVID-19, no national plan to control the virus, testing which is still not available to many, a shortage of PPP, long wait time for results for those wealthy and lucky enough to be able to get a test, schools in high positivity areas rushing back to open, so many people questioning the validity of using a mask as a means to control the spread of the virus, and so much political nonsense going on, I am starting to wonder if we'll have a 2022-23 season. By Election day, we could have more than 200,000 Americans dead from COVID-19, and our current President doesn't believe in science or care about our dead or their families. He just wants to start fights and make fun of people.
I wish all the best to our GW basketbll team for a healthy year, and I hope we make progress, not only on COVID-19, but also on some of the big social issues of the day.
Last edited by 22ndandF (8/08/2020 1:43 pm)
- FredD
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Re: 2022-23 Roster looking scary good
Look I agree that waiting for eradication is foolish, but with 160,000+ dead entertainment provided by free labor is way down the list. The better use of limited resources would be whatever gets students back on campus. People won’t pay full price for virtual.
- Thomas
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Re: 2022-23 Roster looking scary good
Gwmayhem, it looks like some colleges have already had a limited number of students move into dorms with quarantine/social distancing requirements, I guess that would clear the way for basketball and football to start since the players could attend classes. To answer your question, I don't think they should be playing college sports until all(or most of) the students are attending classes in person, online classes wouldn't be good enough for me because it sends the message that gathering together on campus is not safe for students and school employees, but the players can be sacrificed!! It's good that the NCAA has allowed players to opt out.
22ndandF, we know that the Form 990 people aren't going to say "We Need Sports So We Can Maintain Our Hefty Salaries", but they are definitely thinking that!! LOL But seriously, having two straight years of no NCAA tournament would probably be disastrous for most colleges. I'd actually like to see the dollar amount that GW lost last year when the NCAA tournament was cancelled. GW's cut of the NCAA tournament bag would have been higher than usual this past season when you consider that Dayton was one of the favorites to win the NCAA Tournament. I know the conferences get more money with each win a member team gets in the NCAA tournament. I also agree with your pessimism over COVID, there are WAY too many people in the America who don't take it seriously due to ignorance, claims from certain political figures(including one BOZO REPRESENTATIVE from Texas who claimed he contracted COVID because he wore a mask!!) and/or online conspiracy theorists!!
FredD, unfortunately we have a lot of people out here who think that getting in a full college football(and probably basketball) season is the top priority, and its not just the greedy BCS fat cats/University higher-ups who are only concerned about their bank account, a lot of fans seem to have the same mindset
- BGF
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Re: 2022-23 Roster looking scary good
Gentlemen, this is an important conversation, but it has gotten well off the original point of this thread. I encourage anyone interested in this topic to start a new thread and allow this thread to be focused on the potentially scary good roster we might have in the 2022-23 season.
Thanks.
- FredD
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Re: 2022-23 Roster looking scary good
Ok