Admire the effort Gwmayhem, but there is as much of a chance of this (a bubble) happening as GW being asked to join the ACC. Not only would it be cost prohibitive for schools but would receive huge criticism as another example of the divide between students and student-athletes. In this era of shrinking budgets, cutting of sports etc. this would be a very tough political sell with schools in the A-10. Kids are being asked to study remotely at the same time a bubble for certain athletes is being planned. Not going to happen for one sport either.

If you want college basketball at any point this year, I suggest you pray for one of three things: an effective therapeutic, a vaccine before year end, or the virus miraculously disappearing due to unknown factors such as unrecognized herd immunity (more people have either had the virus or have antibodies/immunity than.we know). I suspect the latter is a near impossibility based on everything I read but we can always hope.

Reading on the Athletic that money issues are quickly coming to the fore for MBB. I think the Lack or guaranteed games and the ability or desire to guarantee games by the big boys are going derail the seasons of all but the biggest conferences.

And if Presidents did not care or were ignorant about the day-to-day $$$ of college sports before how much time do they have when severe financial pressures are being exerted on the schools as a whole?

FredD wrote:

The big point is until our collective behavior include nearly universal masking, keeping at least 6 feet distant etc all this stuff we want to see happen won’t happen because 1) the virus is not being curtailed In the US and 2)!our ability to tamp down future outbreaks Is currently zero.

Right, I mean, look at New Zealand who just announced a brand new lock down after finding FOUR cases of community spread after 102 days of zero community spread cases: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12355759

That is fewer cases than what the St. Louis Cardinals are dealing with.

Like I wrote in the other thread(that I sort of derailed from the potential of the 2022-2023 team!! LOL), I am pessimistic that our collective behavior will change because certain political figures, online conspiracy and just plain ignorance has convinced a large number of people that COVID is fake, exaggerated and/or an evil "deep state" government plot to control and kill us!! So, we are just down to 2 solutions, a cure or the virus just magically disappears/goes dormant!! Other than that, nothing is going to change in the upcoming months. 

FredD, when it comes to college football/sports, it looks like the safety of the players will win out over the GREED of the BCS and college academia higher-ups, as the Big 10 and Pac 12 are leaning towards cancelling the season. The other 3 BCS conferences will be forced to follow suit at some point. College basketball is a bit fortunate because they have about 3 months before they have to make some hard decisions. I guess college basketball can play the waiting game and hope COVID is somehow eliminated and they can complete most of the 2020-2021 season.

About the college presidents being aware of the financial pressures, I don't think ANYONE could have predicted that a global pandemic would wipe out sports for up to a year!! I believe most of them thought, no matter how bad things get with wins-losses, student applications, graduation rates, etc...We Will Still Get That NCAA Tournament, TV Contract and Playoff/Bowl Game Money, and that will solve all of our problems!! 

I'm going to ask this question again here, what was the dollar amount that GW lost when the NCAA tournament was cancelled in March? I know that GW's cut of the NCAA tournament bag is miniscule compared to the BCS blue bloods, but it's probably a lot compared to the average every day business/institution. GW's cut of the NCAA tournament money would have been higher this year when you consider that Dayton was one of the favorites to make the Final 4 and win the title, as conferences get more money with each win that a member team gets in the NCAA tournament. What if Dayton won the 2020 National Championship??

Gwmayhem,  I can't imagine the amount of angst that college basketball officials are feeling now about the possibility of no NCAA tournament for 2 straight years!! At least college football was able to cash in on their entire season 2019-2020 season.

The article in The Athletic posed an interesting concept:  creating 44 bubbles around the country, for the purpose of creating non-conference games in the safest environment.  What it didn't say, but what it implied, is that the teams would have to be tested and kept in their own bubbles at their own schools for I'm guessing 2 weeks before this mini-tournament would begin.  Then, at each site, the teams would play six non-conference games over a 2-week period.  The article broke down each of their mythical pods, identifying the teams and the location.

For our pod, the article proposed the Charles. E. as the venue and the 8 schools involved (both men's and women's) as GW, GMU, Coppin St., Loyola (MD), UMBC, Morgan St., Mount Saint Mary's, and Towson.

While I think any such concept is too vast in scope to actually make work without months of planning, in a faux world it is somewhat intriguing.  Here's the full article:  https://theathletic.com/1980558/2020/08/10/college-basketball-nonconference-schedule-national-covid-19-coronavirus/

 

Last edited by BGF (8/11/2020 12:25 pm)

Gwmayhem,  thanks for the breakdown. I'm not surprised at the 75-25 split in favor of the A10 team(s) that makes the tournament because it's harder for the A10 to produce teams capable of making deep NCAA tournament runs. I'm assuming that the BCS conferences do a 50-50 split because you often have a middle-of-the-pack BCS team making a deep tournament run, in addition to the blue bloods like Duke, Kansas and Kentucky. With all the money that CBS/Turner pays for the NCAA tournament, I'm assuming that 1/14th of that 25% given to A10 NCAA tournament teams is still a substantial amount of money, relatively speaking.

BGF,  The Athletic article is behind a paywall so I couldn't read all of it, but it is an interesting concept as you wrote. Where did they place Georgetown and Maryland?? Would they allow GW and George Mason to compete in the same bubble since they are both in the A10? I'd like to see this concept with all the D.C. schools(GW, Georgetown, American U, Howard) and 4 others locals. I'm assuming that MASN and the other local stations would gladly broadcast these games. There is still about 3 months left for college basketball to organize something like this. 

Gwmayhem,  they put GW at the kiddie table?? We know GW has been struggling in recent years, but they are still 3rd to Georgetown and Maryland in the pecking order among local D.C.area schools, and if a quarantine bubble ever did happen with local teams, you would certainly need GW to be in a grouping with Maryland, Georgetown, AU and Howard. How do you think Maryland and Georgetown would feel about this idea?? I'm guessing they'd prefer to play in a bubble with California schools instead of local ones!! LOL

I understand that Maryland's move to the Big 10 was strictly for football revenue, but you brought up an interesting point about the basketball revenue for men and women's basketball(Maryland soccer, lacrosse and baseball has also been pretty good) in the ACC. Even though the ACC revenue is split between 14(or 16) teams, being in a conference with Duke and North Carolina, and having the ACC tournament in Greensboro every year has to be a huge money maker. Maryland is also somewhat of a charter member of the ACC, and has a rich tradition in a lot of sports in the ACC. Going 2-7 in the Big 10 and playing in front of sparse home crowds every year can't be a pleasant experience, even with the all the money from the Big 10. 

What do you guys think of the Pac 12 and Big 10 cancelling fall sports? Or more importantly, do you think there is any way possible that the remaining FBS/BCS conferences(SEC, ACC, Big 12, AAC, C-USA, Sun Belt) will just have their season and crown a national champion in January? The plan appears to be that the other 6 conferences will play, but that could be just wishful thinking from hardcore college football fans. I do feel a little bad for HERVE and the Buckeye fans because Justin Fields looked like he was primed to have a historic season for Ohio State this year. 

Given the lack of virus management nationwide and what is happening at UNC etc there will be no season.