And so it begins

[goodnews]

I'm all for dumping EKU and getting 3 money games. 

[guinpen]

Big Ten in trouble: Rutgers’ coronavirus outbreak expands, Northwestern pauses workouts, Indiana student’s heart condition


Things are not looking good for the Big Ten playing football in 2020.


As NJ Advance Media’s Keith Sargeant first reported Monday night, the number of COVID-19 cases connected with the Rutgers University football team nearly has doubled from 15 to 28 players.

There are multiple players with symptoms widely associated with the coronavirus, including fevers, headaches, and sore throats, two of the people said. There are also numerous players who are asymptomatic after testing positive last week, two of the people said.

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And Rutgers isn’t the only Big Ten program struggling with the coronavirus these days.

ESPN reports “Northwestern has paused workouts after one player tested positive for the coronavirus”

Workouts will be on hold until Wednesday at the earliest. The player who tested positive is self-isolating, while those who were in close contact with him must test negative before being cleared to return to activities. Northwestern held its last workout on Friday.

On Sunday, Deborah Rucker, the mother of an Indiana freshman football player shared a story on Facebook about how the offensive lineman, Brady Feeney, has developed a possible heart condition as a result of contracting COVID-19. The story quickly went viral.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Feeney tested positive for the coronavirus last month.

“After 14 days of hell battling the horrible virus, his school did additional testing on all those that were positive,” Rucker wrote. “My son even received extra tests because he was one of the worst cases. Now we are dealing with possible heart issues! He is still experiencing additional symptoms and his blood work is indicating additional problems. ... Bottom line, even if your son’s schools do everything right to protect them, they CAN’T PROTECT THEM!!”

On Monday, Rucker explained why she went public.

“The whole point of my Facebook post is because in Missouri, where we live, the state is not taking this as seriously as they should,” Rucker said Monday. “With everything Brady is going through and has been struggling through, it has been infuriating to me that people are not taking this seriously and not wearing masks.”

According to the Indianapolis Star, Feeney was “one of a handful of players” to be diagnosed with COVID-19 in July, triggering a two-week shutdown of the Hoosiers’ football program. Indiana resumed offseason workouts last week.

As for Rutgers, players currently are in isolation through Aug. 8, a day after the NCAA will allow training camps to open nationwide. The Big Ten has not yet determined when it will allow its member schools to open camps, but a decision and a revised conference-only schedule for the season is expected to be released on Tuesday.

[guinpen]

Indiana State pauses workouts for 2 weeks after positive tests

Indiana State has paused football workouts for two weeks after six players tested positive for COVID-19.

Coach Curt Mallory told players, coaches and support staff that everyone must quarantine for 14 days. The athletic department issued a news release, saying none of the six players participated in Sunday's March for Justice because they -- and those in close contact with them -- had already been isolated.

The Sycamores also said the players do not live on campus.

Indiana State is at least the third team from the Missouri Valley Football Conference, a traditionally strong Football Championship Subdivision league, to pause workouts. "Our doctors and training staff instituted and followed strict protocols on monitoring and testing student-athletes,'' athletic director said Sherard Clinkscales.

[guinpen]

UConn becomes 1st FBS program to cancel football over virus

https://www.wkbn.com/sports/uconn-becomes-1st-fbs-program-to-cancel-football-over-virus/

[guinpen]

Big Sky planning for football games in spring, sources say
12:39 AM ET

The Big Sky Conference is moving forward with plans to play an eight-game conference schedule in the spring due to conditions from the coronavirus pandemic, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN, a move that would likely result in the cancellation of the 2020 FCS playoffs.

With the addition of the Pioneer League on Friday, seven other FCS football conferences have already canceled their fall seasons. And without the Big Sky's 13 teams, FCS would no longer have the number of participating teams necessary to conduct a championship event. On Wednesday, the NCAA announced "if 50% or more of eligible teams in a particular sport in a division cancel their fall season, there will be no fall NCAA championship in that sport in that division."

EDITOR'S PICKS

The Big Sky Presidents' Council met Thursday to discuss the plan, which has not yet been finalized, and will reconvene Friday for further discussion about both football and the rest of the conference's fall sports slate, sources said.

"We have no announcement at this time," a conference spokeswoman said in an email Thursday.

In addition to the Pioneer League, the Ivy League, CAA, MEAC, Northeast,and Patriot League have all canceled their fall seasons, while the Southwestern Athletic Conference is planning for a seven-game spring football season. The NCAA announced Wednesday championships would be canceled for both Division II and III sports in the fall.

[guinpen]

7 leagues have canceled the fall season so far, writing is on the wall folks!

[guinpen]

Read the report on WKBN this morning, it clearly states that the fall league schedule has been canceled but schools can opt to play non-conference games in the fall. Would that even be a consideration for YSU?

[guinpen]

Guess that we will not be playing akron after all.


Sources: MAC postpones all fall sports, including football
10:37 AM ET
Adam Rittenberg
ESPN Senior Writer

The Mid-American Conference is postponing all fall sports, including football, sources confirmed to ESPN on Saturday.

League presidents met Saturday morning and voted for the postponement. The MAC is the first FBS conference to opt not to play this fall. Earlier this week, FBS independent UConn became the first FBS program to cancel its season.


An official announcement will be made later Saturday. Stadium first reported on the MAC's decision.

The MAC presidents initially met Thursday morning to discuss the season but could not reach a decision. Northern Illinois and other league members expressed reservations about playing football and other sports safely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, sources said.

A spring season is likely for football and other fall sports but has not yet been determined.

[guinpen]

The end is near.

Sources: Power 5 talking about no fall football 6:09 PM ET ESPN


Commissioners of the Power 5 conferences held an emergency meeting on Sunday, as there is growing concern among college athletics officials that the upcoming football season and other fall sports can't be played because of the coronavirus pandemic, sources told ESPN.

Several sources have indicated to ESPN that Big Ten presidents, following a meeting on Saturday, are ready to pull the plug on its fall sports season, and they wanted to gauge if commissioners and university presidents and chancellors from the other Power 5 conferences -- the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC -- will fall in line with them.

Sources told ESPN that a vast majority of Big Ten presidents have indicated that they would vote to postpone football season, hopefully to the spring. A Big Ten official confirmed to ESPN that no official vote took place during Saturday's meeting, but the presidents are set to meet again Sunday night.

"It doesn't look good," one Power 5 athletic director said.

Notre Dame has close ties to the Power 5, deciding to join the ACC in football this year instead of remaining independent due to the challenges of the pandemic. Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick verbalized one of the central issues with altering the season.

"My view is if we change course, we better be able to articulate the reason for doing so to our student-athletes," he told ESPN.

The Mid-American Conference on Saturday became the first FBS league to postpone the fall sports season, including football.

Presidents and chancellors of the Pac-12 universities are scheduled to meet on Tuesday.

Several sources have told ESPN over the past 48 hours that the postponement or cancellation of the football season seems inevitable. Many of those sources believed it ultimately will take a Power 5 conference to move things in that direction, and that either the Big Ten or Pac-12 would probably be the first league to do it.

"Nobody wanted to be the first to do it," a Power 5 coach told ESPN, "and now nobody will want to be the last."

A Power 5 administrator added: "It feels like no one wants to, but it's reaching the point where someone is going to have to."

The ACC, Big 12 and SEC have wanted to wait to see what happened after thousands of students returned to their campuses this month, but they might be forced to act if the Big Ten and/or Pac-12 take action this week, the sources said.

[IAA Fan]

Read the report on WKBN this morning, it clearly states that the fall league schedule has been canceled but schools can opt to play non-conference games in the fall. Would that even be a consideration for YSU?

I know this sounds bad, but I hope not. Just cancel it. The sooner we get back to normal the better. You know they will never cancel basketball, yet it starts only 3 weeks after football. Cancel this spring season game schedule as well. Let's just let our team have spring practice sessions and a nice spring game to welcome the new coach. Keep the money as is, and apply it to next year. Why complicate matters?

The ones I feel the most sorry for are the 2021 HS grads (recruits). The NCAA has to let the players have another year (or they will be sued with just reason). This leaves the school without much in the way of scholarships funds for anyone new. Maybe the NCAA will allow some adjustments, but we still need to come up with the money. Is suspect there will be some top recruits "without a home" this year. Would be nice to have the open scholarships to take advantage of this.

[goodnews]

We have plenty of Division III players on scholarship. The coach needs to let them know they're not in our future plans and pull the scholarships.

[guinpen]

Report: Big 10 votes to can fall football season


According to Dan Patrick, the Big 10 Presidents have voted 12-2 in favor of postponing the fall football season

by: Josh Frketic

Posted: Aug 10, 2020 / 11:13 AM EDT / Updated: Aug 10, 2020 / 11:17 AM EDT


INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (WKBN) – According to Dan Patrick, the Big 10 Presidents have voted 12-2 in favor of cancelling the fall football season.


Nebraska and Iowa were the two schools that were still in favor of having a season.

Multiple reports said on Sunday that the Power 5 conferences are in advanced talks to move football to the spring.

The Mid-American Conference was the first FBS conference to move fall sports to the spring.

Late last week, the Big 10 told teams to stay in the acclimatization period until further notice, which means players must stay in helmets only during practice.

[guinpen]

Almost seems like money is driving the thinking process.

Schools and divisions that are not big money makers seem to have had an easier time deciding to cancel fall sports. Yet the decision to cancel is a bit harder for the schools and leagues that bring in the big bucks.

Surprise!

[go guins]

Almost seems like money is driving the thinking process.

Schools and divisions that are not big money makers seem to have had an easier time deciding to cancel fall sports. Yet the decision to cancel is a bit harder for the schools and leagues that bring in the big bucks.

Surprise!

So that is why the Big10 cancelled before the MVFC?  Your argument makes logical sense but doesn't follow what's actually happened.

[penguinpower]

The reason the MVFC cancelled is because the NCAA said that if a certain percentage of schools cancelled their seasons there would not be a playoff. First the pussified Ivy League cancelled, then the NEC, Pioneer League etc. When the Big Fluffy Sky finally cancelled championships were not going to be held. The MVFC asked the athletes at the schools in the conference if they wanted to play the season without a championship.  The athletes said hell no, we want a championship.  The MVFC said the best chance for that to happen is if the season is moved to the spring.

Let's be rational here. There will likely be no spring football. Players need the off-season to heal from injuries.  This time will be shortened. The schedule will have to be completely re-tooled because the playoffs take up several weeks plus the regular season. They would have to have the championship by April 1st to give them 3 months off before reporting to fall camp a$$uming that would be July 1.  That means they would have to start the season January 1, and  finish with playoffs April 1st. That's like an 8 game season with no bye weeks or money games before the championship start. It is possible that there would be multiple conference co-champions.

The worst part is that the athletes would not have much time to rest and recover between the seasons.  Injuries with 6-12 month recovery periods would prevent a player from playing in the fall. The risk for more serious injury would also likely be higher in the fall due to shortened recovery times.

The only way for spring to work would be to also move and shorten the fall season as well.

People are stupid and do not make decisions based in facts. The mortality rate of this disease is now down below the H1N1 rates and declining. Hospitalizations nationwide are around 1,200 people. The doctors have treatments for people and are saving people with comorbidities.  The elderly over 74 are still at the highest risk. From a statistical standpoint this disease is really an age related disease. Yes, there are people the die at younger ages, but that can be said with all diseases. The kids that are playing sports are at very low risk of death. They want to play and the fans want to see them play.  People should be given the decision to both participate and attend the games. If you feel you need to stay home, then so be it, but the decision making by the NCAA to take away the championship is total bullsh** and is unacceptable. 

What really burns me up is that the people making the decisions are making them because they know what is best for you. Leftists want to control outcomes at the expense of the rights of the individual and this is a perfect example of this repeated pattern throughout history.  Many of the academic people at the President level whom are making these decisions are Confucius disciples.  As a result they rarely rely on making decisions based on reasoned argument, but rather ethical ideals that are conveyed through allusion, innuendo, and tautology.  It is essentially a form of group-think among them. I just call it Marxist because their decisions essentially manifest the same way as they would in Marxist societies- the ruling cla$$ controls what happens and you don't  get to make any decisions because that freedom is taken from your control. 

If the spring season is played it will f*** up 2 seasons. I say play now or skip this season and start over next year. Our ancestors that went through the Spanish flu of 1918 would probably see people today as soft pussified cowards. They dealt with a disease that had a higher mortality rate and went on with their lives, which included attending games with masks.  I know that you could argue that the effects of WW1 and the governments response would have made it that way back then due to WW1 implications of disseminating information. However in current times,  if a Democrat was up for re-election with this disease and a mortality rate below the Spanish flu it would not be a front and center and would be justified using the current mortality and hospitalization rates that are now below the levels of benchmark plagues