The plans you make when you don’t have a major deal with a broadcast partner:
According to several sources within the Ivy League itself and in the ever changing world of CFB coaches dealing with protocols involved in a resumption of the sport, the Ivy League is formulating a restart plan, which could be finalized and released in the next few weeks.
The plan has two options, one of which is more radical than the other.
The first would be to open the 2020 season in late September with a 7-game schedule comprised of only conference opponents.
The Ivy League is already different than its FCS brethren by playing only a 10 game (no playoffs) regular season. This plan would eliminate the non-conference opponents and conclude a week before Thanksgiving.
The second plan, which is gaining momentum because of the increasing number of positive Covid-19 cases in the country, would shut down football until next spring, with a start up (for practice) in March and another 7-game (conference opponents only) beginning in April and concluding in mid-May.
The article goes on to say “most of all of the Power 5 and Group of 5 FBS conferences have similar contingency plans in place”, but I strongly suspect those are plans of last resort for now, at least for the P5. I have a hard time believing Georgia’s walking away from a $4 million check to play in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic unless it’s under severe duress.
Even with what’s going on now, I still think the season will start on schedule, in other words. Just don’t ask me if I expect it to finish on schedule.
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Why is the magic number 7 games? Seems to me if we start late Sept there is still time to allow 10 games.
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The Ivy League is an 8 member league. If the Ivies only play conference games then each plays 7. As far as any other factors, if it starts in late September and finishes before the 4th Thursday in November then that reduces the available Saturdays, especially factoring in bye weeks.
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Thanks I was just thinking about all the major programs. A late Sept start is imho wishful thinking with the current Covid spikes.
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Penn, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth…Brown, had to look it up, couldn’t remember Brown
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I don’t think the recent uptick in cases will derail the season. To date almost half the deaths have been in nursing homes (almost completely in Dem states for some reason). The recent increase though has been in much younger people, but that has the epidemiologists saying the hospitalization rates will be much lower. Nate Silver suggests that since the recent increase is not just younger but also more Hispanic that the increase is related to harvests and migrant workers from Mexico other the numbers will decline again in a few weeks.
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That Spring schedule won’t happen. The NFL draft is the last week in April and a number of Ivy Leaguers are drafted each year.
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The Ivy League doesn’t operate the same as any other collegiate athletic conference in Division 1 and maybe even the entire NCAA. You have four years to compete – that is it. They do not allow redshirts and medical redshirts are rare.
They did not allow an extra year of eligibility for spring sport athletes affected by COVID-19.
https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/28987862/ivy-league-allow-5th-year-eligibility-spring-sport-athletes
They will not be moved by small number of football athletes who might get drafted in the NFL. If the league decides to move to the Spring they will do it and let the individual athlete decided whether to compete.
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“This plan would eliminate the non-conference opponents…”
Somewhat related to that, I’ve been wondering if the bigger schools/conferences will decide to forego games with patsies (for lack of a better term). I see that as the first domino to fall. At least the NBA, NFL, and MLB, etc. only have to deal with a limited number of teams. So their management is in better position to manage the situation. With cfb, there’s just too many schools involved.
The move the Ivy League is making seems obvious to me. It won’t surprise me if/when the P5 conferences follow suit and winnow out some opponents.
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How bout we just set restrictions the SEC schools can live with, then play a 10-12 game SEC only schedule?
Would be a net gain in terms of quality games.
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We’ve got the resources to be as PPE/testing, etc. happy as we want, in a way only the NFL and Big Ten could. So just pony up and do it and don’t take the field with anyone else. I’d miss the Tech game but it’s just a year. Let everyone else do what they want but that would damn sure be compelling tv the broadcast partners would agree to.
Then just have an AP national champion at years end like the good ole days.
CFB is great in large part because of its weirdness. Embrace it for a year instead of trying to pigeonhole 120something schools into an impossible to meet CFP format for one year.
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And give up that sweet CFP cash? Inconceivable!
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Wishful thinking.
Sadly, a season marred by a mishmash of postponements, absent sick star players, canceled games, and teams having schedules ranging from as few as 6 or 7 up to as many as 12 or so games…. that still culminates in a nice clean little 4 team playoff (after about 10 teams with seemingly legitimate claims to a spot are left out) is far more likely.
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“Raise your hand if you played any quarterback in high school. Congratulations you’re the new starter. The entire QB room is in quarantine for 14 days and we’ve got Bama this Saturday.”
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Desperation has had me recording and watching the National Rugby League from Australia They were playing in empty stadiums due to Covid-19 but on the broadcast there was crowd noise. I couldn’t tell if it was from the stadium PA or the FOX broadcast but it helped get me into it. The sound of silence with only the announcers droning on is not good. I’m now hooked on League Rugby as opposed to Union or 7’s. As played by the Aussies it is a blood sport and it is as close to nonstop action for 80 minutes as any sport I’ve seen.
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