While the Big Ten and Pac-12 bailed yesterday, the Big 12 announced it’s still hanging in there.
That leaves three of the P5 hoping to play ball in 2020. The question for the moment is whether the decision is on, for want of a better phrase, life support.
Before their presidents OK’ed to continue the season, Big 12 athletic directors got briefed for 90 minutes by a medical panel, which led to vigorous debate. Some thought it too unsafe. Others thought it safe enough. It was a back-and-forth between administrators, all the while with the season somewhat on the line. The decision among Big 12 leaders came down to ramifications of not playing a season (player mental health, structure, etc.) vs. uncertain risks of playing a season.
They settled on the former. According to league sources, the conference also decided to add an extra layer to their COVID-19 protocols, requiring more intensive, mandatory heart imaging tests—a decision rooted in virus-related cardiac issues.
But let’s not celebrate too much so quickly. Maybe this is only delaying the inevitable. After all, most medical experts are expecting August and early September to be some of the highest hurdles yet. Thousands of students will return to campus while teams begin, for the first time, colliding with one another during fall camp. It’s a recipe for viral outbreaks, which are ingredients for more interruptions and delays. You can only kick the can so far down the road before you run out of road.
“This doesn’t mean we’re going to play,” a Big 12 source told SI on Tuesday night. “Students are coming back to campus…”
That echoes something Greg Sankey said.
The return of the general student population and the immersion of football players into that mix is obviously the wild card now. Sadly, what this sounds like is a continuation of the hope for the best strategy that hasn’t actually served college football too well up until now. But when it’s all you’ve got, all we can do is hope along with them.
Get The Picture 
I think “hope fpr the best” is all they have.
Remember when we were kids and “they” thought we’d beat infectious disease because we swallowed sugar cubes with polio vaccine and got tetanus, whooping cough, and measles shots?
Now, it seems like “they” don’t know much more than “their” predecessors in the middle ages.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sick and tired of hearing that the schools need to keep students away from campus, so football can happen. I pay tuition for my student to have a college experience not the 15th grade behind a computer.
The universities seem to be serious about the protocols with the general student population. The problem is you can’t control things off campus. The players want a bubble (which I doubt they will really like once they are in it). The schools don’t want to give them that because that would lay bare the amateurism myth.
At this point, I don’t give a damn if they play or not (don’t get me wrong – I hope they do). I’m probably not going to get tickets if they play, and I hope I don’t miss it too badly if they don’t or fans aren’t invited to participate.
LikeLike
A virus doesn’t care about your student’s college experience. Unfortunately. Not giving a damn whether they play might be the way to go because there will most assuredly be outbreaks once students return to campus. That’s an inevitability I would relish in being wrong about.
LikeLike
CB, my point is those in the media and around the sport who are saying, “Why do students need to be on campus? We want football … to hell with the general student population. They can stay locked up in their dorm rooms or in their apartments for all I care.”
I get there is a heightened risk when students return to campus. At least at UGA, they have put in place a ton of protocols to minimize the risk. My student is taking it seriously … I hope 30,000 others are as well.
LikeLike
I see your point now. Makes sense. Good luck with that hope, hasn’t been helping us on the football front much.
LikeLike
All my wife and I can do is to encourage the ones we have influence over to do the right thing. I can’t control the others.
LikeLike
Remember ee….it’s not about your’s doing the right thing, it’s that others care enough about yours, theirs and ours….if they don’t, look out….as educators speak outwardly concerning the social needs of elementary level students, a large part of the college experience (don’t recall which year) social needs are VERY important (2nd/3rd year)….theres something about that 20-24 year old age group that shit happens….
LikeLike
I agree with much of what you say. And most people absolutely don’t have a problem with the idea that school comes first, with sports being tethered to it. The disconnect I have is the whittling down of reality to the point that cancelling the competitive athletic season is hardly more than a virtue signal. How many times have we heard “the virus don’t care [about xyz]”. The thing is, that also applies to the juggling of the entirety of campus life, the virus don’t care that English class is more important than an offensive meeting. Or the bars, or parties here, there or back home at your house (unless you’re going to lock your kid inside)
So I’m kind of in the Nick Saban camp. The entire college / college town endeavor is a total crap shoot. And I support trying to do it all as best we can. But with every.single.hurdle out there in a place like Athens, suspending football seems like an arbitrary decision, as if you are going to win some type of virus brownie points. Hell the Big10 is still going to allow 20hrs per week training. How does that make sense ?……whittled further, I’m now to believe that the physical contact in games, held outdoors, between players who are tested twice (3 times?) per week is the unsustainable activity. Bologna. That’s the same thing as the crime-taped enclosed DO NOT ENTER playground right next to the crowds of people permitted on the adjoining greenspace.
So I’m not saying cancel school for football. I’m saying, don’t cancel football unless you are going to bubble the whole school and town and cancel any and all unnecessary gatherings within the community. We’re not going to win any valor points by shutting down the thing we love the most, particularly when it’s the most closely monitored and evaluated.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s just it … we must care because we shut down the thing most important to us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with both of you…. and since we are on the cynical bus, I think schools shut down Fall Sports because they can always charge the students Athletics Fees to cover expenses where necessary. Heck, I pulled up Meeechigan Fees and while they don’t have an athletics fee (UGA does), they do have a $50 per term COVID-19 Fee
LikeLike
To give the Butts-Mehre CC (thanks, ATL Dawg) credit, the university did reimburse students of a portion of the athletic fee during spring semester.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And that’s a good thing . I am merely pointing out that schools can “fee” their athletic troubles away whereas the Athletic Departments can’t do the vice versa for the Universities. I believe that would explain why the Big 10 and the PAC 12 have postponed Fall sports — and why the other conferences may follow suit.
LikeLike
and i thought evoking the three-fifths compromise would be a playpen post for sure
LikeLike
So we’re going to proceed with in-person classes and cfb season with no bubble in the epicenter of the world’s Covid hotspot. Mass delusion is our problem, not Covid.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The bodies will be stacked along Lumpkin St! Human sacrifice!
LikeLike
You are correct, the mass delusion that COVID-19 is the Black Death is the problem….
LikeLike
Well, if our armchair epidemiologists/statisticians are correct, the Big10 and Pac-12 were likely to get killed in a car accident anyway. Cancelling the season won’t allow them to cheat death.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Haahaahaha….
LikeLike
solid dunk
LikeLike
Well there there is a 99% possibility that at least 3 of the 4 playoff slots would have been filled by teams from the 3 anyway. The 4th probably OSU but no guarantee. If the PAC12 never comes back, would they really be missed?
LikeLiked by 1 person