Tag: B1G Conference Football

How does a college football postseason work in a pandemic?

Good question

In an attempt to explain why I’m not currently sold on the models being used to project the safe return of college football, I wrote an article talking about the sport being largely unsafe under the current plans. That article didn’t even focus on a particular aspect of play.

Right now, several states around the nation are turning into coronavirus hotspots. Whether it’s the lack of mask mandates or states only opting to use temporary social distancing measures and temporary mask mandates, the idea that a forward-thinking state’s football team could be forced into play against a backward-thinking state’s prized bellcow program doesn’t sit right with me.

How can you keep at least two groups of 110 or more people completely safe when one team may not legally have to care about masks or social distancing?

This is the larger, overarching problem currently facing the College Football Playoff and its committee of leaders in 2020. Adding to these problems is the fact that different conferences are either using conference-only scheduling or they’re using conference-plus-one (one nonconference game) to round out their school schedules.

Let’s play with a hypothetical using this scenario.

Let’s say Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State go undefeated, but then you have Georgia, which lost to Alabama by 10, and Pac-12 champion Oregon, which lost to a decent USC team by a field goal. Which team is in the playoff? With different scheduling structures among the Power Five conferences, how can you even determine this fairly? At a certain point, when you’re only playing conference games, can it be anything but conference bias?

What becomes the fair and just thing to do? No postseason? Maybe you do a one-year-only version with six teams: the champs from all Power Five schools and let the committee determine the Group of Five champion? Just play a larger playoff to balance out the smaller season?

That’s just the sorting and selection process. None of this, and I mean absolutely nothing in here, puts forth any plan on how to act if Alabama faced USC in a playoff game in New Orleans (the Sugar Bowl semifinal) when the two states have two different politicians (and political cultures) running things, and they have to travel to a third state (Louisiana)? Does USC walk around with N95s and face shields? Do Alabama players have to wear a mask? Or do the different bowls get to set the rules on who has to wear specific pieces of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)?

This is just off the top of my head. Many more details exist which haven’t been mentioned.

I’m not even trying to sit down, take my Master’s degree in Public Policy, and hack out a plan that might actually work for these guys. It’s not my job. But it WILL be somebody’s job and they’re going to have a HELL of a feat to pull off. It won’t be easy, but I will be pulling for them. I will be following their plan and critiquing or praising parts of it as we go.

Look, I’m smart enough to know that we’re all learning on the fly… but as long as we’re actively trying to learn to keep people safe, that’s the main thing.

Has college football thought all of this through? There isn’t much convincing evidence it has. Hopefully it soon will.

It’s time to stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen

Real talk about the present moment

What a week of turmoil and tumult for college sports.

Wednesday it was announced that Ohio State football had suspended voluntary workouts. That was just the beginning. On Thursday, it was announced the Big Ten had suspended all non-conference games and would only be playing a conference schedule this fall. Shortly after this announcement, the Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach said that the Pac-12 could soon adopt a conference-only schedule. This report was then confirmed by another reporter. These events represent a series of dominoes falling, one by one, and each of them moves college football one step closer to being canceled in its entirety for the current sports cycle (through June of 2021) or potentially moved to the spring.

But it’s clear from the rising cases and death tolls that the officials and powers that be should stop trying to make a season happen this year. It’s simply just not safe enough or worth the risk. The current administration has show no inclination to prevent further contamination, they’re currently telling folks that they need to learn to live with the disease. While younger people are less prone to dying, even one athlete’s life is not worth the risk of playing a game. Sports are the reward of a functioning society and we’re not there yet as a nation.

Football is great. I love the sport and hate that we have so few sports to watch right now. That said, I fully understand why we shouldn’t be playing them even as other nations are. They actually listened to scientists, stayed inside, wore masks, and the curve flattened and allowed them to return to a normal way of life. Not a single state has done that here in America, Washington probably comes the closest.

If fans want to see college football this fall, the formula is clear as day. Wash your hands, social distancing is a must, wear a mask, and self-quarantine. These simple items will do wonders in returning life to normal. When life returns to normal, sports will be back with a vengeance. Athletes want to play, fans want to see them play, but it’s imperative that they are healthy and safe when they play. If that can’t happen, then they shouldn’t be playing.

Why conference-only isn’t the solution

Spring football should be considered.

Wednesday it was announced that Ohio State football had suspended voluntary workouts. Thursday it was announced the Big Ten had canceled all non-conference games and would only play a conference schedule this fall. Shortly after this announcement, the Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach said that the Pac-12 would likely soon choose to play a conference-only schedule. This report was then confirmed by another reporter. Each of these instances amounts to just another notch closer to football being canceled in its entirety this fall, or postponed and potentially moved to spring.

But it’s clear from the rising cases and death tolls that the officials and powers that be should stop trying to make a season happen this year. It’s simply just not safe enough or worth the risk. The current presidential administration has shown no inclination to prevent further contamination; it is currently telling folks that they need to learn to live with the disease. While younger people are less prone to dying, even one athlete’s life is not worth the risk of playing a game. Sports are the reward of a functioning society, and we’re not there right now as a nation.

Conference-only games might seem like the solution here, but they’re not. The idea behind conference-only games is that schools can eliminate a number of environments they’re not familiar with in some cases; this hypothetically makes it easier for them to track-and-trace if there is an outbreak or an infection. It also does a decent job of limiting exposure in various forms. Yet, if a school is not able to completely eliminate risk or at least reduce it to an acceptable standard, it’s still a bad idea to conduct business as usual.

The Ivy League made the smart decision to not play any games this autumn. Not only does this allow them more time to get a handle on the COVID-19 cases in their immediate area, it also allows the universities in the league to create an environment in which the athletes are not in danger of contracting a virus simply so the school can make revenue by playing a football game. Spring football is becoming a more popular solution as this drama wears on. Perhaps it’s time the Pac-12 and USC gave spring football a closer look.