Tag: Brian Hainline

NCAA chief medical officer gives negative outlook on fall college football

Given Hainline’s comments, football in the fall feels like an unlikely outcome.

In an appearance on CNN early Sunday morning, NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline gave a grim summary of the challenges facing college sports. Namely, that resource limitations currently keep college sports hanging in the balance.

Here are some highlights of what Hainline said about the season during his slot.

  • “The pathway to play sports is so exceedingly narrow right now. Everything would have to line up perfectly.”
  • “If testing stays as it is, there’s no way we could go forward with sports.”
  • Added the greater risk is regular students resocializing on campuses. Says that could be “the downfall” if schools can’t handle that.

Of primary concern to Hainline and other NCAA medical experts is the prospect of students returning to campus in the coming weeks. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC are all currently planning on having football in the fall, though more spikes like the ones at Notre Dame and North Carolina could jeopardize that.

Unlike the other two leagues, the SEC delayed the beginning of its season until Sep. 26, presumably to allow league officials to gauge how students’ return to campus affects the situation.

But given Hainline’s comments, football in the fall feels like an unlikely outcome.

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NCAA Chief Medical Officer gives grim outlook for college football

NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline went on CNN to detail why college football may not happen in the fall.

The Big 12, ACC and SEC are the three remaining conferences hoping to play college football this season. While they have decided to move forward, there are still obstacles left that could hinder a fall football season. Shortly after midnight on CNN the NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline spoke about the outlook for college football.

Our colleagues at the Fighting Irish Wire laid out what Hainline said on air while the world was sleeping.

“The pathway to play sports is so exceedingly narrow right now. Everything would have to line up perfectly.”

“If testing stays as it is, there’s no way we could go forward with sports.”

Added the greater risk is regular students resocializing on campuses. Says that could be “the downfall” if schools can’t handle that.

As we have stated time and time again, the NCAA actually holds zero power or leverage over FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) or Division I as some refer to it. The power all lies in the hands of the conference commissioners like Greg Sankey (SEC) and Bob Bowlsby (Big 12). Clint Lamb of Roll Tide Wire recently tweeted about this happening.

Lamb isn’t the only one to say this as Barrett Sallee of CBS Sports also said that you should expect “sources” to try and wreck the season.

While the schools and conferences in the southern part of the United States are attempting to move forward with football, it seems everyone else wants to stop it. Maybe due to the fact that if a college football season is indeed played, they don’t want to look bad because they called it off to early.

This is always a fluid situation so stay tuned as we keep you updated.

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NCAA chief medical officer speaks overnight, gives grim outlook for college football

Speaking on CNN in the early hours of Sunday morning, NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline painted a disturbing picture for sports.

In case you were sleeping like any sane human being would be, NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline appeared on CNN just after midnight on Sunday morning and didn’t provide much optimism about the chances of college football or any college sport for the time being.

I am yet to find any video of his appearance to link to but thanks to the likes of Chris Vannini and Nicole Auerbach on Twitter, we were able to get the most-significant of quotes from Hainline’s appearance.

  • “The pathway to play sports is so exceedingly narrow right now. Everything would have to line up perfectly.”
  • “If testing stays as it is, there’s no way we could go forward with sports.”
  • Added the greater risk is regular students resocializing on campuses. Says that could be “the downfall” if schools can’t handle that.

If you’re hoping college football gets played by the ACC, Big 12 and SEC in less than a month, it’s not the kind of comments you want to wake up to be reading today.

Our colleague Clint Lamb of Roll Tide Wire then made a compelling point about why there being no college football this fall is in the best interest of the NCAA, and it doesn’t necessarily have to do with anyone’s physical health.

As I’ve said all along this is an outcome that is next to impossible to predict.  Some thought the significant amount of positive tests at Clemson, LSU and Alabama months ago meant there was no way we’d even get to now without everything being called off for the fall.

With the rest of students returning to college campuses across the country over the last week and this next one, the real indicator is still to come after we see how quickly this virus does or does not spread over said campuses.

Grim outlook on College Football from NCAA President Emmert

NCAA President Mark Emmert make some very discouraging comments regarding NCAA fall sports.

Last night NCAA President Mark Emmert and chief medical officer Brian Hainline made some very discouraging comments regarding the playing of college football this fall. While conferences continue to adjust their schedules, just this morning the MAC canceled all fall athletics following the lead of Division II and III, the COVID-19 pandemic keeps throwing wrenches at NCAA’s fall sports schedule.

Emmert said in an interview last night via the NCAA’s twitter that “this is going to be difficult, to say the least, going forward.” Hainline was even more pessimistic as he believes “we’re in a place that is exceptionally narrow. The boundaries are … there’s not a lot of places to move one way or the other. Almost everything would have to be perfectly aligned to continue moving forward.” Needing perfection to play sports this fall is something that is a stretch, at this point in time it just seems like it’s not in the realm of possibilities.

Many players and coaches have gone to social media to plead with fans to wear masks and do their part, but unfortunately that just isn’t working. We all want to see college football in the fall, along with every other sport that participates when the leaves change. As of right now, the season is set to begin but there is still plenty of time to make changes. It wasn’t all doom and gloom from Emmert as “everybody wants to have kids back on campus. Everybody wants fall sports to return. But we can’t do it unless we can find a way to do it with minimized risk for these young people.”

NCAA: Uniformed Start to College Football Season Unlikely

On Friday night NCAA President Mark Emmert stated the unlikelihood of there being a uniformed start to college football in 2020.

NCAA President Mark Emmert spent a good portion of his Friday night discussing the outlook of the 2020 college football season as he and NCAA Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brian Hainline appeared together for an interview that aired on the NCAA’s official Twitter account.

You can watch that video in full here and/or read the cliff-notes below.

The Highlights:

  • Emmert says it’s unlikely all schools will be ready to resume athletics at the same time
  • Emmert states the goal is for all teams to have an equal amount of preparation time before the season starts, something that could be thrown off by the variance of when each specific school opens
  • On the college football season potentially lacking a uniformed start date Emmert said: “I think we should assume that’s going to be the case”
  • Hainline stated there will be no national time when everyone can start pre-season activities
  • Emmert also made it crystal-clear that NCAA athletic events won’t be taking place on campus until students return to campus as well: “If you don’t have students on campus, you don’t have student-athletes on campus,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it has to be up and running in the full normal model, but you’ve got to treat the health and well-being of the athletes at least as much as the regular students. So if a school doesn’t reopen, then they’re not going to be playing sports. It’s really that simple.”