Tag: cancel

LOOK: Twitter reacts to potential Alabama – LSU cancellation

Alabama is scheduled to face off against LSU this Saturday, but the game could be in jeopardy of being canceled after LSU received positives

Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide have moved their way up into the No. 1 spot in the nation, despite not playing last week. A Clemson loss dropped them down, and moved everyone else up. Though, now they will look to secure a win against LSU to imrpove to 7-0 and remain the only undefeated team in the SEC.

Unfortunately, news broke of a minor outbreak within the LSU program, seeing fouring players test positive for the coronavirus, which now puts the game at risk for being canceled or postponed.

Fans are hoping to see these two teams face off, and have taken to Twitter to voice their thoughts:

Could this all be a ploy to keep football off and golf on TV? Likely not, but that won’t stop some fans from thinking it.

This fan thinks LSU is trying their hardest to stay out of this game.

If they can’t hide, can they run?

A common trend is becoming more apparent.

The last time Alabama played a night game in Baton Rouge, things did not end well for the Tigers.

Well, this is… creative.

Wait a minute.

What potential hurdles does a college basketball season face?

Over the last couple of weeks, all attention has been focused on the ongoing saga relating to the tumultuous 2020 college football season.

Over the last couple of weeks, all attention has been focused on the ongoing saga relating to the 2020 college football season due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has been tumultuous, to say the least.

With the football season in jeopardy, the basketball season has been a bit of an afterthought to many in the sports media. But not to college administrators, who are already concerned about the prospect of men’s and women’s hoops this fall.

A report from ESPN on Thursday provided an overview of the obstacles facing the college basketball season and what the powers that be are saying about the current plan.

An immediate challenge is the same one that doomed all levels of football below the Power Five: having the resources to maintain testing standards and safety protocols. While wealthier programs may be able to foot the bill for this, smaller schools can’t.

This inequity would be even more pronounced in college basketball than in football, as there is no distinction between FCS and FBS programs within Division I. As Jeff Borzello notes, the biggest threat to the season is still ensuring player safety at the institutional level.

The biggest hurdle, obviously, will be the virus itself. As one conference official noted, not much has changed between when the sport shut down on March 12 and today — beside the risk of serious heart issues stemming from the coronavirus. — Jeff Borzello

But aside from the primary threat of the virus, secondary logistical issues facing administrators are complicating the plans for the sport.

For example, the Pac-12 and Ivy League have already delayed the beginning of the season until at least Jan. 1. Based on the sentiment of figures in other leagues, they probably won’t be the last to do so.

UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said he is expecting a January start at the earliest across the board. If that were the case, conferences would in all likelihood move to cancel nonconference games.

This would make any potential NCAA Tournament selection process extremely difficult, as such a format would render the NET meaningless. For mid-major conferences, they would have very few opportunities to prove their worth to the committee.

While Big Ten teams would play 16 of 20 games against Quadrant 1 opponents, the Colonial Athletic Association would likely feature zero Quad 1 games. But as one conference official pointed out, differentiating among potential NCAA tournament teams is why there’s a selection committee. — Jeff Borzello

The common theme among conference and school administrators seems to be limiting travel and keeping the season relatively region-locked.

The idea of attempting to replicate the NBA’s successful bubble experiment, which has resulted in zero positive results over the last four weeks, is reportedly gaining momentum among decision-makers.

Multiple potential formats are being discussed, including dividing conferences into smaller groups, each with their own bubble.

One option floated was to split a conference into three groups, put the groups in mini-bubbles for a weekend, play a round-robin format and then do it again two weeks later. Several sources mentioned ideas focused on mini-bubbles and teams playing several games in the same weekend. Another idea mentioned was to have two large bubbles per conference, one in December and one in January, in order to get a full conference season in. It’s unclear if any of these ideas will work, but the emphasis on keeping things regional and isolated is of utmost importance — as well as not testing the limits of amateurism. — Jeff Borzello

As Borzello noted, however, this would be a serious challenge to the purportedly amateur status of college athletes. The same hurdle seems to have tabled such discussions for football.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott echoed this sentiment, saying, “Unlike professional sports, college sports cannot operate in a bubble.”

Still, hypothetical talks of a bubble will surely disappoint college hoops fans, as it seems to signal that allowing fans in the arena is not a possibility currently on the table.

As the ESPN report notes, the men’s NCAA Tournament nets $1 billion annually in revenue. Having the tournament is the top priority at the moment, as revenue for schools from ticket sales pales in comparison to conference payouts from the postseason.

The men’s tournament brings in nearly $1 billion worth of revenue, and the financial boost it provides to its member schools is significant. The NCAA distributes tournament money to its conferences in “units,” with each one being worth roughly $280,000, a number that rises by a couple of thousand each year. And that amount if paid out annually over six years, so even teams that are one-and-done earn around $1.7 million per season for their conferences. Having fans in the stands is lower on the priority list.

While the report provides some clarity as to how college administrators currently view the COVID-19 situation as it relates to basketball, we will likely have a much better idea about the fate of the season once that of the football season is resolved. Should it be postponed or canceled entirely, it would be a bad sign about the prospect of a basketball season.

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Southeastern Conference planning to move forward with football season

It’s clear the league believes its efforts to delay the start and create safety protocols are enough to continue moving toward a fall season

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College football is splitting into factions.

On one side, the Big Ten and Pac-12 have canceled the fall 2020 sports season. On the other, the SEC, ACC and Big 12 are all moving toward the start of a football season this fall. The latter two voted Tuesday to continue with preparations for the season, and the former, which proactively delayed the start of the season until Sep. 26 to allow for increased flexibility, is content to wait out the next month and see how the situation changes, according to a report from Andy Staples of The Athletic.

Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork told Staples that delaying the season bought the league time, and the SEC advisory committee hasn’t given administrators new information that would indicate the 10-game conference schedule is untenable.

“We announced our football opponents on Friday, and all of the sudden the conversation changed over the weekend,” Bjork said. “But we’ve been presented no new data that says that we need to change our course right now. We bought ourselves time for a reason. We delayed the start of practice for a reason. We’ve got the right protocols. We have our testing protocols outline from last Thursday. We have a pathway. And we’re not to the finish line yet. But we can see it and we just need more patience. That’s my perspective. I believe that’s my colleagues’ perspective, and that’s how we’re pushing forward right now.”

South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner said that other conferences choosing to postpone their seasons doesn’t directly affect how the SEC decides to proceed.

“I know we would love all the A5s to be playing. Obviously, the last two days it has been going in that direction. They hit a little pause button yesterday. That’s a decision they felt they needed to make, and now they are going to probably look toward the spring. I think spring is a challenge personally. It’s not impossible, but I think it’s very difficult to go in that direction. That’s just something they are looking at. We are approaching it from a different standpoint at this time. It could be something that we address, but it’s not where we are looking right now.”

One potential reason why the SEC appears to be stubborn when it comes to planning for the season to happen on time is political pressure. Unlike in a conference such as the Pac-12, university presidents and board members must contend with state legislators who want to see a season happen. On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a press conference at Florida State alongside President John Thrasher and multiple players in support of playing a season this fall.

Such pressure has led to SEC administrators waiting to make any consequential decisions when it comes to the 2020 season.

The mantra within the SEC since the start of the pandemic has been that the league would wait as long as possible to make drastic decisions. Tuesday reinforced that. “We have used the same playbook the whole time,” Bjork said. “That is, let’s be patient. Let’s continue to gather information. If there are new data points that need to be entered into the equation, then we do that. We’ve got a medical advisory task force that that meets very frequently. And if they present new information to us that causes us to change or pivot or pause, then we listen to that.”

There’s also the question of what happens if, for one reason or another, the Big 12 and ACC decide to split from the SEC and join the other leagues in postponing the season. Speaking on the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said that while the league could play alone, it probably wouldn’t be the best decision.

“I don’t think that’s the right direction, really,” Sankey told Patrick. “Could we? Certainly. There’s a difference between ‘Can you do something’ and ‘Should you do something’ in life. And so we’re actually set up with our schedule, with our own health protocols. We could, if if that was the circumstance, operate on our own. I’m not sure that’s the wisest direction. But, you know, a lot of interesting things have happened since March in college sports.”

One thing that could potentially put a damper on any plans the SEC has this fall are new reports showing a link between COVID-19 and a rare heart condition called myocarditis which, left untreated, can be fatal. People can develop myocarditis as a result of viral infections such as the flu or common cold, and fear over the long term effects of the condition were cited by both the Big Ten and Pac-12 in their decisions to cancel the fall season. It has been reported that at least five Big Ten players have been found to have myocarditis, as well as players in other conferences.

Bjork said this is why players will undergo a cardiac evaluation as part of the safety protocol, similar to the one they undergo when they first arrive on campus.

“Anytime a student-athlete arrives on campus, we we do a cardiac workup,” Bjork said. “And then, in order to return to any voluntary activity for any student-athlete — not just football, any student-athlete — they have to have the same cardiac workup. They’ve obviously got the COVID tests and then any positive cases, they have to have the same cardiac workup before they could return. So we’re taking every precaution that is a best practice at this point.”

It’s still unclear if given mass cancellations, the SEC will change its plans regarding the fall 2020 season. But for now, it’s clear the league believes its efforts to delay the season and create substantive safety protocols are enough to continue moving toward a fall season.

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Southeastern Conference planning to move forward with football season

It’s clear the league believes its efforts to delay the start and create safety protocols are enough to continue moving toward a fall season

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College football is splitting into factions.

On one side, the Big Ten and Pac-12 have canceled the fall 2020 sports season. On the other, the SEC, ACC and Big 12 are all moving toward the start of a football season this fall. The latter two voted Tuesday to continue with preparations for the season, and the former, which proactively delayed the start of the season until Sep. 26 to allow for increased flexibility, is content to wait out the next month and see how the situation changes, according to a report from Andy Staples of The Athletic.

Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork told Staples that delaying the season bought the league time, and the SEC advisory committee hasn’t given administrators new information that would indicate the 10-game conference schedule is untenable.

“We announced our football opponents on Friday, and all of the sudden the conversation changed over the weekend,” Bjork said. “But we’ve been presented no new data that says that we need to change our course right now. We bought ourselves time for a reason. We delayed the start of practice for a reason. We’ve got the right protocols. We have our testing protocols outline from last Thursday. We have a pathway. And we’re not to the finish line yet. But we can see it and we just need more patience. That’s my perspective. I believe that’s my colleagues’ perspective, and that’s how we’re pushing forward right now.”

South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner said that other conferences choosing to postpone their seasons doesn’t directly affect how the SEC decides to proceed.

“I know we would love all the A5s to be playing. Obviously, the last two days it has been going in that direction. They hit a little pause button yesterday. That’s a decision they felt they needed to make, and now they are going to probably look toward the spring. I think spring is a challenge personally. It’s not impossible, but I think it’s very difficult to go in that direction. That’s just something they are looking at. We are approaching it from a different standpoint at this time. It could be something that we address, but it’s not where we are looking right now.”

One potential reason why the SEC appears to be stubborn when it comes to planning for the season to happen on time is political pressure. Unlike in a conference such as the Pac-12, university presidents and board members must contend with state legislators who want to see a season happen. On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a press conference at Florida State alongside President John Thrasher and multiple players in support of playing a season this fall.

Such pressure has led to SEC administrators waiting to make any consequential decisions when it comes to the 2020 season.

The mantra within the SEC since the start of the pandemic has been that the league would wait as long as possible to make drastic decisions. Tuesday reinforced that. “We have used the same playbook the whole time,” Bjork said. “That is, let’s be patient. Let’s continue to gather information. If there are new data points that need to be entered into the equation, then we do that. We’ve got a medical advisory task force that that meets very frequently. And if they present new information to us that causes us to change or pivot or pause, then we listen to that.”

There’s also the question of what happens if, for one reason or another, the Big 12 and ACC decide to split from the SEC and join the other leagues in postponing the season. Speaking on the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said that while the league could play alone, it probably wouldn’t be the best decision.

“I don’t think that’s the right direction, really,” Sankey told Patrick. “Could we? Certainly. There’s a difference between ‘Can you do something’ and ‘Should you do something’ in life. And so we’re actually set up with our schedule, with our own health protocols. We could, if if that was the circumstance, operate on our own. I’m not sure that’s the wisest direction. But, you know, a lot of interesting things have happened since March in college sports.”

One thing that could potentially put a damper on any plans the SEC has this fall are new reports showing a link between COVID-19 and a rare heart condition called myocarditis which, left untreated, can be fatal. People can develop myocarditis as a result of viral infections such as the flu or common cold, and fear over the long term effects of the condition were cited by both the Big Ten and Pac-12 in their decisions to cancel the fall season. It has been reported that at least five Big Ten players have been found to have myocarditis, as well as players in other conferences.

Bjork said this is why players will undergo a cardiac evaluation as part of the safety protocol, similar to the one they undergo when they first arrive on campus.

“Anytime a student-athlete arrives on campus, we we do a cardiac workup,” Bjork said. “And then, in order to return to any voluntary activity for any student-athlete — not just football, any student-athlete — they have to have the same cardiac workup. They’ve obviously got the COVID tests and then any positive cases, they have to have the same cardiac workup before they could return. So we’re taking every precaution that is a best practice at this point.”

It’s still unclear if given mass cancellations, the SEC will change its plans regarding the fall 2020 season. But for now, it’s clear the league believes its efforts to delay the season and create substantive safety protocols are enough to continue moving toward a fall season.

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Gators News: August 12, 2020

In the middle of one of the wildest weeks in recent memory, the Power 5 conferences make their life-or-death decisions on football season. 

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It is the middle of one of the wildest weeks in recent memory, as the respective Power Five conferences make their life-or-death decisions on the 2020 fall football season.

So far, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 has decided to cancel their schedules, leading to a great deal of discussion on the virtues of such a move. USA TODAY Sports’ Dan Wolken believes that college football’s inevitable demise perfectly represents America’s handling of coronavirus, while he colleague Christine Brennan claims that there is no joy in canceling Big Ten and Pac-12 seasons, despite what opportunists will say.

Taking a look at the other leagues, the presidents of the Big 12 schools took no action on Tuesday to cancel their games, and it is expected that they will release a schedule soon.

Here is the news from around Gators Wire.

Around the Swamp

It’s great to be a Florida Gator!

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Big Ten announces cancellation of fall football season

The axe has finally fallen on the football season for the Big Ten after it announced that it will be canceling the schedule for its schools.

The ax has finally fallen on the 2020 fall football season for the Big Ten after the conference announced that it will be canceling the schedule for its member schools due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The press release included the following quotes.

“Our primary responsibility is to make the best possible decisions in the interest of our students, faculty and staff,” said Morton Schapiro, Chair of the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors and Northwestern University President.

“The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,” said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. “As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall.

“We know how significant the student-athlete experience can be in shaping the future of the talented young women and men who compete in the Big Ten Conference. Although that knowledge made this a painstaking decision, it did not make it difficult. While I know our decision today will be disappointing in many ways for our thousands of student-athletes and their families, I am heartened and inspired by their resilience, their insightful and discerning thoughts, and their participation through our conversations to this point. Everyone associated with the Big Ten Conference and its member institutions is committed to getting everyone back to competition as soon as it is safe to do so.”

The announcement will undoubtedly trigger an avalanche of reactions from the other Power Five conferences, including the Pac-12 which is expected to follow suit in the coming days. As for the other three conferences, there are no indications that any of them intend to sit out the season or push things back into spring… yet.

Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey appeared on the Dan Patrick Show earlier on Tuesday, shedding some light on the issues arising from the novel coronavirus pandemic. By spreading out the preseason schedule and delaying the start of full practices, he believes that the league has an advantage against COVID-19, with added time to evaluate developing situations at member schools. At no point did he give any indication that the SEC is even considering the measures that the Big Ten has taken.

So for now, we are left to wait and see how the other four conferences react to this news. The SEC appears to be entrenched in its efforts to conduct a college football season, but in this wild world of 2020 things can change quickly.

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SEC Commish Greg Sankey appears on the Dan Patrick Show, discusses state of season

SEC Commish Greg Sankey appeared on the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday discussing pressure that ADs in other power conferences are feeling.

With the Big 10 and Pac-12 reportedly being close to canceling the 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic, or at least delaying it until the spring, the eyes of the college football world have been turned on the rest of the Power Five, namely the SEC, to see how it plans to address these developments.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey shed some light on those issues in his appearance on the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday morning. Discussing pressure that administrators in other power conferences are feeling, Sankey said that his league’s decision to delay the start of the season to Sep. 26 has given it more flexibility.

He believes that spreading out the preseason schedule and delaying the start of full practices has allowed the league to evaluate developing situations at member schools and others, and with the start slated for nearly a month after students begin returning to campus, he said the league will have time to reevaluate how the presence of other students affects the situation for players.

Sankey also gave no assurances that competition would happen, though. Responding to hypothetical discussions of the SEC playing by itself even if the rest of the Power Five canceled, he said that while it could happen, it probably wouldn’t be the best course of action.

Moving to the topic of player freedoms, Sankey reaffirmed that players have the option to opt-out and retain both their scholarship and spot on the team. In terms of eligibility preservation for players who choose to opt-out, he said that he expects the NCAA to reach a solution within the week.

The full interview can be viewed below. Sankey joins the show around the 28-minute mark.

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College football’s 2020 bleakness continues to grow

The bleakness surrounding college football taking place in 2020 is swelling at an incredible rate this Saturday afternoon.

I hate having to type this as the news and reports that have come out in the last 24 hours paint a very somber picture for the chances of college football actually being played this fall.

NCAA President Mark Emmert gave a grim outlook on college football Friday night.

On Saturday morning the MAC announced they were cancelling all fall sports, including football for the fall.

And now we’ve got countless different college football and athletic reporters passing information along from their unique sources just how bleak the season starting in just a month appears to be.

This from Brett McMurphy of Stadium, who has broken several big-time college football stories before:

Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated has heard similar things as McMurphy:

Ross Dellinger of Sports Illustrated has followed up with his sources in regards to the information Forde provided and he’s hearing more of the same:

I could put tweets up here all day but I’m not sure that would do anybody any good.

College football seems to be hanging by it’s last strand of having even the most remote of chances of being played this fall.

By no means are any of these reports official yet, but it’s certainly starting to feel like a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ they are.

Gators News: July 13, 2020

A new week is upon us and given the events that preceded the weekend we are in for one heckuva few days as we roll into the middle of July. 

A new week is upon us and given the events that preceded the weekend we are in for one heck of a few days as we roll into the middle of July.

It is expected that sometime later today the Southeastern Conference will make its announcement concerning the shift to conference-only schedules already taken by the Big 10 and PAC-12, as well as the Ivy League’s decision to cancel all fall athletics. The Patriot League is also canceling its 2020 fall athletics season, according to a source.

In other news, Major League Baseball is currently struggling with its restart due to numerous reports of positive COVID-19 cases while the National Basketball Association is trying its hardest to keep its bubble from being burst.

Around the Swamp

It’s great to be a Florida Gator!

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Expect the SEC and other collegiate conferences to follow the Big 10’s lead

Any reasonable person has known for some time that if college football happens this fall it will look drastically different than ever before

Any reasonable person has known for some time now that should a college football season occur this fall, it will look drastically different than any other season we’ve ever seen. The only question was, how so?

The first domino in answering that question fell Thursday afternoon, as the Big 10 announced that it would be scrapping all scheduled nonconference games and moving to a conference-only football schedule.

Not only does this alter the schedules of Big 10 teams, but also every team that was scheduled to play a Big 10 team in non-conference play. As a result, it’s just a matter of time until the rest of the FBS makes the same call.

The PAC 12 has been reportedly considering doing the same for months now, and according to Stadium’s Brett McMurphy, the ACC is likely to move to a conference-only schedule, as well.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said that the league will wait as long as possible to make final decisions but that it will also discuss the possibility of eliminating nonconference games.

These are important first steps from the Power Five, which until now hasn’t taken nearly as proactive a course as, for instance, the NBA has. But this also feels like an abrupt turn in strategy.

Just weeks ago, Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith suggested that they could put 40-50,000 fans in the stadium. On Thursday, his tone changed drastically.

“I am very concerned,” Smith said, when asked about playing fall sports in general. “I used to be cautiously optimistic, but I’m not even there now. When you look at our trajectory with the virus, we are either the worst country or one of the worst. We wanted September available to use to provide flexibility and control to handle disruptions.”

The Big 10’s announcement was less of a proactive step than it was a scramble. College football waited too long to take concrete steps to ensure the season could be conducted safely, and now the entire season is jeopardized.

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Most, if not all, Power Five leagues will do the same thing the Big 10 did. Most Group of Five leagues will, as well. But it’s not going to save the season.

Moving to a conference-only schedule is the last gasp from college sports administrators realizing the error of their ways. Because, though clearly a step in the right direction, nixing nonconference games isn’t the answer.

Sure, it keeps programs’ travel generally region-locked, but at this point, with over 3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, spreading the disease to new places isn’t really the concern. The concern is keeping the thousands of players, coaches and personnel safe while somehow limiting collateral in the travel process. A conference-only schedule doesn’t begin to solve all of these problems.

There’s only one answer: delaying the season.

Right now, college football is setting itself up for a disaster. Administrators are either too stubborn or too invested to see the writing on the wall, and they’re going to create a massive headache for themselves.

Barring something unforeseen changing in the next month and a half, outbreaks will be an inevitability this fall. When that happens, the season will be stopped and either canceled or postponed.

Assuming this is the case, college football has two options: Delay the start of the season with the hope that a more normal season is possible later on, or devise a complicated plan for a fall start that will more likely than not fail, resulting in a delayed season anyway but with the added hurdle of dealing with a restart instead of just a delayed start.

The former option is, in my opinion, clearly superior. But it seems that those in power are more interested in the latter. When that comes to pass, the months wasted arguing about precisely how many fans can safely be shoved into metal bleachers will be all the more damning.

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