Tag: NCAA Division I Council

College football in the fall couldn’t be any more bleak

Two Power Five athletic directors spoke with Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. It appears it is only a matter of time before football is cancelled.

The thought of college football has become more bleak with every passing moment as of late. No one wants actually consider the possibility of it not happening. Those of us in the state of Texas especially love our football. Often times we consume it every week from Thursday night until Monday night. However, the game we love is in serious jeopardy.

Following the MAC being the first to cancel their season, two athletic directors from Power Five conferences spoke with CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd. The two anonymous ADs gave a less than thrilling answer to the question we all are asking. Will there be college football in the fall of 2020?

“It’s not fair what we’re doing to our coaches and student-athletes,” one long-time Power Five AD said. “The sooner we can come to a finality, the better.”

“I think it’s inevitable [the season will not be played in the fall],” said another veteran Power Five AD. – according to CBS Sports report

According to multiple reports, the Big Ten Conference met to discuss multiple options for their upcoming season. The idea of pushing the season to the spring of 2021 once again became an option.

Big Ten presidents met on Saturday, though a league source told CBS Sports not to expect an immediate announcement to cancel its season — the feeling being that the league wouldn’t alter its practice schedule and announce a cancellation on the same day.

The Big Ten on Saturday announced it was “indefinitely” delaying a move to Phase 3 of practice that would have allowed players to use pads. The Detroit Free Press reported that Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is believed to prefer attempting to play a season in spring 2021.

Longhorns Wire explored the idea of a spring season recently, and it isn’t so farfetched of an idea. The cancellation of the MAC conference seems to have sent plans in motion for other conferences to question pushing for football to kick off in time.

The Longhorns bitter rivals to the north have already put their practice schedule to a halt. It wasn’t necessarily alarming since they were originally ramping up for kickoff on August 29th. The alarming part is that Oklahoma is allowing players to return home for a few days. That part raised an eyebrow.

Schools are putting in place guidelines and safety measures to ensure the health and well being of their players. Sending them home gives you the idea that maybe college football isn’t in the plans for the fall at this point. Could be pure speculation but doesn’t appear to be a positive sign. We will continue to monitor the situation as we all await answers.

The NCAA Division I Council is set to meet on Wednesday and that might be when we get some sort of closure. Like the anonymous athletic director stated, we need to come to some finality.

NCAA Division I Council’s vote ends Oklahoma careers of Maggie Nichols, Kristian Doolittle

The downside of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on sports is the end of one’s career before competing for a championship one more time. 

The downside of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on sports is the end of one’s career before competing for a championship one more time.

That was the case for two of Oklahoma’s prominent winter sport athletes: basketball player Kristian Doolittle and gymnast Maggie Nichols. The NCAA Division I Council voted to give a year of eligibility back to spring sport athletes on Monday, but the same was not done for winter sport athletes.

Doolittle had a tumultuous career for Lon Kruger and the Sooners. He was suspended for the first half of the 2017-18 season, but then bounced back to earn Big 12’s Most Improved Player Award after his junior season in 2018-19. Oklahoma’s lone senior was named an AP All-Big 12 First Team selection after his senior regular season and Doolittle helped the Sooners get back to the now canceled NCAA Tournament.

Nichols had a much more storied career at Oklahoma. She is one of only 11 women’s gymnasts all-time to complete a Gym Slam—scoring a perfect 10 on every event throughout a season. Nichols has won eight NCAA Championships—two team titles with Oklahoma and six individual awards, including two all-around national championships.

Doolittle isn’t a bonafide NBA prospect, but some mock drafts have him going in the second round. Nichols will likely be seen representing the United States in the Olympics.

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What the NCAA Division I Council’s vote on spring sport eligibility means for Oklahoma softball

The NCAA Division I Council voted to give spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility. Here is what that means for Oklahoma softball.

The NCAA Division I Council voted to give spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This means schools will have the power to essentially reset their rosters and accept back seniors who were about to exhaust their last years of eligibility. For Oklahoma softball, that could not be bigger.

The Sooners were playing without star southpaw Giselle Juarez for much of the 2019 season already and she wasn’t set to be back anytime soon. She was a senior and led Oklahoma to the Women’s College World Series in 2019. Joining her in almost the same regard is do-it-all player Nicole Mendes, who was just getting back to the playing field after ACL surgery in the fall. Pitcher Shannon Saile, who was one of the primary arms in Juarez’ absence, was also set to graduate.

Legendary coach Patty Gasso already said she expects those three back for the 2021 season. There is no telling how else Gasso will reshape her roster for next season with every player set to return.

Oklahoma has been to the Women’s College World Series in eight of the last nine seasons.

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What the NCAA Division I Council’s vote on spring sport eligibility means for Oklahoma baseball

Christmas just came early for Oklahoma baseball. In a matter of a week, the 2021 season went from looking like a rebuild to a reload.

Christmas just came early for Oklahoma baseball.

The MLB and MLB Players Association agreed over a week ago that the MLB Draft in 2020 will be a maximum of ten rounds and a minimum of five rounds. Signing bonus pools may be trimmed down, meaning that teams would likely be able to not go over slotted signing bonus value for prospects with great leverage like college eligibility. If the draft is five rounds, free agent signings for players not drafted would be a maximum of $20,000.

That meant a whole lot to players like Levi Prater, Dane Acker, Tanner Tredaway and even Justin Mitchell who were likely going to be drafted in rounds that would opt them to move on to professional baseball. That also meant a lot to Oklahoma keeping ahold of top high school MLB Draft prospects Cade Horton, Jace Bohrofen and Daxton Fulton who have signed with the Sooners.

The final touches on what appeared to be a promising 2021 season instead of a gloomy one was just finalized as the NCAA Division I Council just voted to allow spring sport athletes to regain a year of eligibly due to the coronavirus pandemic.

On top of the four mentioned, Oklahoma has a strong chance of retaining starting shortstop Brandon Zaragoza, catcher Brady Lindsly and grad transfer pitcher Brad Demco, who were all set to run out of eligibility.

The schools will be the ones to self-apply for an extra year of eligibility for spring sport student-athletes who exhausted a year of eligibility in 2020. NCAA mandated institutions can provide the same level of scholarships or anything less to scholarship players from the 2019-20 school year.

This will give an opportunity to spring sports programs, especially baseball with the larger roster size, to reassess scholarship situations and virtually give each program a chance to reset its roster.

In baseball, any senior who returns will not count towards the roster limit and there is not a set number.

Oklahoma looked the part of a team destined for Omaha in 2020. When the season abruptly ended, it looked as if it would be another two years until that chance would present itself again.

In 2021, the Sooners should be primed and ready for another run at the College World Series.

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