Tag: Pac 12

College football: Recapping each Power 5 conference’s plan for 2020

A lot has happened in the college football world in the last several weeks, our Michelle Martinelli recaps each Power 5 conference’s plan for the 2020 season.

A lot has happened in the college football world in the last several weeks, our Michelle Martinelli recaps each Power 5 conference’s plan for the 2020 season.

Why Are We Trying to Play College Football During a Pandemic?

Once Notre Dame students returned to campus, it only seemed like a matter of time before COVID-19 worked its devil magic.

Once Notre Dame students returned to campus, it only seemed like a matter of time before COVID-19 worked its devil magic. Sure enough, off-campus parties happened, and now, an outbreak has hit the university. It’s gotten to where the Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, has closed the campus and implemented remote learning for at least two weeks. Similar measures have been taken at North Carolina and Michigan State.

Other big-name universities can’t be far behind, so why hasn’t the ACC, SEC or Big 12 followed the Big Ten and Pac-12 in postponing football? Why is it so hard to admit that student-athletes cannot and should not be put in harm’s way if they’re not even being paid for it? If these Power Five conferences won’t pull the plug, they need to admit that student-athletes need to be paid. But it will be a hot day in the Arctic before that happens.

We’ve been warned for months that this coming fall will be brutal, especially since both COVID-19 and the flu will infect on person after another. College students having the opportunity to gather in large groups frequently only makes that problem worse. Sooner or later, the football teams will be affected. Since the players go to class, too (big shock, I know), they’ll be mixing with the off-campus party animals, and it only takes one slip-up to compromise the team and possibly the season.

It’s not worth playing football this fall. We’re already down two Power Five conferences, so the integrity already is lost. Should the other conferences proceed with the schedule, do you crown a national champion from them only? How is that fair to the conferences who would be punished for their precautions by having nothing to play for except their own championships?

Lives cannot be risked for the sake of millions of TV viewers and billions of dollars. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that fun things and the almighty dollar have to take a back seat to public health no matter what the cost. So much already has been given up in 2020, and college football needs to be one more. Those who need football can turn to the NFL if they want.

For the sake of everybody, can’t you give up college football this fall so we can have it every fall afterwards? That we’re even having to debate this defies comprehension. Your team will be back once we have a vaccine or some other widespread means of keeping this virus in check. In the meantime, you can’t gamble these kids’ futures just because of some tradition or family history that goes back to your granddaddy’s daddy.

All of this ultimately lies with the conference commissioners, and they need to grow a conscience quickly. If you have to wait until the spring to play, so be it. So what if NFL prospects opt out? The college game predates the pro game by a wide margin, so in that respect, it could go back to its roots.

This is not a enjoyable thing to write because we all want college football, preferably this fall. But right now, students that go to school with the players on these teams are making it very difficult to justify it. If they won’t contribute to the greater good, you have to take their toys away. Though it’s not fair that the whole class has to be punished for the actions of a few bad apples, that hasn’t stopped teachers from doing it before, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t happen now.

No Big Ten or Pac-12, Irish should move up in Top 25 rankings

With two power-conferences opting out of the 2020 fall football season, Notre Dame should see their pre-season ranking improve.

With the announcement that the Big Ten and Pac-12 will not play fall football, there will be changes to many preseason rankings. When the Amway Coaches poll powered by USA Today Sports dropped eleven days ago the Irish were ranked 10th but was prior to two conferences bowing out.

Now there are just three major conferences playing football in the fall, the SEC, Big XII and ACC, there will be movement within the rankings. 247Sports repolled their experts and came up with new rankings and the Irish are just outside the top 5, ranked 6th overall.

Chris Hummer, who put together the piece, sees one huge hurdle for Notre Dame this season, their potential two games against the Clemson Tigers. He said “you could strongly argue the schedule got easier for the Irish. But … they’ll have to play Clemson twice in order to reach the CFB Playoff.” The Tigers are a huge challenge for any team and having to match-up against them twice in one season is a daunting task. They are ranked as 247Sports top team in their updated preseason rankings.

Let’s look at the positives Hummer takes note of, the arrival of “some exciting impact freshman (Chris Tyree, Jordan Johnson) who can help right away. The offensive line will be strength as always, especially with Tommy Kraemer and Robert Hainsey returning from injury.” Hummer did forget about 5-Star Michael Mayer, who along with Tyree and Johnson should make a formidable trio of true-freshman stars.

On defense there is hope as Hummer says “you have to trust defensive coordinator Clark Lea, though. He’s put together back-to-back top 15 defenses. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Kyle Hamilton give Lea two start (I think he meant star) defenders to shape the unit around.”

Looking at the rest of the opponents on the slate, the Irish will face the 12th ranked North Carolina Tar Heels, the 17th ranked Louisville Cardinals, and the 24th ranked Pittsburgh Panthers. The expectations for Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish are high in this very odd season. Expect a very fun one-off year of ACC action.

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

The chief medical officer for the NCAA went on CNN on Saturday night and didn’t give a great outlook for college football in the fall.

(Originally posted on Fighting Irish Wire.)

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.

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Opinion: The Big Ten panicked

Five days ago the Big Ten made the decision to cancel its fall football season. The news came only five days after the conference…

The Big Ten panicked.

A headline short and simple, and it’s all that needs to be said here.

Five days ago the Big Ten made the decision to cancel its fall football season. The news came only five days after the conference released an updated schedule and seemed to be planning towards starting the season on time.

Five days. Not 4-5 months or even a few weeks. Putting aside the decision itself and whether football should be played this fall, the timeline of the conference’s decision and incomprehensible lack of transparency behind the decision points towards one option: the conference panicked.

Were they hoping the other Power Five conferences would follow them in cancelling the season? Probably, but who knows.

 

Related: What the NCAA can do to fix the structure of college football and save the sport

 

But with the season a month away the least they could’ve done was push back the start of the season and wait for more information to become available

Just in the last 24 hours there have been reports of a new cheap and efficient saliva testing method getting approval from the FDA, one of the apparent centerpieces of the conference’s decision–a paper citing long-term health effects of COVID-19–being questioned and taken apart by a prominent Michigan cardiologist and even parents of the players and others opening up about the lack of transparency surrounding the decision

None of it makes sense. The timetable, the fact parents of the players still feel out of the loop. None of it.

It’s beyond me at this point why the conference didn’t delay the season or delay their decision and either work with other conferences or wait until new information–exactly what is listed above–came out.

First, the saliva testing.

If you read the thread the new method is both a cheap and efficient way for groups like a sports team to test and receive timely results.

One of the biggest question marks about playing? Inconsistent testing. In the last 24 hours that question appears to be on its way towards being solved.

 

Related: Badgers tackle Cole Van Lanen had strong words about the Big Ten’s decision to cancel the season

 

Second, the medical report.

One of the biggest factors that played into the conference’s decision to cancel the season was reportedly a study proving COVID-19 to be the source for long-term helath consequences.

Yesterday Michigan professor of preventative cardiology Venk Murthy took to Twitter to explain the inadequacies of the paper.

His final tweets from the thread: “In the end, I’m not sure whether college football should be played or not. To me there are more substantial and important things in the world. That said, papers like this should not be used for policy decision. At least until they are fixed/corrected.”

Third, and finally, this piece on the parents of Big Ten football players still looking for answers on the sudden decision to cancel the season.

Here are some quotes that stick out:

“The decision just came too quick,” said Freiermuth, mother of Nittany Lions tight end Pat Freiermuth. “I totally believe in medical experts and think we should be listening to them—if the right thing to do medically is not to play, I’m fine with that. But to go from releasing the schedule to the start of practice to stopping the season, without explanation, is just wrong.”

From Tim Ford, father of Illinois tight end Luke Ford: “I think the way this was handled was atrocious. As if they didn’t have three-four months to figure something out.”

“It’s devastating news, it really is,” Goodson said. “I get it, I really do—we all want our players to be in good health. We just want to know why, what changed, and for the Big Ten to provide those answers to us.”

The fact that the conference hasn’t even provided answers to the parents of the players is extremely concerning.

 

Again, all of this is being said purely about the timetable and lack of transparency surrounding the decision, not about the decision itself and whether the sport should be played because I don’t know if they should play in the fall and not many realistically do.

But after releasing a new schedule on August 5, cancelling the season five days later on August 10 without expressing to the parents why the decision was made doesn’t make much sense at all.

Had they elected to push back the start of the season or delay the decision even one week there would have been more information available–significant information I may add–to make a plan for the best path forward.

You can chalk it up to the lack of leadership atop the NCAA, the lack of a medical consensus or to many other things. But it all comes back to the apparent truth that the conference panicked in making their decision, hoping other conferences will follow and also make the decision to not play this fall.

All I know at this point: in the end if three of the Power Five conferences play the season without a hitch while the Big Ten and Pac-12 sit on the sidelines there will be ramifications for years to come.

Map shows SEC states still all in on CFB in 2020

A tweet posted by Stadium.com shows a map of the US detailing where college football will be played as some conferences cancel fall sports.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, two Power Five conferences, the Big Ten and Pac-12, have canceled their fall sports and will look to pick back up in the spring of 2021. The SEC, along with the ACC and Big 12, are planning on following through with their seasons.

The SEC’s commissioner, Greg Sankey, has openly supported the decisions by each conference to play sports in the fall of this year:

“Our soccer, volleyball and cross-country student-athletes are working hard to prepare for their seasons and they have been diligent in taking personal health precautions and following protocols around covid-19,” Sankey said. “We will support them in every way possible as we evaluate the impact of these cancellations on their fall sports seasons.”

As of Aug. 13, all FBS teams within the state of Alabama are set to kick off their seasons.

A map tweeted by Stadium.com’s Brett McMurphy shows the landscape of where college football will be played in the coming months.

There are clear patterns found due to geographical location, as well as how each region has been affected by the ongoing pandemic.

Changes are expected to be made as the season approaches. Numerous variables including students return to campus, teams’ travel plans and more can contribute to an individual program, or an entire conference, deciding to cancel or postpone the season.

Roll Tide Wire will keep you updated on the state of the SEC and the forthcoming decisions regarding fall sports and college football in 2020!

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LOOK: Which states will and will not have FBS programs playing football this fall

Stadium.com college football insider Brett McMurphy tweeted a photo yesterday showing which states will and will not have FBS…

Stadium.com college football insider Brett McMurphy tweeted a photo yesterday showing which states will and will not have FBS programs playing football this fall.

As of August 13 the states without FBS schools playing (in red) are New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.

Those with some programs playing (in yellow) are Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Utah.

Finally, those with all FBS schools playing are Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia.

The states listed above forming a total of 41, with the remaining nine of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Alaska not having an FBS program within the state.

Say whatever you’d like about the regional disparities, but if you looked at this map two weeks ago it would have been completely green and yellow. Nobody knows what the Big 12, ACC and SEC will decide regarding the season, but if the current trends are any indication this map may quickly be turning towards a yellow-red shade.

Only time will tell if there ends up being any FBS football played this fall.

One Pac-12 coach believes all of FBS will cancel in due time

According to Washington Huskies head coach JImmy Lake, it is all just a matter of time before all of FBS cancels their season.

The Pac-12 canceled their 2020 football season on Monday, following the Big Ten. There has been controversy around the decision, with players and coaches from around the country feeling as if football can be played.

However, there is one head coach who feels like the ACC, Big 12, and SEC are heading in the same direction as the Big Ten and Pac-12.

Washington’s head coach Chris Petersen stepped down after the 2019 season and was replaced by defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake. The first-year head coach thinks the other three Power Five conferences will be heading down the same direction as the Pac-12.

“I believe all three other conferences are going to follow suit (canceling) in due time.”

The Big 12 took a major step towards playing on Wednesday, releasing its 2020 schedule. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has done an excellent job making sure players and coaches are as safe as possible.

Given so many conversations have occurred between Bowlsby, student-athletes and medical staff it would be hard to fathom that they would change course now. At least not without new information being provided. As Bowlsby stated “reasonable people can disagree.” That seems to be the case here.

Provided that the three major conferences left proceed, then the questions comes about if there will be a College Football Playoff. The short answer being that seem poised to continue down that road. The committee has given no indication that they won’t move forward given the teams still planning on playing.

The commissioner did mention there is a call next week with the committee so they can hash out the plan. The next question that make come is will the future champion being considered legitimate? If you asked Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, he thinks so.

“Whoever wins it wins it, that’s the champion.” – Swinney to GoUpState.com

NCAA postpones fall championships

NCAA President Mark Emmert announced in a video interview yesterday that the NCAA has opted to postpone fall athletic championships…

NCAA President Mark Emmert announced in a video interview yesterday that the NCAA has opted to postpone fall athletic championships.

The NCAA needs half of its schools playing in order to hold championships and, as Emmert noted, this year that is not the case.

“Sadly, tragically, that’s going to be the case this fall,” Emmert said. “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t and can’t turn toward winter and spring and say ‘OK, how can we create a legitimate championship for all those students.’ … I’m completely confident that we can figure this out.”

Important note: this announcement does not affect the College Football Playoff as it is run by the conferences and not the NCAA.

Emmert also touched on the prospects of a spring football season, saying “Will it be normal? Of course not. It’ll be playing fall sports in the spring. Will it create other conflicts and challenges? Of course. But is it doable? Yeah. And we want to do that. We want to make it work for these students.”

So far only the Big Ten and Pac-12 of the Power Five conferences have postponed or cancelled their fall athletic competitions with the hope of playing in the spring, and only time will tell if the remaining three join them on the sidelines.