-0-

“College Football–Dominoes Are Falling”

-0-

Is this the beginning of the end in college sports?

It seems that way in college football, and like the pandemic epidemic, it appears the virus of cancellation of seasons is about to break out.

The Big 10-Conference cancelled all non-conference football games this fall, saying the league will play just a conference schedule.

They wiped 42-non confence games off the schedule, including marquee  games like Ohio State-Oregon, Wisconsin-Notre Dame and Michigan-Washington.

The Big 10-move came hours after its experienced leader, Ohio State AD-Gene Smith said he was no longer optimistic any type of a season could be played.

The decision might be the first step, possibly buying the conference some time, to see if the virus-crisis can be tamped down, but that now is very uncertain.

The next move cming from the Big 10-headquarters, might be cancelling the entirxe season.

The Atlantic Coast Conference said it was considering eliminating it’s non conference schedule, and might look at an all ACC-slate.

The Pac 12 reportedly was looking at just a 10-game schedule, 5-home, 5-road, against conference only foes.

The high powered SEC and the Big 12 would only say they are considering all things possible.

All this came a day after the Ivy League shut down all fall sports, saying they might move football, Harvard-Yale and all things Ivy, to play in the spring.

The difference between being a fan of Dartmouth and being a fan of Alabama, is night and day.  The Ivy League takes in 30M in revenues for football.  Penn-vs-Princeton is still important.  But the Power 5-Conferences raise 1.05B a year in football revenue.  Alabama-vs-Auburn and all that carries, lots of importance for lots of reasons.

These decisions are more than just about football games.

It is also about player health safety, campus security, and student wide potential infections.

No one will say it, but the NCAA has failed its membership.  They have not devdeloped a nationwide college testing plan for all the schools.  That’s 130-Division i-schools.  It may be all complicated by cost.  It may be complex because state laws are different from one state to another.  It may be impossible with the horrid outbreak of the virus in the deep south and the southwest.

The NCAA could end this all, but they seem intent on dumping it at the front door of each state’s Governor, as if they don’t have enough problems already.

Mark Emmert can oversee the 795-page rule book, but he has failed to oversee the most important thing college athleteics has ever seen, a global pandemic.
Think back at how long it took him to finally close down the NCAA basketball tourney, just as it was supposed to start.

Where’s the across the board testing program.  Where is the unviersal date to open camps.  Where is the leadership.  College football does need a committee to look at this. They need the top exec to make the decisions.

The decision coming has to revolve around student health and safety, not money, never money.

So we wait to see how quickly other dominos fall, in which conference, and when.

Not an easy time.

Wouldn’t be a worse time Mark Emmert, if you go ahead and let teams play, and players get sick, or players die.

Cancel the season, reschedule in spring like the Ivy League may do.

Save the season.  Save people getting sick.  Save the threat of the worst case scenarios-someone dies.

——————————–

Please follow and like us: