1-Man’s Opinion on Sports–Tuesday. “Aztecs Football Goes Away–Had to Happen”
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“Aztecs–Had to Happen”
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No game tonite.
That’s the sign they will hang outside SDCCU Stadium every Saturday night this fall.
There will be no college football, for the Mountain West Conference has cancelled the 2020 football season, a victim of the Virus-Crisis in America.
The MWC made the only move they could, to protect the players, the coaches, the staffs, as the Covid crisis goes unchecked nationwide.
We know one thing for sure. They are saying likely 200,000 deaths nationwide, between now and what would have been the end of the football season in December.
We won’t get to see if SDSU’s new look offense with a new coordinator in Jeff Hellinski, and the kid QB Carson Baker, and whether their version of the spread formation could have thrown for 3,000-yards this season.
We won’t get to see if there is another 2,000-yard running back in the cupboard, in what has become a tradition at SDSU.
We won’t get to experience Brady Hoke’s defense, to compare with all the great years that Rocky Long created, with his version of Aztec Warrior football.
The hope, and the mandate from MWC-Commissioner Craig Thompson, is that the Athletic Directors begin work on a blueprint for possibly an 8-game conference only season next April-May in 2021.
We know the financial trauma Universities are in now with campuses shutdown, enrollments plunging, and the loss of enormous amounts of money for room and board on campuses nationwide.
I’m not sure any MWC university could pay the bill of what it would cost to put into place a weekly testing program to protect everyone affiliated with Aztecs football.
Closer to home, we also know how bad the situations are, not so much at SDSU yet, but at Fresno State-San Jose State, where those communities are ravaged by the outbreak.
We see the horrors of what has happened in Albuquerque and Las Cruces, where the governor implored New Mexico and New Mexico State to not play football.
We are waiting to find out the complete story of the brewing scandal in Ft-Collins, where players revolted against the new Colorado State coaching staff and the stances they took about not taking Covid tests, not reporting symptoms. Somebody should lose their job over this if the accusations are true.
This has been a hard time for SDSU-AD JD Wicker, with all he is trying to accomplish. Putting in place protective testing for anyone-everyone at the Aztecs Athletic Center. The creation of what will be a fall of virtual on line classes for all those players. The structure of dormitory and campus housing.
All this on top of the launching of construction for a new football stadium.
SDSU is not Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Michigan nor Penn State. They don’t draw 107,000-fans per game. But for a select group of alums, not having the Red & Black attack means something is missing in the campus life they loved.
But they made the right move, here on Montezuma Mesa, and there in the league office in Colorado Springs.
Between now and the end of this calendar year, they will come up with an off season workout program…something akin to spring football in the fall, with the games to be followed in early 2021. Alot of time for teaching for sure.
By the time we get to January, maybe there will be a vaccine.
By the time we get to March, there may be a true preseason camp.
By April-May, you can play games from San Diego to Laramie and anywhere in between.
Tough decision. Hard decision. Sure.
Right decision. Definitely for the Aztecs family.
No game tonight. But games to come, in hopefully a much healthier nation by spring.
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