The ACC will delay the start of competition for all fall sports until at least Sept. 1

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My ex-provost friend in Oriental has been in contact with former colleagues and shared his thoughts with me this weekend. Colleges are going forward with plans for on-campus classes and some or all students in dorms. That is what they hope the situation will allow. The big worry is that the backside COVID-19 slope will likely have about the same number of cases and deaths as the front side even if we maintain current mitigation plans. If that happens the decision about how to reopen may not be made until August. Then it could be too late for many universities to have a lot students return. The financial worries right now are enormous. Every college is also planning for online classes. They know some students will not be able to return for a variety of reasons. Some parents will just say no as they worry about the virus. Others will not be able to afford a residence college for their child after being out of work for months.

When I asked about football, he said I should not buy any tickets. There is a very small chance that colleges will have fans at the games, even if they have games. Getting refunds will be an interesting problem as the AA's all continue to have overhead.

My question for the Swarm: Do you think ESPN will still consider a fanless football season to have the same monetary value as one with fans?
Since there will be more viewers for fanless games, with the ticket holders' only option being to watch the games on TV, the monetary value should go up.
 

RamblinRed

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I fully expect AA's to take losses, regardless of whether football is played or not, just a matter of how big of loss.
i also expect that TV deals may have to be renegotiated downward - especially if there is not a full season. Disney is taking a huge hit worldwide in its business, it may simply not be able to pay as much to conferences as in the original contracts.
Also, if there is a season but with no fans, or limited fans think about all the signage and advertising that goes on at a game. That will all have to be renegotiated downward.

Broadway's shutdown has been extended through Sep 6th. Getting tougher to see the season starting on time. PAC12 is starting to explore a conference only season.

I believe in an interview last week that Emmert said that a decision on college sports would need to be made by July 4th.
 
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The coaches on the west coast are lobbying for the NCAA to mandate an across the board start back date, and not leave it up to individual schools/conferences.

https://www.ajc.com/sports/pac-coac...teams-start-same-time/pwJwFTHoGkKERmpvBglVFP/
That may sound good in principle, but with different rules regarding shutdowns in different states, there is no way every college would be able to abide by such a mandate. The last paragraph in the article pretty much sums it up, even though it only refers to NCAA II schools in California: "Also, the chancellor of the California State University system said he expects the vast majority of classes on the system's 23 campuses to be taught online in the fall. Shortly after that announcement, the California College Athletic Association, an NCAA Division II conference, suspended its fall sports season."
 

stech81

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Bennett

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There will be regions of the country that play college football and regions that dont this fall. The ones that dont are going to see that normal life for the most part will have to resume and that they are missing out on large sums of money. Gonna be a lot b*tching and moaning about how they are at a competitive disadvantage. Just wait...
 

Jmonty71

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I see the SEC , Big 10, and the ACC pulling out of the NCAA, they try and tell them when they can or can't play this season.
Too much money on the line, should that happen. I don't see it happening. If they tried, it would be locked in the courts, for years.
 

Techster

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I wrote it in the Coronavirus thread, but one thing people aren't taking into the count are the SAs:

The problem with that is you can't force kids to play, and I highly doubt colleges want the PR nightmare of forcing kids to play or pulling scholarships. If the virus is still around, and somehow kids make it through Fall camp without become vectors and spreading throughout the team, the last thing a college or the NCAA wants is a game getting cancelled because the the star QB or RB got sick because they caught it from their teammates. How do you play when the entire OL and the QBs can't play because they're being quarantined at home? Or worst case, the entire team gets infected with the virus and one or two of the kids dies because they had underlying problems that haven't been identified yet but the virus made it worse and led to their deaths. Remember when AJ Gray had to quit the team because he had a heart condition they didn't find until later in his career? No one wants a tragedy they could have avoided, at least from a PR standpoint.

All it will take is an infection to run rampant throughout one team to shut it down for everyone.
 

WreckinGT

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I see the SEC , Big 10, and the ACC pulling out of the NCAA, they try and tell them when they can or can't play this season.
This is almost literally impossible. It would just be three conferences creating a new governing board, only playing each other in sports, and making far less money.
 

WreckinGT

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I wrote it in the Coronavirus thread, but one thing people aren't taking into the count are the SAs:

The problem with that is you can't force kids to play, and I highly doubt colleges want the PR nightmare of forcing kids to play or pulling scholarships. If the virus is still around, and somehow kids make it through Fall camp without become vectors and spreading throughout the team, the last thing a college or the NCAA wants is a game getting cancelled because the the star QB or RB got sick because they caught it from their teammates. How do you play when the entire OL and the QBs can't play because they're being quarantined at home? Or worst case, the entire team gets infected with the virus and one or two of the kids dies because they had underlying problems that haven't been identified yet but the virus made it worse and led to their deaths. Remember when AJ Gray had to quit the team because he had a heart condition they didn't find until later in his career? No one wants a tragedy they could have avoided, at least from a PR standpoint.

All it will take is an infection to run rampant throughout one team to shut it down for everyone.
This is very true. I have asked the question several times, what do you do when a kid tests positive before the third game of the season? Do you quarantine the entire team and cancel the game? What do you do about the team they played the week before? Quarantine them and cancel their game as well? Do you test everyone on the team and everyone they played the week before? Do we have that kind of testing available? Im not sure I have seen any plan for handling potential outbreaks mid season. I can only assume that the strategy would be just hope it doesn't happen.
 

GCdaJuiceMan

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This is almost literally impossible. It would just be three conferences creating a new governing board, only playing each other in sports, and making far less money.

While I agree that it’s a silly idea, have you not seen rumored amounts tv networks are lining up to pay the SEC conference for rights to air a one or two of their games every Saturday?
 

WreckinGT

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While I agree that it’s a silly idea, have you not seen rumored amounts tv networks are lining up to pay the SEC conference for rights to air a one or two of their games every Saturday?
That is in today's college football world. If you leave and create a new one it won't work quite the same. By forming your own three conference sports organization you have effectively killed your market outside of your region. One thing that also drives high ratings is games between ranked teams. How do rankings even work at that point? Are they going to create a new playoff system that makes as much money as the CFP? Probably not. Are they going to make a basketball tournament that brings in as much as the NCAA tournament? No chance. Are they going to devise a new bowl system that pays out as much as the current one? Probably not. Are all of the teams in those conferences going to be happy playing less home games? Probably not. It would end up being drastically less money for everyone.
 
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