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

RamblinRed

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glad to be back online(last couple of weeks the mother in law has been in and out of the hospital and we are also working on closing on a new home) and alot has changed since I last was here.
Happy to see each conference has a plan, have to see how well they play out. Based on MLB i'm excited to see some games, but not hopeful we are going to get close to a full season. College Football protocols are much weaker than MLB's and the groups are larger and the game is more contact oriented.

Here are a couple of good reads for today.

First is this article from ESPN on 1918 (it has the famous GT photo in it) and talks about how the pandemic and WWI affected sports that year. That includes baseball being shortened with a World Series in September, college football having alot of schools playing different numbers of games and many not playing at all - GT was one of the schools that played more than most with 7 games, 6 at home - a couple of those games were against teams from military camps as President Wilson ordered football teams to be made up in camps to raise morale. (It appears many schools also did not have students on campus that fall - used correspondance classes). Army-Navy was not played.

the NFL didn't exist at this point yet but the teams that would become the early NFL (largely in the Midwest) had alot of problems playing but still some teams played a handful of games and there was a Championship game.

"I would say, in looking back at it, you see the teams that succeeded were simply more fortunate," Swick said. "It's a virus, it didn't pick and choose then and know who was coaching the team or how organized you were or how much talent you had or if more of your players had simply not shipped out to war yet. It was far more of a roll-of-a-dice thing about who won and lost."

Said Horrigan: "And while large public gatherings were banned at times and the football season, college and pro, was largely canceled, you do see these attempts to play. And in looking at it, you really have to believe that with the aftermath of war, of the pandemic, those events put people in a position to try to reorganize things, and the NFL is one of the things that came out of that."


Speaking of long term changes, i'm also starting to think that student-athletes are going to end up with alot of say in how things progress, starting with the obvious movement out in PAC12 country. As we start to see some players deciding not to play - including Caleb Farley at VT who was somewhat critical of VT's protocols. SA's seem to be realizing that if they work together they can have a real impact on decisions.
Here's an article on Vanderbilt's kicker announcing he is not playing this year and has tweets from some players talking about their experiences with COVID.

In a confidential poll 73% of Idaho football players said they don't want to play this year.

SEC is not starting traditional fall camp this weekend as planned and will not have a traditional fall camp.
The conference office has approved a new preseason plan that delays practice deeper into August. As part of the plan, teams can practice 25 times over a 40-day period beginning on Aug. 17, During that time, schools must adhere to the NCAA’s normal in-season football access time of 20 countable hours a week. Two days off each week are required.

The league is allowing coaches to continue the current 20-hour per week model until Friday. From Friday through Aug. 16, staffs will be restricted to 11 hours a week of football or strength work related events (six hours for strength and five hours for football). Their walk-throughs must be conducted without equipment. That includes no footballs, helmets or pads. In this enhanced access period, Friday to Aug. 16, teams have been granted three extra hours for non-football related meetings.


Also, Ohio Dept of Public Health has banned fans at contact sporting events - this includes NFL, College and HS football games.
 

bke1984

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I get where you are coming from, but you still haven't really defined what you consider significant. MLB is most likely going to have to shutter their season prematurely unless they can control these outbreaks. That's pretty darned significant in my book.
Why would they have to do that? Have any MLB players been hospitalized?
 

RamblinRed

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Decatur HS has cancelled games before Sept 26th. Article also mentions that the GA High School Association Sports-Medicine Advisory Committee is meeting Wednesday after talking with Dr. Kathleen Toomey last Friday about concerns about the safety of football, cheerleading, chorus and band.

This is an interesting article and there are 2 sides, some Colorado State players and staff are saying the coaches and AA are covering up positive cases of COVID. Other players are saying that is not true.
 

orientalnc

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This was on NJ.com yesterday. They cover Big Ten sports:

"The mother of an Indiana offensive lineman said in a viral Facebook post that her son is battling heart problems after “14 days of hell battling the horrible virus,” a chilling post for anyone still convinced that this is only a problem for old people in nursing homes. "
 

Milwaukee

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This was on NJ.com yesterday. They cover Big Ten sports:

"The mother of an Indiana offensive lineman said in a viral Facebook post that her son is battling heart problems after “14 days of hell battling the horrible virus,” a chilling post for anyone still convinced that this is only a problem for old people in nursing homes. "

Scary stories like this are outliers. It’s ridiculous that someone would even attempt to use this as a scare tactic in regards to football.
Be better oriental.
 

Buzztheirazz

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Two posts before has the Red Sox pitcher with heart issues and then oriental posts something in the same regard. Maybe the outliers are becoming more commonplace...

We’re still learning about this virus. Don’t act like you know everything. Do better
 

RamblinRed

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What i find interesting right now is that the ACC (and probably the B12) are the conferences being most aggressive about trying to play. Both are hoping to start very close to normal.
SEC and PAC12 have delayed starting until Sept 26 and SEC has announced they aren't going to be having a normal fall camp. B10 looks like the P5 conference most likely to pull the plug first if it comes to that.

Not what you expect when you think about the ACC and football.
B12 is partially agressive due to the issues in the energy industry (particularly oil) having a huge impact on their funding.

UConn not playing isn't a huge surprise, they were an independent this year so trying to put together a schedule had to be almost impossible. It is ironic that the first University to cancel their FBS program is in one of the states thats in the best shape in terms of fighting the virus right now.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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UConn not playing isn't a huge surprise, they were an independent this year so trying to put together a schedule had to be almost impossible.

This is probably a huge driving factor in their decision. No ACC or SEC schools to schedule and finding enough teams on short notice willing to chance it had to be daunting.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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This is from the Guardian, which is generally as close to a neutral source in the US as they come. There are a LOT of players who are not happy right now, and I would not be shocked to see mass walkouts before this season happens. I think most would be ok with playing if they felt the university had their best interests at heart, but it's clear from the interviews that a lot of players are very skeptical about the procedures in place and frankly feel as if they are merely being used as pawns in the economic game with no real voice or share in the earnings.

"One student-athlete from a school in college football’s Power Five, who like all players interviewed for this story asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from their programs, told us that concerns began right from the start of the pandemic.

“When everything first was shut down and cancelled, we were actually going to have like a team workout,” he said. “And they told us we were going to try and have a spring ball practice that day even though we weren’t supposed to practice for like I think a week after that.”

That player did make it clear players on his team were informed if they chose not to practice “it’s not going to be held against you,” but, he said, “people kind of didn’t really trust that”.

“If there was organized and mandatory football events going on and they held out because of fears of Covid-19 that there would be no repercussions … in terms of losing reps, losing playing time, things of that nature,” he said.

Another player from a Power Five school who did opt out was made into an example by his coaches. As he put it, after opting out of the season: “I am not allowed to be involved in any team activities. I was told that I should clean my locker out. Coaches just showed their true colors.”"

 

WreckinGT

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This is from the Guardian, which is generally as close to a neutral source in the US as they come. There are a LOT of players who are not happy right now, and I would not be shocked to see mass walkouts before this season happens. I think most would be ok with playing if they felt the university had their best interests at heart, but it's clear from the interviews that a lot of players are very skeptical about the procedures in place and frankly feel as if they are merely being used as pawns in the economic game with no real voice or share in the earnings.

"One student-athlete from a school in college football’s Power Five, who like all players interviewed for this story asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from their programs, told us that concerns began right from the start of the pandemic.

“When everything first was shut down and cancelled, we were actually going to have like a team workout,” he said. “And they told us we were going to try and have a spring ball practice that day even though we weren’t supposed to practice for like I think a week after that.”

That player did make it clear players on his team were informed if they chose not to practice “it’s not going to be held against you,” but, he said, “people kind of didn’t really trust that”.

“If there was organized and mandatory football events going on and they held out because of fears of Covid-19 that there would be no repercussions … in terms of losing reps, losing playing time, things of that nature,” he said.


Another player from a Power Five school who did opt out was made into an example by his coaches. As he put it, after opting out of the season: “I am not allowed to be involved in any team activities. I was told that I should clean my locker out. Coaches just showed their true colors.”"

Yeah, the next shoe to drop appears to be players concerns. There was a story today also about Colorado State investigating concerns with how the AD there is neglecting Covid protocols.
Edit: Oops, just saw that RamblinRed already posted this story.
 

RamblinRed

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Just an FYI, NCAA is supposed to announce a decision today on Fall Championships.

Also, does anyone else think at this point the ACC should just announce that it is going to play a 10 game conference schedule. It was pretty clear that the plus 1 was created just so the SEC would have to take the hit if the rivalry games were cancelled. With them cancelled it makes no sense to me from a health and economic standpoint to play an OOC game.
The OOC game is an almost guaranteed money loser. You have to pay the costs to have the stadium up and running. You have to pay for the team to come play you. You are likely to have 0 to minimal fans so their is little opportunity to make up that expense. You don't get any extra TV money - that is already factored into the conference TV contract.
Also, you potentially open yourself up to legal complications. If you play an OOC game, every OOC opponent can make a claim that you owe them the money you were going to pay them until you cancelled - because if you can have this OOC game, why couldn't you have their OOC game?

The idea of playing a game against a program that is just one more chance for your team to get infected and lose money on it anyways would make me not schedule a OOC game if i'm an AD.
 

Techster

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This is from the Guardian, which is generally as close to a neutral source in the US as they come. There are a LOT of players who are not happy right now, and I would not be shocked to see mass walkouts before this season happens. I think most would be ok with playing if they felt the university had their best interests at heart, but it's clear from the interviews that a lot of players are very skeptical about the procedures in place and frankly feel as if they are merely being used as pawns in the economic game with no real voice or share in the earnings.

"One student-athlete from a school in college football’s Power Five, who like all players interviewed for this story asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from their programs, told us that concerns began right from the start of the pandemic.

“When everything first was shut down and cancelled, we were actually going to have like a team workout,” he said. “And they told us we were going to try and have a spring ball practice that day even though we weren’t supposed to practice for like I think a week after that.”

That player did make it clear players on his team were informed if they chose not to practice “it’s not going to be held against you,” but, he said, “people kind of didn’t really trust that”.

“If there was organized and mandatory football events going on and they held out because of fears of Covid-19 that there would be no repercussions … in terms of losing reps, losing playing time, things of that nature,” he said.


Another player from a Power Five school who did opt out was made into an example by his coaches. As he put it, after opting out of the season: “I am not allowed to be involved in any team activities. I was told that I should clean my locker out. Coaches just showed their true colors.”"


IF you're active on social media, you can begin to see a swell of SAs speaking out about their concerns with Covid and playing while the virus is so widespread. It will be interesting to see what happens once the virus becomes rampant inside teams and each player can see first hand the affects on their teammates.

Yesterday, a high first round draft pick from Penn State decided to opt out of the season and begin his preparations for the NFL draft.



I expect as camp draws closer and the season draws closer, a lot more players begin to opt out...especially if they have a professional future in football.
 

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If you look at the list of demands from the Pac-12 football players........Sorry, but its time for me to Opt-out of college football.
 

orientalnc

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Scary stories like this are outliers. It’s ridiculous that someone would even attempt to use this as a scare tactic in regards to football.
Be better oriental.
I see your point, but I am not trying to scare anyone. That quote was from a widely viewed (in the northeast) website (nj.com) that's owned by a large media company. I want to provide information to the board that I believe will help us understand the situation. Personally, I want football to be played, but I am skeptical anyone can play games safely.

As to your opinion that this story is an outlier is certainly correct. We are not hearing much from players or their families. The families of these young people are scared already. They are concerned about how playing, or not playing, will impact their sons' future. While I am very confident the Tech coaches are doing everything in their power to protect their team, a lot of that power will be taken from them once the games begin.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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IF you're active on social media, you can begin to see a swell of SAs speaking out about their concerns with Covid and playing while the virus is so widespread. It will be interesting to see what happens once the virus becomes rampant inside teams and each player can see first hand the affects on their teammates.

Yesterday, a high first round draft pick from Penn State decided to opt out of the season and begin his preparations for the NFL draft.



I expect as camp draws closer and the season draws closer, a lot more players begin to opt out...especially if they have a professional future in football.


Devin Cochran just chose to forgo coming to GT this year. It's affecting us now.
 
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