Big Ten football reverses decision, will return to play in late October

[still_one]

Just over a month after the Big Ten became the first major conference to postpone the 2020 football season, the league reversed its decision Wednesday and announced plans to begin playing the weekend of Oct. 23-24.

The Big Ten will have medical protocols that include daily coronavirus testing and enhanced cardiac screening, the announcement said. The conference’s university presidents and chancellors voted unanimously to resume the season.

The four teams participating in this season’s College Football Playoff will be announced Dec. 20. The Big Ten would have eight weeks for regular-season games and then presumably a conference championship held just before the playoff committee’s selection. However, a date for the conference championship game was not included in the Big Ten’s announcement.

“Our focus with the Task Force over the last six weeks was to ensure the health and safety of our student-athletes. Our goal has always been to return to competition so all student-athletes can realize their dream of competing in the sports they love,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement. “We are incredibly grateful for the collaborative work that our Return to Competition Task Force have accomplished to ensure the health, safety and wellness of student-athletes, coaches and administrators.”

The conference’s presidents and chancellors previously voted in favor of canceling the fall sports season, citing too much medical uncertainty stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic. After the Big Ten’s announcement Aug. 11, the Pac-12 followed suit and punted on fall sports, while the three other major conferences forged ahead. The ACC and Big 12 both opened the 2020 season last weekend, and the SEC schedule begins later this month.

The Big Ten faced immediate pushback from some of its coaches and players after the decision. A small group of parents held a rally outside the conference’s headquarters near Chicago. Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, one of the best players in the league, urged the Big Ten to reverse its decision with a petition that received more than 300,000 signatures. Some Big Ten coaches publicly criticized the conference and voiced their desire to play games this fall.

In response to those outcries, Warren wrote in a letter that the vote by the presidents and chancellors was “overwhelmingly in support of postponing fall sports and will not be revisited.” Warren outlined the factors that led to the decision: high rates of the virus’s transmission in the community, uncertainty about the virus and its long-term effects, the difficulty to adhere to social distancing guidelines in these sports, the lack of widely available rapid testing, and the risk of frequent disruptions to the season because of mandatory quarantines for those who test positive and close contacts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/09/16/big-ten-football-resumes/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_930a-wed-big-ten%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

[still_one]

1. Money Money Money

[redstatebluegirl]

2. If a player who is slated to make millions in the NFL gets COVID 19 and has one of the

serious lifetime issues related to it, heart and lung problems for example, he could sue the University till the cows come home for not keeping him safe.

This need for sports no matter what is nuts. I love football, always have, but these young people should not be asked to endanger their lives for a damn game. What is even more important, most of these players are Black and most of the donors, alumni who are screaming for them to play are white, this should cause us all to pause.

[LisaL]

4. If they take classes or live in dorms, then

they are facing risks already, like the rest of the students.

[redstatebluegirl]

5. They don't live in the same dorms the other students do and my understanding is

they are only taking classes offered online here on our campus. Plus, the danger of being across the line from other players, close proximity, breathing heavily, is much more dangerous than attending classes where masks and social distancing are required.

[rzemanfl]

10. Bookmarking. n/t

[The Magistrate]

11. This Is True, Ma'am

My daughter and her husband are Residence Heads of a dorm at a large university. They are taking serious precautions as students return --- weekly tests, with a quarantine building set aside, an absolute mask requirement, and several other things. Refusal of a test results in expulsion.

Why someone alerted on your post I cannot imagine, but I drew a slot on the jury for it, and marked it as a bad faith alert.

[redstatebluegirl]

17. Thank you.

These students are being used to make tons of money and entertain people. Money is the bottom line.

[redstatebluegirl]

18. Thank you.

These students are being used to make tons of money and entertain people. Money is the bottom line.

[The Magistrate]

21. I Agree They Are Being Endangered To No Good Purpose, Ma'am

Athletics needs to stand down for a bit.

[dsc]

20. most of them don't have open campuses

[USALiberal]

8. Fuck that, the player is an adult, he made the decision. nt

[roamer65]

13. Bread and circuses just like Rome.

People never change.

[genxlib]

3. I called this two weeks ago

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214009783

The question remains as to whether Trump abused his power to make this happen. I would still bet money on that being the case.

[still_one]

6. I agree. Since Atlas now leads his task force he is full herd immunity

[TheFarseer]

15. Lots of "important" people wanted to play

There were millions of people bitching over this decision and most other conferences are playing. Not surprising at all they reversed the decision, wrong or right.

[ok_cpu]

7. Doesn't this paragraph from their statement suggest the real risks to athletes are not known?

In addition to the medical protocols approved, the 14 Big Ten institutions will establish a cardiac registry in an effort to examine the effects on COVID-19 positive student-athletes. The registry and associated data will attempt to answer many of the unknowns regarding the cardiac manifestations in COVID-19 positive elite athletes

We don't know the long-term impacts of COVID, including indications of cardiac-related issues, but we're willing to use college kids as test subjects. Because money.

[greenjar_01]

9. I'm gonna have to take the L on football

I was convinced we'd have no seasons this year, but there ya go.

[Celerity]

12. Huge win for Rump, unfortunately. Nothing Biden can do really. If he comes out against this it is

electoral suicide in key states. Rump is going to strutting around like a rooster claiming big daddy ( ) saved American football.

#sofucked

[roamer65]

14. Bread and circuses.

While the planet burns.

[roamer65]

16. I would hope the PAC12 stays cancelled.

No one should be playing in that air out there.

[davsand]

19. If you live anyplace near a Big 10 campus you are now screwed.

COVID cases spiked when students returned to campus. We all know this--we've seen it repeated many, MANY times. Thanks to this capitulation to greed, now the entire community that hosts one of the Big 10 colleges will face an invasion on every game day. If you have ever been in a restaurant or pretty much any public establishment you know first hand how crazed those game day crowds are. It isn't the "kids" either. It's the parents, alums, and fans.

Big 10 says the athletes will be tested every day. Great. Groovy. Glad to see them protect their investment. What about the REST of the community? They aren't going to be able to access speedy testing like the athletes are. Last time I got tested after a workplace exposure it took five days to get back test results. Consider how many people are exposed in the five day waiting period after they get exposed by some drunk asshole drinking in a bar, eating in a restaurant, staying in a hotel, buying gas, shopping at the mall, spending cash all over town, driving home...

We are all well and truly screwed.


Laura

[ScratchCat]

22. They are going to look pretty stupid

When the other conferences cancel/postpone their football seasons in a few weeks. Cases are exploding on college campuses.

[Klaralven]

23. Football is the big money-maker that supports a lot of money-losing sports.

Football Is Still King
Men's basketball is the largest source of the NCAA's total revenue because the NCAA tournament brings in lots of money. But even before teams reach the tournament level, they generate revenue for their schools with individual basketball games. And at these school levels, basketball takes second chair to football for total revenue generated.

In fact, football garners more revenue than the next 35 other sports combined at Division I schools. On average, football brings in $31.9 million in revenue, while men's basketball (the second-highest grossing sport) comes in a distant second at $8.1 million. For reference, women's basketball brings in $1.8 million, while rowing brings in just $932,646.

Schools With the Highest Sports Revenues
Of course, some schools generate more sports-related revenue than others. In 2016, topping the chart as the highest college sports revenue producer was the University of Texas, with a whopping $182.1 million.

For reference, No. 10 on the list was the University of Florida with $134 million and No. 20 was the University of Louisville with $112.1 million. Stanford University had the highest revenue from women's basketball; with a three-year average of $18.6 million, the program generated almost triple the revenue of its men's basketball program, which had a three-year average of $6.8 million.

https://finance.zacks.com/much-money-college-sports-generate-10346.html

[Aristus]

24. And this changes my TV-viewing plans not at all...

The only thing less interesting than pro football is college football...

Taking a five minute break after every play, usually to administer medical care to someone, is not my idea of fast, exciting sports entertainment...

[Greybnk48]

25. I think this is a greed driven pipe dream.

I will only speak for my State. On the news last night, UW-Madison just cancelled their Spring break to try and tamp down the spread of covid from the campus to points unknown and back again. This was necessary, I think, with approx. 50,000 students, plus faculty and ancillary workers.

The campus, and Wisconsin in general, is dealing with a very high infection rate. This past week our State had numbers like 23%, 17%, and were relieved to have a 13% infected rate of those tested. The desired number, of course, is 4% or less, which we haven't seen for months. When we were shut down, we were at 2 to 2.5%!

My point: I don't think this season will ever happen. No way. With all of the no-maskers and mask-holes with their stupid noses hanging out, it will be worse here by then, unfortunately for us.

Also, on the news last night, Illinois/Chicago just put Wisco on notice that we will be put on the no travel ban in IL in the next couple of days unless there is a dramatic change for the better. So there's that to add to the mix.

(Michigan is bad too, but I don't know their stats. so I'll let someone else speak for the other teams).

[sarisataka]

26. "Our focus... was to ensure the health and safety of our student athletes"

[Buckeye_Democrat]

27. People from Wisconsin have to quarantine if visiting Ohio.

At least at this point because Wisconsin has an infection rate that's over 15%!


So how's this supposed to work given various state laws unless they're all in a "bubble" like the NBA?

Like MLB where the rules somehow don't apply to athletes, such as if the Brewers play the Reds in Cincinnati?