12-14-2020, 01:33 PM
This isn't straight from the horse's mouth, but a tennis podcaster is saying ITA sources are telling him that Stanford's men's and women's tennis teams are out of Kick-Off Weekend.
https://twitter.com/College10sRanks/stat...5486663680
Assuming this is true (and while we haven't heard from Stanford or the ITA yet, these guys have gotten plenty of ITA scoops over the years as the pool of folks interested in calling the ITA to ask about college tennis is vanishingly small), it's a big blow to both teams' hopes to get a top 8 ranking and the NCAA hosting duties that come with it. The men's team was the 2 seed in Raleigh, NC, so this clearly isn't just limited to events on campus, but a school-wide policy. (How that factors into basketball and football continuing to play, I don't know. Could just be a "sports that have been safely operating can continue to operate, but we're not going to introduce new athletes to campus when regular students can't even show up.)
Usually by now, we'd have a schedule for the spring season, but this isn't a usual year. I think it's reasonable to wonder what, if any, spring season there is for tennis in 2021. Unfortunately, I could imagine a shortened season in which the NCAA holds championships but where many of the schools with stricter covid policies or that are in states and counties with stricter limitations (like Stanford) don't play. Or we see something similar to football--perhaps a conference schedule with non-conference matchups being limited to in-state options (so, maybe a double helping of Cal, UCLA, USC, and then matchups with Pepperdine, USD, SDSU, St. Mary's, Loyola, etc.)? Not great, but man, I'd take it, that's for sure. And if there's a season elsewhere but not here, I wonder what happens to the special year of eligibility that the NCAA granted from last year. Do Arbuthnott and Higuchi get to come back next year, too, if the reason for not participating is due to school/state policies rather than a NCAA decision?
I'm as covid-cautious as they come, but tennis really does stand out in its ability to be safe to play during a respiratory pandemic. Players are very far apart from one another! You could have sanitizer on changeovers. Players changing over on opposite sides of the court rather than the same side. Move the benches for the players/coaches so they're a bit farther from the chair umpire. Given what we know about transmission, one would think schools would let tennis happen, even if they're more cautious about other sports.
https://twitter.com/College10sRanks/stat...5486663680
Assuming this is true (and while we haven't heard from Stanford or the ITA yet, these guys have gotten plenty of ITA scoops over the years as the pool of folks interested in calling the ITA to ask about college tennis is vanishingly small), it's a big blow to both teams' hopes to get a top 8 ranking and the NCAA hosting duties that come with it. The men's team was the 2 seed in Raleigh, NC, so this clearly isn't just limited to events on campus, but a school-wide policy. (How that factors into basketball and football continuing to play, I don't know. Could just be a "sports that have been safely operating can continue to operate, but we're not going to introduce new athletes to campus when regular students can't even show up.)
Usually by now, we'd have a schedule for the spring season, but this isn't a usual year. I think it's reasonable to wonder what, if any, spring season there is for tennis in 2021. Unfortunately, I could imagine a shortened season in which the NCAA holds championships but where many of the schools with stricter covid policies or that are in states and counties with stricter limitations (like Stanford) don't play. Or we see something similar to football--perhaps a conference schedule with non-conference matchups being limited to in-state options (so, maybe a double helping of Cal, UCLA, USC, and then matchups with Pepperdine, USD, SDSU, St. Mary's, Loyola, etc.)? Not great, but man, I'd take it, that's for sure. And if there's a season elsewhere but not here, I wonder what happens to the special year of eligibility that the NCAA granted from last year. Do Arbuthnott and Higuchi get to come back next year, too, if the reason for not participating is due to school/state policies rather than a NCAA decision?
I'm as covid-cautious as they come, but tennis really does stand out in its ability to be safe to play during a respiratory pandemic. Players are very far apart from one another! You could have sanitizer on changeovers. Players changing over on opposite sides of the court rather than the same side. Move the benches for the players/coaches so they're a bit farther from the chair umpire. Given what we know about transmission, one would think schools would let tennis happen, even if they're more cautious about other sports.