[teejers1]

So what happens when some student-athletes don't want to play, or have parents who threaten to sue if their children are forced to play? Will schools take away their scholarships? The optics of not allowing on-campus attendance but requiring student-athlete participation will be horrible, all the more so given the NCAA's tone-deaf approach to compensation for student-athletes. Even if there's a 1/10000 chance that a 20-year-old exposed to COVID-19 dies from it, all it will take is one ICU admission to put the kibosh on the whole thing.

1.  Students who don't want to play won't play (think even you would have to admit that the vast majority of competitors want to compete - and remember, the personal risk of harm to these young, healthy adults is low);

2.  And btw, minor sports participants (like soccer, wvb, etc.) also want to compete - I don't think if you asked players if they wanted to compete what the answer would be;

3.  But the reason why football would be different is because without it you may not have minor sports going forward.  That was the only point.

Now, it may be true that without the gate, the TV $$ wouldn't be enough to save non-revenue sports.  But that would be the reason for an "exception" - and let's face it, in Covid world we are going to see lots of exceptions.

[teejers1]

So what happens when some student-athletes don't want to play, or have parents who threaten to sue if their children are forced to play? Will schools take away their scholarships? The optics of not allowing on-campus attendance but requiring student-athlete participation will be horrible, all the more so given the NCAA's tone-deaf approach to compensation for student-athletes. Even if there's a 1/10000 chance that a 20-year-old exposed to COVID-19 dies from it, all it will take is one ICU admission to put the kibosh on the whole thing.

1.  Students who don't want to play won't play (think even you would have to admit that the vast majority of competitors want to compete - and remember, the personal risk of harm to these young, healthy adults is low);

2.  And btw, minor sports participants (like soccer, wvb, etc.) also want to compete - I don't think if you asked players if they wanted to compete what the answer would be;

3.  But the reason why football would be different is because without it you may not have minor sports going forward.  That was the only point.

Now, it may be true that without the gate, the TV $$ wouldn't be enough to save non-revenue sports.  But that would be the reason for an "exception" - and let's face it, in Covid world we are going to see lots of exceptions.