[dabigv13]

Players on the SEC call, who were part of a “student-athlete leadership council,” raised similar concerns, with one player asking: “For so much unknown in the air right now, is it worth having a football season without certainty?”

Sankey, who earned a $2.5 million salary in 2018, responded: “Part of our work is to bring as much certainty in the midst of this really strange time as we can so you can play football in the most healthy way possible, with the understanding there aren’t any guarantees in life."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/20...y-meeting/

I think seeing how MLB is going, CFB season is probably toast. If, as implied in the article, schools may be opening for in person classes expressly to allow CFB to happen, that is negligence that will cost people lives.

[dabigv13]

Players on the SEC call, who were part of a “student-athlete leadership council,” raised similar concerns, with one player asking: “For so much unknown in the air right now, is it worth having a football season without certainty?”

Sankey, who earned a $2.5 million salary in 2018, responded: “Part of our work is to bring as much certainty in the midst of this really strange time as we can so you can play football in the most healthy way possible, with the understanding there aren’t any guarantees in life."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/20...y-meeting/

I think seeing how MLB is going, CFB season is probably toast. If, as implied in the article, schools may be opening for in person classes expressly to allow CFB to happen, that is negligence that will cost people lives.

[OutsiderFan]

Wow, that Sankey statement was really terrible.

It sounds to me like the SEC is trying to persuade players to play, not just giving them the facts and leaving the decision to them, and then basically saying if you do play, you can't hold us responsible if you get sick.  And they double down on this by saying we guarantee outbreaks are going to happen. 

If you are a player how do you respond with anything other than "AYFKM?!, you are telling us you will do your best to protect us, but at the end of the day you are saying we should expect to get sick while playing while we aren't getting paid? What on Earth makes you think we should trust the SEC? The mere fact the SEC would say such a thing makes me unable to trust it, when we know the SEC wants us to play so it can make money."

---

OMG... That article just got worse and worse.

The SEC should be publicly exposed and humiliated for what it said to those football players.  The Universities should absolutely not be in charge of deciding this stuff.  Only independent health experts should be empowered to make the decisions. I again go back to the KBO broadcaster from last week.  The South Korean CDC has the say on whether and how they play baseball in South Korea.  

It tells you all you need to know, that all the conferences that don't make mints from college football are shutting down Fall sports.  But speaking of that, why was it only football players on the call? Where were the other Fall sport athletes?  They are being sacrificed too, so the conferences can give the illusion they aren't just playing football, we're playing all sports.

I need to go take a shower after reading that WaPo story.

[OutsiderFan]

Wow, that Sankey statement was really terrible.

It sounds to me like the SEC is trying to persuade players to play, not just giving them the facts and leaving the decision to them, and then basically saying if you do play, you can't hold us responsible if you get sick.  And they double down on this by saying we guarantee outbreaks are going to happen. 

If you are a player how do you respond with anything other than "AYFKM?!, you are telling us you will do your best to protect us, but at the end of the day you are saying we should expect to get sick while playing while we aren't getting paid? What on Earth makes you think we should trust the SEC? The mere fact the SEC would say such a thing makes me unable to trust it, when we know the SEC wants us to play so it can make money."

---

OMG... That article just got worse and worse.

The SEC should be publicly exposed and humiliated for what it said to those football players.  The Universities should absolutely not be in charge of deciding this stuff.  Only independent health experts should be empowered to make the decisions. I again go back to the KBO broadcaster from last week.  The South Korean CDC has the say on whether and how they play baseball in South Korea.  

It tells you all you need to know, that all the conferences that don't make mints from college football are shutting down Fall sports.  But speaking of that, why was it only football players on the call? Where were the other Fall sport athletes?  They are being sacrificed too, so the conferences can give the illusion they aren't just playing football, we're playing all sports.

I need to go take a shower after reading that WaPo story.

[lex24]

I guess I read a different article.   They had a discussion with players. I’m glad they are having that discussion.  I would’ve found the article to be disturbing if they were lying to the players. They weren’t. They were admitting that they don’t have a lot of the answers and that there are no guarantees.

Not sure why Sankey’s  salary, by the way, is relevant - he’s going to make that money whether they play or not. Now if his salary was tied to playing, that would be relevant to the story).

 I said it before I’ll say it again – I don’t think they should be playing college football this year. But I’m not particularly troubled by anything I read in the article. Nor frankly am I troubled by Sankey’s  comment.   I suspect that is exactly what they are trying to do. Whether it’s going to be possible and whether they can (or should) actually do it or not is a different  question. And none of that should be left to the NCAA or any sports conference. It should be the universities president. If the president of Alabama says we ain’t playing football no way no how -  that’s it.

Finally – how is anything the SEC is trying to do different from what the Pac-12 is trying to do? Or for that matter Stanford.

[lex24]

I guess I read a different article.   They had a discussion with players. I’m glad they are having that discussion.  I would’ve found the article to be disturbing if they were lying to the players. They weren’t. They were admitting that they don’t have a lot of the answers and that there are no guarantees.

Not sure why Sankey’s  salary, by the way, is relevant - he’s going to make that money whether they play or not. Now if his salary was tied to playing, that would be relevant to the story).

 I said it before I’ll say it again – I don’t think they should be playing college football this year. But I’m not particularly troubled by anything I read in the article. Nor frankly am I troubled by Sankey’s  comment.   I suspect that is exactly what they are trying to do. Whether it’s going to be possible and whether they can (or should) actually do it or not is a different  question. And none of that should be left to the NCAA or any sports conference. It should be the universities president. If the president of Alabama says we ain’t playing football no way no how -  that’s it.

Finally – how is anything the SEC is trying to do different from what the Pac-12 is trying to do? Or for that matter Stanford.

[Farm93]

 If, as implied in the article, schools may be opening for in person classes expressly to allow CFB to happen, that is negligence that will cost people lives.

The SEC schools have very few financial resources and exist in states unlikely to help much as their budgets will be overwhelmed by COVID 2nd surge and 2nd wave costs.   The football programs, if they were standalone entities, would be worth billions.   Therefore they have to keep those things going, if at all possible.

These are the same states that are opening public schools right now.   If the K-12 can go to school why not the higher education facilities? 

Sigh...
Only in the USA would it seem plausible to open schools and sports in a region overwhelmed by a deadly pandemic.
I guess that is why "Some People" suggest we are doing a great job against COVID19!

[Farm93]

 If, as implied in the article, schools may be opening for in person classes expressly to allow CFB to happen, that is negligence that will cost people lives.

The SEC schools have very few financial resources and exist in states unlikely to help much as their budgets will be overwhelmed by COVID 2nd surge and 2nd wave costs.   The football programs, if they were standalone entities, would be worth billions.   Therefore they have to keep those things going, if at all possible.

These are the same states that are opening public schools right now.   If the K-12 can go to school why not the higher education facilities? 

Sigh...
Only in the USA would it seem plausible to open schools and sports in a region overwhelmed by a deadly pandemic.
I guess that is why "Some People" suggest we are doing a great job against COVID19!

[lex24]

 If, as implied in the article, schools may be opening for in person classes expressly to allow CFB to happen, that is negligence that will cost people lives.

The SEC schools have very few financial resources and exist in states unlikely to help much as their budgets will be overwhelmed by COVID 2nd surge and 2nd wave costs.   The football programs, if they were standalone entities, would be worth billions.   Therefore they have to keep those things going, if at all possible.

These are the same states that are opening public schools right now.   If the K-12 can go to school why not the higher education facilities? 

Sigh...
Only in the USA would it seem plausible to open schools and sports in a region overwhelmed by a deadly pandemic.
I guess that is why "Some People" suggest we are doing a great job against COVID19!

 Isn’t Stanford at this point playing football this year? 

I get that it’s (1) the Evil SEC which is in (2) the evil and backwards South.  But again, isn’t Stanford playing football this year.

 The quote attributed to the unnamed official (I love unnamed sources they are so unaccountable) may be inferred one of two ways: one, is that they are opening schools to play football. I highly doubt that. I’m pretty cynical, but not that cynical. Second, that they only would play if the schools were open. Those are different inferences from the same statement. The second is less “evil”. 

I’ll ask again - isn’t Stanford playing football this year?

As for K-12 - I don’t think it’s relevant to the discussion. But since you went there I’ll respond. It is of course possible that these evil people down in the south just don’t give a damn how many people die from this disease. It’s also possible, of course, that they wanna reopen schools because they already have higher poverty levels, already have bigger problems with their educational system to begin with, that more kids in that area will be adversely impacted by schools not opening than in some of the more wealthy areas of the country and that less kids are equipped to school virtually.

But it is very nice to have the moral clarity to simply make a knee-jerk reaction that an entire region of the country just doesn’t care about its people.

I hope you’ve written to Stanford to convey your outrage that they are (at this point) playing football.

[lex24]

 If, as implied in the article, schools may be opening for in person classes expressly to allow CFB to happen, that is negligence that will cost people lives.

The SEC schools have very few financial resources and exist in states unlikely to help much as their budgets will be overwhelmed by COVID 2nd surge and 2nd wave costs.   The football programs, if they were standalone entities, would be worth billions.   Therefore they have to keep those things going, if at all possible.

These are the same states that are opening public schools right now.   If the K-12 can go to school why not the higher education facilities? 

Sigh...
Only in the USA would it seem plausible to open schools and sports in a region overwhelmed by a deadly pandemic.
I guess that is why "Some People" suggest we are doing a great job against COVID19!

 Isn’t Stanford at this point playing football this year? 

I get that it’s (1) the Evil SEC which is in (2) the evil and backwards South.  But again, isn’t Stanford playing football this year.

 The quote attributed to the unnamed official (I love unnamed sources they are so unaccountable) may be inferred one of two ways: one, is that they are opening schools to play football. I highly doubt that. I’m pretty cynical, but not that cynical. Second, that they only would play if the schools were open. Those are different inferences from the same statement. The second is less “evil”. 

I’ll ask again - isn’t Stanford playing football this year?

As for K-12 - I don’t think it’s relevant to the discussion. But since you went there I’ll respond. It is of course possible that these evil people down in the south just don’t give a damn how many people die from this disease. It’s also possible, of course, that they wanna reopen schools because they already have higher poverty levels, already have bigger problems with their educational system to begin with, that more kids in that area will be adversely impacted by schools not opening than in some of the more wealthy areas of the country and that less kids are equipped to school virtually.

But it is very nice to have the moral clarity to simply make a knee-jerk reaction that an entire region of the country just doesn’t care about its people.

I hope you’ve written to Stanford to convey your outrage that they are (at this point) playing football.

[dabigv13]

I doubt they actually will. The local community control is good enough that maybe maybe they can keep a lid on it in PA. But not with all the other schools in P12. LA and Arizona pretty hot right now.

I wish someone had the guts to make the call but I realize the stakes are real high for the season to proceed.

[dabigv13]

I doubt they actually will. The local community control is good enough that maybe maybe they can keep a lid on it in PA. But not with all the other schools in P12. LA and Arizona pretty hot right now.

I wish someone had the guts to make the call but I realize the stakes are real high for the season to proceed.

[lex24]

I doubt they actually will. The local community control is good enough that maybe maybe they can keep a lid on it in PA. But not with all the other schools in P12. LA and Arizona pretty hot right now.

I wish someone had the guts to make the call but I realize the stakes are real high for the season to proceed.

I agree with you on all points. See it can happen! (PA and the Peninsula also has the advantage of being a very wealthy area).

I think the biggest problem is the locker room. Or in baseball the clubhouse. You just can’t avoid the “closeness” in those areas. Social distancing etc becomes impossible. Of course you also can have on field issues. I remember when Olson hit a walk off grand slam for the A’s they had the traditional everybody at home plate celebration. Not good. Understandable. Muscle memory. The Giants were a little better when Yaz hit the walk off. They got in a circle jumped up and down but we’re somewhat apart.


 I’m “often wrong, seldom uncertain.“ But I never thought they’d start major league baseball and at this point I’ll be surprised if they’re playing it next week at this time. I just don’t see college football happening.  And I don’t believe it should.

[lex24]

I doubt they actually will. The local community control is good enough that maybe maybe they can keep a lid on it in PA. But not with all the other schools in P12. LA and Arizona pretty hot right now.

I wish someone had the guts to make the call but I realize the stakes are real high for the season to proceed.

I agree with you on all points. See it can happen! (PA and the Peninsula also has the advantage of being a very wealthy area).

I think the biggest problem is the locker room. Or in baseball the clubhouse. You just can’t avoid the “closeness” in those areas. Social distancing etc becomes impossible. Of course you also can have on field issues. I remember when Olson hit a walk off grand slam for the A’s they had the traditional everybody at home plate celebration. Not good. Understandable. Muscle memory. The Giants were a little better when Yaz hit the walk off. They got in a circle jumped up and down but we’re somewhat apart.


 I’m “often wrong, seldom uncertain.“ But I never thought they’d start major league baseball and at this point I’ll be surprised if they’re playing it next week at this time. I just don’t see college football happening.  And I don’t believe it should.

[Farm93]

 If, as implied in the article, schools may be opening for in person classes expressly to allow CFB to happen, that is negligence that will cost people lives.

The SEC schools have very few financial resources and exist in states unlikely to help much as their budgets will be overwhelmed by COVID 2nd surge and 2nd wave costs.   The football programs, if they were standalone entities, would be worth billions.   Therefore they have to keep those things going, if at all possible.

These are the same states that are opening public schools right now.   If the K-12 can go to school why not the higher education facilities? 

Sigh...
Only in the USA would it seem plausible to open schools and sports in a region overwhelmed by a deadly pandemic.
I guess that is why "Some People" suggest we are doing a great job against COVID19!

 Isn’t Stanford at this point playing football this year? 

I get that it’s (1) the Evil SEC which is in (2) the evil and backwards South.  But again, isn’t Stanford playing football this year.

 The quote attributed to the unnamed official (I love unnamed sources they are so unaccountable) may be inferred one of two ways: one, is that they are opening schools to play football. I highly doubt that. I’m pretty cynical, but not that cynical. Second, that they only would play if the schools were open. Those are different inferences from the same statement. The second is less “evil”. 

I’ll ask again - isn’t Stanford playing football this year?

As for K-12 -  I don’t think it’s relevant to the discussion. But since you went there I’ll respond. It is of course possible that these evil people down in the south just don’t give a damn how many people die from this disease. It’s also possible, of course, that they wanna reopen schools because they already have higher poverty levels, already have bigger problems with their educational system to begin with, that more kids in that area will be adversely impacted by schools not opening than in some of the more wealthy areas of the country and that less kids are equipped to school virtually. 

But it is very nice to have the moral clarity to simply make a knee-jerk reaction that an entire region of the country just doesn’t care  about its people.

I hope you’ve written to Stanford to convey your outrage that they are (at this point) playing football.

The SF Bay Area is not nearly as hot as Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, or Texas.
CA is still #28 in deaths per capita, so relatively speaking California is in good shape.  
Not good enough, but relatively speaking better than the hospitals above ICU capacity in FL.

In the end, I suspect OR, CA & WA will not let K-12 kids in urban areas go to school at least in September and maybe for 4 months.  That K-12 policy creates community consistency.   It will be much easier for different entities to do the right thing for battling COVID if everyone is on the same page.   That's why it is relevant.   If it is safe enough for 5th graders to play at recess without masks in those states, then I can understand why the SEC would want to try to go forward with classes and football given that they have PR cover created by the public school districts. 

I wish the Pac-12 would be the first Power 5 conference to embrace reality and protect the health of athletes, coaches, staff and the community, but for now the Pac-12 is not really better than the SEC.   In the end I just believe the Pac-12 will get to the right place before the SEC, partly because I believe the state level health officials will help the Pac-12 schools get to the right place soon.

FWIW -  Should the governor, conference, schools and coaches decide playing in LA county in September and October is acceptable I will be disappointed, but not shocked given what has happened in the USA on COVID.   Rest assured I plan to express my opinion about our national response to COVID on (or before) Nov 3rd.

[Farm93]

 If, as implied in the article, schools may be opening for in person classes expressly to allow CFB to happen, that is negligence that will cost people lives.

The SEC schools have very few financial resources and exist in states unlikely to help much as their budgets will be overwhelmed by COVID 2nd surge and 2nd wave costs.   The football programs, if they were standalone entities, would be worth billions.   Therefore they have to keep those things going, if at all possible.

These are the same states that are opening public schools right now.   If the K-12 can go to school why not the higher education facilities? 

Sigh...
Only in the USA would it seem plausible to open schools and sports in a region overwhelmed by a deadly pandemic.
I guess that is why "Some People" suggest we are doing a great job against COVID19!

 Isn’t Stanford at this point playing football this year? 

I get that it’s (1) the Evil SEC which is in (2) the evil and backwards South.  But again, isn’t Stanford playing football this year.

 The quote attributed to the unnamed official (I love unnamed sources they are so unaccountable) may be inferred one of two ways: one, is that they are opening schools to play football. I highly doubt that. I’m pretty cynical, but not that cynical. Second, that they only would play if the schools were open. Those are different inferences from the same statement. The second is less “evil”. 

I’ll ask again - isn’t Stanford playing football this year?

As for K-12 -  I don’t think it’s relevant to the discussion. But since you went there I’ll respond. It is of course possible that these evil people down in the south just don’t give a damn how many people die from this disease. It’s also possible, of course, that they wanna reopen schools because they already have higher poverty levels, already have bigger problems with their educational system to begin with, that more kids in that area will be adversely impacted by schools not opening than in some of the more wealthy areas of the country and that less kids are equipped to school virtually. 

But it is very nice to have the moral clarity to simply make a knee-jerk reaction that an entire region of the country just doesn’t care  about its people.

I hope you’ve written to Stanford to convey your outrage that they are (at this point) playing football.

The SF Bay Area is not nearly as hot as Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, or Texas.
CA is still #28 in deaths per capita, so relatively speaking California is in good shape.  
Not good enough, but relatively speaking better than the hospitals above ICU capacity in FL.

In the end, I suspect OR, CA & WA will not let K-12 kids in urban areas go to school at least in September and maybe for 4 months.  That K-12 policy creates community consistency.   It will be much easier for different entities to do the right thing for battling COVID if everyone is on the same page.   That's why it is relevant.   If it is safe enough for 5th graders to play at recess without masks in those states, then I can understand why the SEC would want to try to go forward with classes and football given that they have PR cover created by the public school districts. 

I wish the Pac-12 would be the first Power 5 conference to embrace reality and protect the health of athletes, coaches, staff and the community, but for now the Pac-12 is not really better than the SEC.   In the end I just believe the Pac-12 will get to the right place before the SEC, partly because I believe the state level health officials will help the Pac-12 schools get to the right place soon.

FWIW -  Should the governor, conference, schools and coaches decide playing in LA county in September and October is acceptable I will be disappointed, but not shocked given what has happened in the USA on COVID.   Rest assured I plan to express my opinion about our national response to COVID on (or before) Nov 3rd.

[Farm93]

Good to see the Pac-12 STUDENT-athletes safety demands have now reached the ESPN RADAR.    Good for them.   Beyond crazy for the Pac-12s UC campuses & USC to be largely closed to students, and yet open for practice and games.

For those that have not seen a closed for COVID campus yet, the schools usually barricade the entrances to parking lots and put up signs all over campus indicating the campus is closed.   With parking lots and dorms closed most campuses just have a handful of facility maintenance types on the campus.   A true paradise for squirrels and rabbits, but pretty haunting for student-athletes.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...ice-safety

[Farm93]

Good to see the Pac-12 STUDENT-athletes safety demands have now reached the ESPN RADAR.    Good for them.   Beyond crazy for the Pac-12s UC campuses & USC to be largely closed to students, and yet open for practice and games.

For those that have not seen a closed for COVID campus yet, the schools usually barricade the entrances to parking lots and put up signs all over campus indicating the campus is closed.   With parking lots and dorms closed most campuses just have a handful of facility maintenance types on the campus.   A true paradise for squirrels and rabbits, but pretty haunting for student-athletes.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...ice-safety

[teejers1]

Good to see the Pac-12 STUDENT-athletes safety demands have now reached the ESPN RADAR.    Good for them.   Beyond crazy for the Pac-12s UC campuses & USC to be largely closed to students, and yet open for practice and games.

For those that have not seen a closed for COVID campus yet, the schools usually barricade the entrances to parking lots and put up signs all over campus indicating the campus is closed.   With parking lots and dorms closed most campuses just have a handful of facility maintenance types on the campus.   A true paradise for squirrels and rabbits, but pretty haunting for student-athletes.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...ice-safety

Why?  Because they will be the only kids on campus?  That's safer, right?

Or is it the optics of "athletics really are different from the university's regular life?'

If Stanford is all remote in the Fall, do you think the student body would want the football team playing on Saturdays or not?  Do you think they'd be resentful . . . or do you think they'd be appreciative that they have something to watch on Saturdays?

Just curious.

[teejers1]

Good to see the Pac-12 STUDENT-athletes safety demands have now reached the ESPN RADAR.    Good for them.   Beyond crazy for the Pac-12s UC campuses & USC to be largely closed to students, and yet open for practice and games.

For those that have not seen a closed for COVID campus yet, the schools usually barricade the entrances to parking lots and put up signs all over campus indicating the campus is closed.   With parking lots and dorms closed most campuses just have a handful of facility maintenance types on the campus.   A true paradise for squirrels and rabbits, but pretty haunting for student-athletes.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...ice-safety

Why?  Because they will be the only kids on campus?  That's safer, right?

Or is it the optics of "athletics really are different from the university's regular life?'

If Stanford is all remote in the Fall, do you think the student body would want the football team playing on Saturdays or not?  Do you think they'd be resentful . . . or do you think they'd be appreciative that they have something to watch on Saturdays?

Just curious.

[chrisk]

Yesterday, Stanford issued a directive suspending all university-sponsored travel until January 4.
It's not clear how athletics fits under that directive. Certain types of research can apply for waivers but I don't think football would qualify for that.

[chrisk]

Yesterday, Stanford issued a directive suspending all university-sponsored travel until January 4.
It's not clear how athletics fits under that directive. Certain types of research can apply for waivers but I don't think football would qualify for that.

[needle]

Many, many questions about what is really going on behind the scenes.

Some of mine:

1.) Is it easier politically to announce now (or in late Aug.) no CFB or is it easier to go ahead and start the CFB season knowing it would likely be shut after a couple of weeks when multiple teams have multiple cases?

2.) What number of players have informed their schools they are deciding to opt out of 2020? Have any coaches informed their employers that they will be sitting out this fall?

3.) What are the details of the TV money that conferences are hoping to salvage for the 2020 season? Does a shortened season simply result in pro-rated payments to conferences, or are the deals possibly more complicated than that?

4.) Public universities can be pretty independent, though legislators generally hold the power of the purse. Will any elected officials unequivocally state that CFB is a bad idea and shouldn't happen, and what effect would that have on conferences making decisions about starting a season?

[needle]

Many, many questions about what is really going on behind the scenes.

Some of mine:

1.) Is it easier politically to announce now (or in late Aug.) no CFB or is it easier to go ahead and start the CFB season knowing it would likely be shut after a couple of weeks when multiple teams have multiple cases?

2.) What number of players have informed their schools they are deciding to opt out of 2020? Have any coaches informed their employers that they will be sitting out this fall?

3.) What are the details of the TV money that conferences are hoping to salvage for the 2020 season? Does a shortened season simply result in pro-rated payments to conferences, or are the deals possibly more complicated than that?

4.) Public universities can be pretty independent, though legislators generally hold the power of the purse. Will any elected officials unequivocally state that CFB is a bad idea and shouldn't happen, and what effect would that have on conferences making decisions about starting a season?

[Snorlax94]

I think it's still a reasonable plan for colleges to proceed for the time with the possibility that there will be some college football this fall.

While yes, I agree, as the situation is now currently, and with the current trends, there is no way CFB can be played this fall. But that assumes a static situation and static trends.

For example, let's say in SCC the # hospitalized is increasing 10% per week. We can project out to late September and say there is no way a game is being played in 9 weeks because by then 2.35x times as many people will be hospitalized. In June many #s tripled, so if we take that trend, the # hospitalized will increase 9x by the first college game, and of course there is no way anyone should be playing football in that kind of situation.

But there are some possibilities.

First, I expect further tightening in California, in fact, I am surprised nothing has been announced yet. I read in St Louis they've already instituted a curfew for last call for liquor to be at 9:30pm and there were no problems. Maybe people in Missouri just aren't independent or free-thinking at all and are completely compliant (just kidding!). But I could see a stricter curfew coming to California in a week or two. In fact, I'm surprised they haven't made that move already.

In the extreme, I could see something approaching more of a strict shelter-in-place in some places like California. Not as severe as in March, but I could see them shutting down the indoor malls and shops, and possibly shutting down construction in some counties. That, combined with a curfew and current capabilities and knowledge, could be enough to get the cases much lower.

And also, there was that recent news about research to develop a test where people could use saliva on a test strip and get results at home. I could see a technology like that could make it possible for schools and universities to open and stay open at half capacity. These research efforts are just possibilities, but it's an example of tech that could come along before widespread vaccination. I don't see that making it possible to have a full football schedule with fans in stadiums, but something might be enough to have some games without fans sometime this fall.

Even if it is still less than 50% likely CFB will be played this fall, I think it's still worth preparing for the possibility. And I like that Stanford has informed its student athletes that they can opt out without penalty -- no loss in scholarship, etc. So if anyone feels uncomfortable, they should have the choice to opt out. Stanford said they've been working with researchers and with the hospital to develop a world-class blueprint to enable half of the students to come to campus safely this fall. For now, I'm hopeful that they have a good plan.

[Snorlax94]

I think it's still a reasonable plan for colleges to proceed for the time with the possibility that there will be some college football this fall.

While yes, I agree, as the situation is now currently, and with the current trends, there is no way CFB can be played this fall. But that assumes a static situation and static trends.

For example, let's say in SCC the # hospitalized is increasing 10% per week. We can project out to late September and say there is no way a game is being played in 9 weeks because by then 2.35x times as many people will be hospitalized. In June many #s tripled, so if we take that trend, the # hospitalized will increase 9x by the first college game, and of course there is no way anyone should be playing football in that kind of situation.

But there are some possibilities.

First, I expect further tightening in California, in fact, I am surprised nothing has been announced yet. I read in St Louis they've already instituted a curfew for last call for liquor to be at 9:30pm and there were no problems. Maybe people in Missouri just aren't independent or free-thinking at all and are completely compliant (just kidding!). But I could see a stricter curfew coming to California in a week or two. In fact, I'm surprised they haven't made that move already.

In the extreme, I could see something approaching more of a strict shelter-in-place in some places like California. Not as severe as in March, but I could see them shutting down the indoor malls and shops, and possibly shutting down construction in some counties. That, combined with a curfew and current capabilities and knowledge, could be enough to get the cases much lower.

And also, there was that recent news about research to develop a test where people could use saliva on a test strip and get results at home. I could see a technology like that could make it possible for schools and universities to open and stay open at half capacity. These research efforts are just possibilities, but it's an example of tech that could come along before widespread vaccination. I don't see that making it possible to have a full football schedule with fans in stadiums, but something might be enough to have some games without fans sometime this fall.

Even if it is still less than 50% likely CFB will be played this fall, I think it's still worth preparing for the possibility. And I like that Stanford has informed its student athletes that they can opt out without penalty -- no loss in scholarship, etc. So if anyone feels uncomfortable, they should have the choice to opt out. Stanford said they've been working with researchers and with the hospital to develop a world-class blueprint to enable half of the students to come to campus safely this fall. For now, I'm hopeful that they have a good plan.