From the article:
“Forde added that it’s unlikely any AAC team will play four non-conference games and schedules could include anywhere from a “plus-one to plus-three” format.”
I take “unlikely” as meaning it’s possible. If we could get a Texas team to play us, I think we probably would. But then again, if all other teams are only playing 9 or 10 games, maybe our coaches wouldn’t want us exposed to mosre injury before league play.
He was definitely as many non-conference games as each team could land and feel comfortable playing.
With the Wazzou game canceled, CDH may want to have September 12 as as open date before we play at Memphis on September 19. OU has an opening on 9/12, but as of now, the B12 has not decided on whether to play a 10, 11, or 12 game season.
I think conference only schedules are dumb, particularly on the part of P5 conferences. Just seems like power moves to me. Regional games make more sense to me from a Covid safety standpoint. I say that though, living in a region within a bus ride of enough competition to fill a season.
I don’t see why we couldn’t keep Rice and UNT since they are in state. With BYU being independent, they are going to want to keep as many games as they can, so maybe that’s still a go for UH. A bye before Memphis would be good.
My confidence level for playing more than 2 games in Sept- Nov is about .002%. Playing an abbreviated season in Jan-March is about 50% Same with basketball, and everything else.
Let’s just kick Rice’s ass 4 times. LFG!
Here’s the Memphis non conference schedule, with UH thrown in for reference:
9/5 ARKANSAS STATE at Memphis
9/12 at PURDUE Canceled
9/19 HOUSTON at Memphis
9/26 at UTSA
11/21 UT Martin at Memphis
Since Memphis has an open date before they play us, I think that would add impetus for us to do so as well.
I am going back to school and looking forward to being back in the classroom. I will say that I think football is the most likely event that will cause my school and others like it to close again. Look what is happening in MLB. They are testing like crazy, but 3 teams are now out of commission due to outbreaks (St. Louis Cardinals being the latest this morning).
Read this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/01/sec-football-players-safety-meeting/
I will say that I have conducted strength and conditioning sessions and practices this summer with 30+ athletes. It is EXTREMELY challenging to maintain social distancing throughout a 90 minute practice and I can’t imagine how this can be done in a HS locker room. We are projecting 50% attendance at my school right now. (roughly 900 students choosing face to face instruction). I am confident that I can keep my individual classroom safe by following protocols. Explain to me how you play tackle football and aren’t swapping fluids. I don’t think colleges are equipped for this and I sure as heck don’t think the High Schools are. I don’t think you can play sports outside of a “bubble” like the NBA and MLS are doing and that costs an insane amount of $$$.
The financial reckoning that is coming to the colleges is of their own doing. (Not the pandemic, but the insane increase in capital resources) We are all spending outside our means. I’m asking this because I don’t have the answer. How desperate are we to have a season? How big a deficit is it? Should be asking our high $$ coaches to take an even bigger cut?
I love football and I love sports, but these plans seem doomed to failure.
I have been believing the only way college football works for this fall is for teams to go into the bubble and the same is true of the NFL. As with basketball, the contact is too close and too physical for it to execute outside the bubble. Maybe it will be different regarding needing the bubble late fall or early winter.
I don’t believe they will ruin themselves as they execute. Although COVID is going to inflict significant impact anyway to cut it. Buth Hopefully they will just back up the schedule. The problem with college football is getting them all to back up the schedule when it looks more difficult to execute. It appears the only way to do that is conference by conference unlike having one command structure as they do with the MLB, NFL, and the NBA.
I was hoping MLB could execute outside the bubble, but if they are not going to have fans why not go into the bubble in AZ or Florida. I am still wondering how much of the team infections are due to not executing masks and social distancing and staying away from high risk places is causing those teams issues. They really need to execute the MLB season. Too big of black eye not too.
I saw the SEC USC AD tell his faithful yesterday that they plan to have fans which I think is doable, but he is guessing 20K. I think the fan side of the equation with low enough numbers is easier too execute than pulling off a sport like football outside of the bubble.
And I don’t think UH should allow 20k!
First it does not allow for safe distancing and 2 it will look silly when we will be lucky to draw 10k
I agree. If we’re starting from the premise that football should be played, all stakeholders (all FBS conferences, tv partners, etc) should have come together and tried to set up something like 6-8 game regional schedules with gaps between each game week for testing, etc. and potentially rescheduling games.
20K at USC’s stadium is 23% with their 88K stadium.
The same percentage model at UH is +/-10K. I definitely believe that is doable with our size of stadium to start games.
The 20K at UH would probably be towards the end of the season if all is going well.
We do have 5 good options for a vaccine for this fall to be produced as we speak and distributed heavily after the first of the year. Its another reason I believe a spring football season is the most likely although all the ADs and coaches seem to think it is a last resort. If they go to the spring for this season then they’ll need to back up the 2021 season to allow enough down time. Hopefully they will be able to coodinate with the NFL to minimize impact on the draft and when they start also in 2021.
Pac 12 Players pulling out. Who’s next?
In the article, I didn’t see anything saying they were pulling out of anything but a lot of thought went into it. We are not sure if it was from 2 players or a very large group of players but it sounds like a union.
Edit: Matt’s post has the quote.
" Due to COVID-19 and other serious concerns, we will opt-out of Pac-12 fall camp and game participation unless the following demands are guaranteed in writing by our conference to protect and benefit both scholarship athletes and walk-ons."
And then list 17 demands. Some reasonable, some less so, more calculated leverage. Opt out of game participation seems pretty cut and dry no?
No loss of scholly, and no loss of ROSTER SPOT (!!!) for opting out…
Reduction in “excessive” salaries (they all are).
And social justice demands that are nebulous at best, and impossible to gauge results of actions…
All of this points to what a crap job that Larry Scott has done with the PAC 12…rudderless leadership.
Well PAC 12 mandatory activities can start as early as 8/3 and camp starts 8/17. Let’s see what happens.
This should have been a new thread.