College Football in the Spring.
Herbstreit says that's a contingency. March, April, May. How would that work? Would the NFL push the draft back until June? Would players that are potential high picks sit out? I know I would watch no matter when it is played.
April 21st, 2020 at 12:48 PM ^
So they would end in June and then start again in September 2021?
I'm not sure why more people aren't talking about this. It seems like the biggest issue to me. Football is a brutal sport and it has a very long offseason. You're gonna suddenly go from 8 months between seasons to 3? Factor in the preseason training and it's basically no offseason at all.
Would early enrollees be eligible? Have we already started the JJ McCarthy era?
Blue and Joe's answer...
is why spring college football won't happen.
Are they assuming there is a vaccine by then?
If not, then just start the season on time in the fall.
There will be treatments to mitigate the symptoms by then hopefully.
Mostly for the folks who are very sick.
Exactly. If you think college athletes feel exploited now, wait till you make two seasons with only two months in between. You’ll have a lit of guys refusing and it would be a PR disaster for the NCAA and would probably speed up NIL and even more aggressive attacks on the current model
April 21st, 2020 at 12:50 PM ^
How would that work for Michigan? There's snow on the ground, usually, until mid-to-late March and sometimes in April. Would Michigan play all away games or would they play in the practice facility?
April 21st, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^
I don't understand your question. When it snows during October or November games, do they get moved inside, or to a more southern field?
This isn't baseball...
April 21st, 2020 at 12:59 PM ^
I think his question is more of "what if there's a foot of a snow still on the ground in mid-late March?" but yes, I think we would still be fine.
April 21st, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^
Since when has snow stopped a football game???
it has snowed up north for 10 straight days. sometimes just a few flurries, sometimes a couple of inches like last night and today. the wind has frequently been in the 20-40 (on the coast) mph range this month. highs and lows have been 15-30 degrees below normal with few exceptions this month. it is definitely football weather right now. you sure as heck are wasting your time turkey hunting or fly fishing right now.
40 in March feels a lot different than 40 in November.
You mean that you don't think our winters are shorter?
They play football in fucking frozen ass Green Bay in January so I think this is do-able.
Are you familiar with the month of November?
or as we say in the UP, the four seasons are 'june, july, august, and winter'.
Since you left, we've changed it to two seasons "winter" and "winter is coming".
a little ticked nobody sent me the notice.
got sent a great couple of photos from the homeboys this weekend. one by the dead river basin was beautiful, but man, a boatload of fresh snow even for the UP in april.
XM I didn't know you were Marquette located before. Last Monday (13th) we got destroyed but a wet, heavy snowfall. Now it's mostly all gone, at least in areas there wasn't a huge pile of it before. Hell it was in the 50s this weekend! Looking like we finally turned the corner though, into the mid 40s for the upcoming forecast.
user name not checking out, unless we're calling negaunee or republic, 'steel city'.
we are at or below freezing still, and we're south of you. go figure.
The simple answer: the snow would be removed.
April 21st, 2020 at 12:59 PM ^
I believe the clock is running hard against playing in the fall. I would rather have "spring" ball starting in February than zero football at all.
Maybe they can start with a pilot program in the Mountain West Conference. Stadiums are already empty, it's always windy as hell and most programs run systems that have twenty feet between players on offense and don't involve any tackling.
I hope Michigan still plays in Seattle. Probably too much to hope for a St. Pats with the first week of the Tournament and Michigan lacing them up on the water in Seattle, right?
Just say, you want to get 6 games in (conference divisional games only), plus conference championships and a "bowl season". You'd need two and a half months for that type of season. In order to be ready for the 2021 fall season, I'd think you'd need to be done with "bowl season" by mid-May. This means games need to start at the beginning of March. This would then require practice to start in the last few weeks of January, peak flu season. Seems unlikely that you'd be able to start practicing at that point. If you wait until flu season is done, you're starting practice in March and starting to play games in mid-April. Two and a half months later, you're at the end of June and just finishing up the "bowl season".
What does flu have anything to do with this?
Would you want to get COVID while dealing with the flu?
It would fill that big Spring Football void now that XFL/AAFL have gone under.
My understanding of the situation is that it doesn't make sense financially for the NCAA to play games without fans, especially for smaller schools that make almost all of their revenue off of stadium sales. Darren Rovell reported that for some schools they would lose 75% of revenue by not having fans. In a snowball effect, if the schools can't play Football then other non-revenue sports will not be funded. So... yeah I'm not sure playing in the fall is viable option for player saftey OR financial saftey.
Rovell continued that stadium revenue is only 15% of total NFL revenue, so they can still get by without having fans (assuming that the games are televised and TV contracts are filled).
They will make more revenue from playing the games with no fans than they will from not playing the games at all.
Running a football game is not an enormous expenditure. The fact that thousands of high schools across the country do it every year is proof of that.
That's not really the argument. It's common sense that revenue of playing games with fans > playing games without fans > not playing games at all.
The argument is if the cost of not playing with fans in the fall worth starting the season on time or does it make more sense to delay the season with a shot at recouping lost costs with a Spring Season. Most of the major conferences, like the Big 10, would probably do just fine playing without fans in the Fall. They will still have major revenue from the TV deals. It is the smaller schools (low tier FBS, FCS, DII, DIII, etc.) that will suffer much more by playing with empty stadiums.
Darren Rovell is wrong. It is 50-50.
-1 for citing Darren Rovell.
This is today's big talk. A lot can change in the resolution of the virus threat in the next several months. This is only a contingency plan, as stated.
Let's see if there is return of students to college campus in the fall. If not, then the talk can seriously change to this proposal of spring-summer football.
Correct BUT considering the virus isn't going to magically disappear the next question becomes can we live with it. About to find out next few months. Until that answer no reason to make any decision imo
but I was told by someone that it would disappear...someone in an authority position
I don't want to be held accountable for this comment, but my friends at a very prominent athletic department say that this is real, and no, the NFL would not move the draft back. Meaning, if Justin Fields or Trevor Lawrence want to get drafted in April 2021, they would have to sit out the season. Unless, some rules are changed, and changed quickly.
My first thought, would we have anyone that would sit out to get drafted? Maybe this might help us if OSU has to play without all their draftable talent.
I'd see Nico sitting out. What sense does it make to play in February and March, when it'll be three yards and a cloud of snow?
We’ve played in the spring before.
First game in program history was May 30, 1879.
Our second and third games against ND were played on April 20 and 21 of 1888–132 years ago today.
Would be pretty cool actually to see it happen again. Imagine being told before all of this that Michigan might play in the spring again.
Wow, times have changed.
I’m starting to think there is going to be football in the fall. Possibly even with crowds at 1/3 or half capacity. No real “basis” in terms of articles or anything, just a gut feeling. Testing is indicating that a lot more people have had this virus than originally projected, testing is available at like corner Urgent Care clinics, probably pharmacies soon, and the healthcare system is prepared. Some treatments are proving effective as well. Obviously people who are at high risk for complications should not play or attend but I am starting to think it will happen.
Agreed. This thing will be in the rear view mirror in a couple months.
I could see an elimination of non-con for additional player conditioning etc.
I saw this posted somewhere else but it was a good question. What does Notre Dame do in this scenario? I mean, other than going to hell.
Unlike professional sports, college athletics has a student section. I wonder about having students only at games.
A) there still is no evidence as to whether or to what extent antibodies bestow immunity. There are theories, but much studying is required to determine the extent of protection granted by previous infection.
B) the abbott rapid testing kits are showing massive numbers of false negatives. So our testing regimen is still deeply flawed.
C) none of the treatments that are being touted by various pharmaceutical companies and politicians have had anywhere near enough research to be labeled as "promising", let alone "effective."
I'm hoping against hope that we get CFB in 2020. But we have to overcome a shitload of hurdles to get there.
Do it.
I don't think the NFL should push back the draft to June if they plan to put a product on the field for September. Those players are better off getting drafted, signed, and working with the NFL S&C programs, nutritionists, and coaches.
I do think you should see an opportunity for more players in the 2021 supplemental draft. That way kids who play really well in the "spring" football season and/or who run into issues can join the draft. If you have a dude who blows up in his senior year like Joe Burrow did, some teams might jump at the chance to take Burrow in a supplemental draft and give up a 2022 pick.
What about players entering the 2020 Supplemental Draft? If the College Football season gets delayed, would the NFL allow players who decided to return to school (Example: Nico Collins) enter the 2020 supplemental draft? I could see that as a reasonable possibility if players are not going to have the opportunity to improve their stock on the field in the fall.
It's interesting that they would go H2H with NBA, NHL and MLB at the same time. I wonder what that would do to March Madness.
Other than Saturday being filled with football, the scheduling for March Madness really wouldn't be affected I would think. I would think there'd be plenty of attention for it yet.