UM inside sources say Washington and Ark State definitely off the schedule, remainder will be regional
Very interesting article by Michael Spath over at SI. He's evidently been in touch with some inside sources at UM. It sounds like while football is expected to happen at UM, the schedule will not proceed as currently planned, and there are potentially significant changes across the Big Ten.
The whole article is worth the read, as he got input from both the athletic and faculty perspectives, but here's his summary of his key takeaways:
I expect Michigan to play football this fall.
• I expect that U-M will play fewer than the 12 games on its schedule and that the trip to Washington and the Arkansas State game will be either canceled outright or replaced by Mid-American Conference opponents.
• I expect Michigan to play at least one home-and-home and potentially two or more with other Big Ten teams, most likely Michigan State, Indiana and Ohio State. I expect Notre Dame to be a very real possibility as a fill-in game because of the location and access via buses.
• I expect that if Michigan holds in-person classes student-athletes will be required to attend them just like normal students, however, I do believe that there will be specific student-athlete dorms on campus, with all the fall sports teams (including upperclassmen) to live in the dorms.
• I expect at least one Big Ten program not to play football this fall and as many as four or five. I think there is a chance for a four-team Big Ten championship bout to be played in December with the teams staying put in one city/hotel all two weeks.
• I expect the other fall sports, field hockey, golf, soccer and cross country to play but have entirely regional schedules with no flights whatsoever. I'm not sure about volleyball.
• I don't expect fans to be in attendance at any sporting event that is not football.
Note: I am posting this from mobile and hoping the formatting isn't awful. If it is, I apologise in advance.
Sorry, our AD isn't that smart to win that argument.
I'd be shocked if Rutgers fields a team.
They haven't for over a decade.
Consistent with what I was told at football camp on Wednesday by a bunch of college coaches
Smart to schedule some teams twice because not every team may be available to play every week.
What if the teams somebody is supposed to play twice gets nuked with COVID? Wouldn’t that increase the risk of now TWO games getting canceled instead of just the one?
The last time Michigan faced the same B1G opponent twice in one season was in 1926 in a home and home against Minnesota.
Michigan won both games (20-0 at home and 7-6 on the road)
So Michigan has struggled on the road since at least 1926?!?
I didn't realize it had happened before.
Did you have to look that up, or would you destroy us all in a drinking game?
I'ma guess he knew it and also looked it up to verify in his crazy UM knowledge base. Respect.
Just play IU 12 times, win 12 nail-biting games, and claim a mythical championship. It's not that hard.
Maybe we should throw the first game and lose by like 70. Then Indiana will jump up in the rankings, Probably top 10. Win the next 11 and we can claim that we went 11 - 1 against top 10 teams, including eleven straight wins.
Dude. This COVID thing supposedly creates hundreds of mini strokes & clots in the body. The last thing we need is weekly exposure to #ChaosTeam too.
Yeah fuck the idea of playing OSU twice. I’d rather not deal with my balls being thrown in a blender twice. Once is enough. But playing MSU twice? Oh hell yeah.
On a serious note, what happens with the Washington series? Do we just push it back a year? 2022 has no big OOC games at the moment, and I doubt Washington will be willing to just scrap this year’s game, come to Ann Arbor next year, and call it even. I imagine either we push the series back a year, or it’s altogether cancelled. The latter of which would really suck.
I'm not sure what I think about this. I would love to watch Michigan football. But even putting aside the threats to health that playing these games would create, this seems sort of absurd. Are you really the conference champion if a number of teams don't play at all? And what's it worth to split two games with a team? It's a strength of college football, I think, that you generally get one shot at a rival and that's that. This seems somehow cheap.
Win any way you can.
The shirts and trophy isn't going to say *Covid affected season on it.
I love the improvised spirit and 'hey let's play football with people who want to play football' attitude. Kind of has an old-time savor. This year will have asterisks all over it, anyway; I hope that means balls-out, air-it-out football. Everything is so freaking grim sometimes, on the board and in the stands--maybe we'll get a reminder of some of the pleasure we've been missing.
Watch Michigan be the best team in the conference in a year where there may not be any championships. Obviously still better than losing but man that'd be a good kick to the ribs still.
Lower
Do not and i mean do fucking not bail notre dame out of this. I’m tired of acting like we hate them then letting them walk all over us
yeah i'd rather play 10 games than play them
I have heard from two sources pretty high up at UM, one in the AD and one on the Board that while they are trying really hard to make the season happen, scheduling and opponent availability is a complete unknown right now, as well as what will happen if a certain % of the team or staff gets sick. It's very much in flux - no surprise there.
I have not posted this here as I myself am not the source of the info, nor do I have any definitive connection to decision makers...
IE, my info is not worth much more than random internet rumor - and I get this as I would take such a post from another on the board with a grain of salt as well.
Anyways, fwiw, one (regent) believes there's a 25% chance there is even a season, and believes it will be 6-8 games at best, with a high probability of cancellation if Covid runs through the team and or conference. The other, mid-management in the AD believes there is a 75% chance they start a season, but the schedule will likely be 8 games max.
2020 is going to feel like the 1918 season all over again. Who could ever imagined uttering those words 7 months ago?
hats off to John U Bacon, Seth and Dr Sap for bringing the 1918 season back to life. Maybe my favorite podcast of all time
Hopefully it ends up like 1918 did with a National Championship and Big Ten title.
I hadn’t thought about that but that would be very nice!!!!
The argument of not flying makes zero sense because they fly private and they never come in contact with anyone outside. The planes would be sanitized well before they boarded this thought process has zero logical sense.
Spath is full of shit sometimes. I take most of the OP with grains of salt.
If they go through airports, that is the risk, along with hotels.
Medical grade masks? Those work, right?
I can assure you the full supply of medical grade masks are and will be going to frontline healthcare workers, keeping industry running and the gov’t/military. I love sports, but perspective, please.
Mark Cuban advocated for replacing Etsy masks with n95s for the general public last night. He's a member of the committee for reintroducing spectators to sports at the White House. The two way protection would make it a choice for everyone. Those who don't want one wouldn't be forced, those at risk or living with someone at risk can just wear one.
Not 100%. Also, people still go to the bathroom, touch fixtures, eat food, etc., and don't have 100% sterile technique.
My guess is that going through the airport, flying on an airplane, riding on a bus to the hotel, and staying in a hotel, is 10 times (maybe 100 times) more likely for you to get SARS-2 than only riding on a bus with your team mates.
Most airports are and will continue to be empty. Where is the threat?
/dee-and-tonyed!
I just flew this past weekend and the plane was full. The airport was not very busy but the American gates were packed. Unlike Delta they are selling the center seats.
Right but if it's a chartered flight, you could have the team bus drive right up to the plane and not go through the airport.
I don't agree with your point about hotels either. If they don't think it's safe to stay in a hotel, I get that, but you could fly to Seattle and fly back the same day just as easily as you could bus to most places and come back by bus on the same day. It's a 4 and a half hour flight. MSU is the only Big Ten team that is a lot closer by bus than Seattle would be by plane.
You can clean and sanitize all you like, one person gets on that plane with the virus and thats the ball game.
You could say the same thing about a bus. There's no difference.
It's no different than a bus flying private means you avoid any terminal. The busses drive up to the parked plane they walk on then they fly to their destination busses pick them up plane side and off to their hotel. It is literally no different than flying on a plane this is stupidity at its finest.
Agree. Planes are just busses with wings.
Except you can open the windows of a bus
Maybe they don't want to go near the dangerous war torn country of Chop/Chaz, which has the highest murder rate per capita in the United States. :)
Everything Spath wrote seems plausible with two exceptions:
1) a four-team tournament in Indy. That part seems like total nonsense to me. Putting 4 entire teams and their coaching staffs in hotels for two weeks is a non-starter. The B1G will be fortunate if they even get 2 teams there for a Championship Game.
2) playing any season at all if they already have more than 2 teams cancel their seasons before even starting. If the covid situation is still flaring up in September similar to what has been happening since early June, how does the conference avoid potential landmines that could force several more teams to be sidelined?
The only thing attractive about 4 teams not playing would be that ever so briefly, the B1G might actually have actually 10 teams again---but for the wrong reason.
I still think the most realistic option is a shortened spring schedule after observing and learning from the successes and failures pro sports leagues (especially the NFL) experience first.
I expect Michigan to play at least one home-and-home and potentially two or more with other Big Ten teams, most likely Michigan State, Indiana and Ohio State.
Wait a sec...we have to lose to OSU twice in one year? Why the eff would they do that to us?!?
Was really looking forward to getting revenge with Wiscy & PSU and proving Minnesota is not ready to contend.
Good point! Playing them once is bad enough ?
I'm here for the 'let's just play all of the directional MI schools, Bowling Green, Maybe MiamiNTM, and then a home-and-home-and-home series vs MSU, with the last two home games being played at Michigan Stadium, to make up for 2013-14' plan.
Sarcasm aside, the way this season winds up playing out is going to be pretty interesting.
Home and home with MSU, Indiana and/or Notre Dame? Sign me up.
just not OSU twice. Unless Fields gets Covid the week before the game (just kidding, but not really).
Guesses at teams not playing? I’m trying to think of teams geographically isolated. If it’s just one that doesn’t play, I’m guessing Nebraska. But if it’s more... either both Maryland and Rutgers play or don’t play. Come to think of it, maybe Iowa and Nebraska are a package deal.
It’s not gonna be one or the other for Rutgers and Maryland. Other thought was Northwestern. They’re in a big city, which could be problematic.
No on OSU twice but okay with everything else except ND. Fuck ND
Wait, Rutgers plays football? Has anybody told them?
Now with Greg Schiano at the helm once again.