Power 5 commissioners meet, with college football season in the balance

Posted by Michael David Smith on August 9, 2020, 7:01 PM EDT
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The leaders of the five major college football conferences met today about the strong possibility that there will be no college football in 2020.

Sources told ESPN that there’s a growing sense that postponing or canceling the season is inevitable.

America’s failure to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control has had a major impact on professional sports, but an even greater impact on college sports, as a consensus seems to be on the way that unpaid college students simply can’t be expected to play during a pandemic.

The Big Ten appears to be the conference closest to making the decision not to play football this year. If the Big Ten makes the move, other conferences are expected to follow. No one should be surprised if the plug is pulled on college football this week.

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32 responses to “Power 5 commissioners meet, with college football season in the balance”

  1. During the leaders of the BIG 10 meeting today, they should have a powerpoint slide showing complications from COVID. For instance, team physicians around the sport are noticing cases of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by viral infection, in college athletes who have had COVID-19. College administrators last week saw the Facebook post from Debbie Rucker, mother of Indiana offensive lineman Brady Feeney, who wrote that her son was still dealing with potential heart problems.

  3. I read the articles of how Europe stands incredulous at how America bungled the pandemic response, and how our ‘leaders’ let us down.
    How we let politics invade common sense.
    America doesn’t deserve football this year.,.

  5. As much as I love watching football in the fall, I can’t see them playing given the health risks. It’s just not worth it. These are extraordinary times and they call for extraordinary measures.

  6. Aside from the 11 billion health related reasons…

    It’s a hard sell to keep saying that players at big time schools are students when most of the campuses are going to very limited in regards to students actually being on campus, and some likely heading toward online only.

    Pretty hard to justify playing a football game with “student athletes” if students aren’t allowed on campus.

  7. The SEC is going to play football regardless of what everyone else does. There ain’t no COVID in the SEC.
    Besides, they think it’s a guaranteed Constitutional right to play football.

  10. This sucks, cause I love college football. To cancel the fall season is a common sense decision.

  11. This should have been the decision all along. The sports that can play in the bubble format will be fine. The ones that can’t will have positive cases that either will have to be dealt with or a no-play decision will have to be made.

  13. The NFL knew this would happen months ago. This is why the NFL lawyers were inquiring about the congressional law concerning playing professional games on Saturdays a la months ago.

  15. billsfaninmiami says:
    I read the articles of how Europe stands incredulous at how America bungled the pandemic response, and how our ‘leaders’ let us down.
    —

    Our LEADERS didn’t let us down, WE let OURSELVES down.
    Of course by “we,” I mean all those millions who refused to wear masks, or to social distance, or to stop gathering and partying, and who did and still do cry “hoax” while droning on incessantly about their “freedoms, rights and liberties” being violated.
    Those people allowed COVID to flourish in America more than anywhere else in the world, taking the rest of us down with them.

  17. touchback6 says:
    Greedy Goodell continues with his arrogance.
    ==

    The NFL is going forward because its owners — those people Roger Goodell works for — want it to go on. That includes the “massage-parlor” devotee that owns your favorite team.

  19. Hopefully the responsible adults have finally shown up. Time to stop the nonsense and shut it down.

  20. I read the articles of how Europe stands incredulous at how America bungled the pandemic response, and how our ‘leaders’ let us down.
    How we let politics invade common sense.
    —–
    Agreed. What’s sad is that the government’s number one job isn’t to spend our money (which it’s currently doing at a laughable rate), it’s to keep the citizens safe. This administration has completely failed to do that. Remember this come November.

  21. They made the mistake of trying to play full schedules. They shouldn’t be playing at all but certainly not going big. If they had adequate testing, they could maybe pull off some marque matchups and I do mean one game per school. Instead they said lets play 10, it was never gonna work. Hopefully they don’t bar prospects from entering the draft over decisions by those exploiting them and their health.

  22. To me, it’s a matter of finding a way to make the players play. Those most at risk due to health reasons or complications should not. Programs can and should carefully monitor the health of the players and staff. It’s good that football is played outdoors. If social distancing needs to be practiced in the stadiums, then each program needs a plan, even if it means significantly decreasing the capacity for fans to attend. The Big 10 cannot even count, so let them chicken out. There is no reason that we should allow it to bring all the other conferences down. Let them play!

  23. Saban, Harbaugh, Dabo, et al make millions while the players risk illness. It’s not a good look.

  25. I agree, you cant ask kids who dont technically get paid to play, take a chance on a virus. People forget that free tuition, books, food and lodging are not freebies.They are payment to play, plain and simple and that money adds up bigtime.

  26. They’re not playing this fall sadly. It’s a mistake to cancel the season. However political correctness runs amok on college campuses. You can argue the how, why and who’s fault it is all day long. Maybe we’ll see CFB in 2021?

  28. etradford says:
    August 9, 2020 at 8:08 pm
    Maybe next year America!!
    *****************************

    Maybe. I sure hope so, but at this rate, maybe not.

  29. Tell them to go out and play. All we care about is being entertained, because we can’t find anything else to do on Saturday afternoons in the fall. Nothing else matters except my life not changing. Also, the university needs money, so they should go out and make it for them. And there will be no extra money for them either, no hazard pay or anything like that. They go out, they take all the risk, they don’t get paid, and me and the university profit. Fair.

  30. So how long until these schools jack up tuition and fees to make up for the MASSIVE loss in money? They played football in the Spanish flu with fans in the stands with masks on, so how hard is it to do it now with better tech? The colleges themselves are open, so the kids are potentially exposed from that anyway. There are complications from a lot of illnesses, but these are some of the best conditions humans on the planet and unless you have an underlying condition, the survival rate of kids this age is like 99.999999%.

  31. If the SEC doesnt play, no national champion can be crowned. I dont wanna hear some has been from the Big 14 claiming a NC for whooping up on rutgers and the hoosiers

  32. It will be interesting to see the next top 25 poll come out when it’s determined who will be playing. College football can go on if only a few conferences bail out this year…

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