Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
Will the 2020 USC football season begin on time? Will it happen this fall at all?
A new report from Tracy Pierson of Bruin Report Online suggests the Pac-12 is preparing for the worst.
According to Pierson, the possibility of an altered 2020 season is “getting more traction” with the conference “seriously” considering a conference-only schedule as well as a spring restart.
“Sources are indicating that, a month ago, when the curve of positive tests was flattening, the conference and university representatives were far more optimistic that the season would begin on time and with a non-conference season,” Pierson wrote. “The recent upswing in positive COVID-19 tests, including the numbers reported by athletic departments across the country as student-athletes return to campus, has made the Pac-12 conference and its universities more seriously consider alternatives.”
"Pierson’s report floated the possibility of a 10-game slate, with two non-conference games dropped but one allowed. That would allow USC to cancel the Alabama and New Mexico games while preserving the Notre Dame rivalry game. It would certainly be disappointing to lose the chance to test the team’s mettle against a national power like Alabama, but being able to continue the long-running series with the Irish is far more important."
This is a worst case scenario, but indicates that planning for same is underway and the Pac-12 is considering alternatives to playing in the Fall.
RE: Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
(07-04-2020 09:38 AM)TerryD Wrote: Will the 2020 USC football season begin on time? Will it happen this fall at all?
A new report from Tracy Pierson of Bruin Report Online suggests the Pac-12 is preparing for the worst.
According to Pierson, the possibility of an altered 2020 season is “getting more traction” with the conference “seriously” considering a conference-only schedule as well as a spring restart.
“Sources are indicating that, a month ago, when the curve of positive tests was flattening, the conference and university representatives were far more optimistic that the season would begin on time and with a non-conference season,” Pierson wrote. “The recent upswing in positive COVID-19 tests, including the numbers reported by athletic departments across the country as student-athletes return to campus, has made the Pac-12 conference and its universities more seriously consider alternatives.”
"Pierson’s report floated the possibility of a 10-game slate, with two non-conference games dropped but one allowed. That would allow USC to cancel the Alabama and New Mexico games while preserving the Notre Dame rivalry game. It would certainly be disappointing to lose the chance to test the team’s mettle against a national power like Alabama, but being able to continue the long-running series with the Irish is far more important."
This is a worst case scenario, but indicates that planning for same is underway and the Pac-12 is considering alternatives to playing in the Fall.
Reading Reign of Troy? Wouldn't have guessed you were a closet USC fan, Terry.
Everyone is just throwing poop against the wall at this point. They don't know what they're going to do.
Lincoln Riley was talking about playing in the spring earlier this week:
Quote:Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley said that if the situation surrounding the pandemic doesn’t improve in the weeks ahead, delaying the 2020 football season until the spring of 2021 would work.
“To me, this becomes, ‘Do you think [playing in the spring] is doable?’ and I personally do,” Riley said, via OUDaily.com. “I do believe you can adjust your schedule. You’d have to adjust your schedule to give players plenty of time off to get their bodies back. . . . But I think the people who say it’s not doable, in my opinion, just don’t want to think about it. I just think it would be unwise to take any potential option off the table right now, and I think it would be very difficult to say that the spring’s not a potential option. I, for one, think it’s very doable.”
RE: Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
(07-04-2020 09:38 AM)TerryD Wrote: Will the 2020 USC football season begin on time? Will it happen this fall at all?
A new report from Tracy Pierson of Bruin Report Online suggests the Pac-12 is preparing for the worst.
According to Pierson, the possibility of an altered 2020 season is “getting more traction” with the conference “seriously” considering a conference-only schedule as well as a spring restart.
“Sources are indicating that, a month ago, when the curve of positive tests was flattening, the conference and university representatives were far more optimistic that the season would begin on time and with a non-conference season,” Pierson wrote. “The recent upswing in positive COVID-19 tests, including the numbers reported by athletic departments across the country as student-athletes return to campus, has made the Pac-12 conference and its universities more seriously consider alternatives.”
"Pierson’s report floated the possibility of a 10-game slate, with two non-conference games dropped but one allowed. That would allow USC to cancel the Alabama and New Mexico games while preserving the Notre Dame rivalry game. It would certainly be disappointing to lose the chance to test the team’s mettle against a national power like Alabama, but being able to continue the long-running series with the Irish is far more important."
This is a worst case scenario, but indicates that planning for same is underway and the Pac-12 is considering alternatives to playing in the Fall.
RE: Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
(07-06-2020 07:30 AM)CoastalJuan Wrote:
(07-04-2020 09:38 AM)TerryD Wrote: Will the 2020 USC football season begin on time? Will it happen this fall at all?
A new report from Tracy Pierson of Bruin Report Online suggests the Pac-12 is preparing for the worst.
According to Pierson, the possibility of an altered 2020 season is “getting more traction” with the conference “seriously” considering a conference-only schedule as well as a spring restart.
“Sources are indicating that, a month ago, when the curve of positive tests was flattening, the conference and university representatives were far more optimistic that the season would begin on time and with a non-conference season,” Pierson wrote. “The recent upswing in positive COVID-19 tests, including the numbers reported by athletic departments across the country as student-athletes return to campus, has made the Pac-12 conference and its universities more seriously consider alternatives.”
"Pierson’s report floated the possibility of a 10-game slate, with two non-conference games dropped but one allowed. That would allow USC to cancel the Alabama and New Mexico games while preserving the Notre Dame rivalry game. It would certainly be disappointing to lose the chance to test the team’s mettle against a national power like Alabama, but being able to continue the long-running series with the Irish is far more important."
This is a worst case scenario, but indicates that planning for same is underway and the Pac-12 is considering alternatives to playing in the Fall.
If one of the power conferences adopts this idea, I think the rest will follow. Glad this isn't coming from the SEC.
The SEC wants to play in the fall if at all possible. The next month or so will be key, hopefully we don't see a big increase in hospitalizations and deaths trailing behind these big surge in positive cases.
RE: Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
(07-04-2020 01:50 PM)Wedge Wrote:
(07-04-2020 09:38 AM)TerryD Wrote: Will the 2020 USC football season begin on time? Will it happen this fall at all?
A new report from Tracy Pierson of Bruin Report Online suggests the Pac-12 is preparing for the worst.
According to Pierson, the possibility of an altered 2020 season is “getting more traction” with the conference “seriously” considering a conference-only schedule as well as a spring restart.
“Sources are indicating that, a month ago, when the curve of positive tests was flattening, the conference and university representatives were far more optimistic that the season would begin on time and with a non-conference season,” Pierson wrote. “The recent upswing in positive COVID-19 tests, including the numbers reported by athletic departments across the country as student-athletes return to campus, has made the Pac-12 conference and its universities more seriously consider alternatives.”
"Pierson’s report floated the possibility of a 10-game slate, with two non-conference games dropped but one allowed. That would allow USC to cancel the Alabama and New Mexico games while preserving the Notre Dame rivalry game. It would certainly be disappointing to lose the chance to test the team’s mettle against a national power like Alabama, but being able to continue the long-running series with the Irish is far more important."
This is a worst case scenario, but indicates that planning for same is underway and the Pac-12 is considering alternatives to playing in the Fall.
Reading Reign of Troy? Wouldn't have guessed you were a closet USC fan, Terry.
Everyone is just throwing poop against the wall at this point. They don't know what they're going to do.
Lincoln Riley was talking about playing in the spring earlier this week:
Quote:Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley said that if the situation surrounding the pandemic doesn’t improve in the weeks ahead, delaying the 2020 football season until the spring of 2021 would work.
“To me, this becomes, ‘Do you think [playing in the spring] is doable?’ and I personally do,” Riley said, via OUDaily.com. “I do believe you can adjust your schedule. You’d have to adjust your schedule to give players plenty of time off to get their bodies back. . . . But I think the people who say it’s not doable, in my opinion, just don’t want to think about it. I just think it would be unwise to take any potential option off the table right now, and I think it would be very difficult to say that the spring’s not a potential option. I, for one, think it’s very doable.”
RE: Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
That'll suck for teams in the mountains, Midwest and northern states. Playing football in January, February and even March in some areas won't be fun. Plus many schools don't have indoor practice facilities.
RE: Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
I posted this info on the Bearcat Banter Board earlier. My confidence in Fall Football is quickly waning based on what I'm reading and hearing over the past several days. IMO, the fact that there is no clear direction and uncertainty remains as of July 6th, it is more likely that college football starts in the Spring. It is much easier to kick the can down the road vs. trying to hammer something out quickly that works for everyone in light of all the unknowns.
Quote:In conversations with more than a dozen administrators, coaches and others intimately involved with college sports, all of whom spoke with USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity in order to provide their honest assessment, the level of uncertainty and alarm around the current situation has only grown in recent days.
Pervasive optimism that the college football season would start and finish on time has given way to nervousness as programs continue to see players with COVID-19 infections during voluntary workouts and multiple states have either slowed down or reversed some aspects of their reopening plans due to spiking case numbers. The idea of delaying college football to the spring, which was dismissed as a last resort a few months ago, is being revived in some corners as a legitimate option to buy time and give programs more tools to manage a situation that many administrators privately admit is unwieldy and uncertain. Meanwhile, some FBS conferences are actively engaged with banks on opening up lines of credit to guard against lost revenue, a key acknowledgment that schools fear a potential revenue wipeout this fall.
Ultimately, coaches and administrators still don’t know exactly what the next month will hold and whether a program can start contact practice without being overwhelmed by infections — which isn’t a very good sign on July 1 given initial expectations that the pandemic would die down in the summer and that accurate point-of-care testing would be widespread enough by now to test regularly.
Instead neither of those things have happened, and an industry that spent all spring saying time was on its side suddenly finds itself up against the clock. As one Power Five athletic director mused, the next month might be the most crucial in the modern history of college sports.
The challenges in navigating the next few weeks, not to mention the months to come, are almost innumerable. And yet they’ll have to be navigated under a fractured landscape that does not lend itself to nimbleness or consistency.
As one athletic director in the Midwest pointed out, it wasn’t until states within the SEC footprint started to open up in May that there was a strong push nationally to bring football players back to campus in June. It’s unclear what that will now mean in the near and medium-term future with the virus surging in SEC states like Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina, but the delusion of a relatively smooth transition back to sports has now been obliterated.
Even if the numbers in those states were stable, the reality of how difficult it’s going to be for programs to avoid constant disruptions has been laid bare by what happened at LSU, where at least 30 players have had to isolate due to either testing positive for COVID-19 or coming into contact with someone who tested positive at the local bars. A total of 37 Clemson players have tested positive. At Kansas State, workouts were shut down because of positive tests for players who are believed to have been infected at a party.
Contrary to popular belief among COVID-19 deniers, this isn’t about the death rate. Everyone recognizes that young, healthy athletes are highly unlikely to die if they contract the virus. But even if you can temporarily put aside the ever-present concern that a small number could have bad outcomes or the unknown long-term effects, the contagiousness of the virus and the issue of asymptomatic spread presents a practical problem of how you can coach, prepare and play without needing to isolate significant portions of your team.
And the concerns go well beyond football. Though it has received only a fraction of the attention due to the urgency of getting the football season started, basketball coaches are also concerned about the path forward, having seen the lengths to which the NBA is going to build a bubble and knowing that such measures simply won’t be possible for their sport.
One Power Five coach told me he wonders specifically about the hundreds of November and December games all over the country where major conference teams pay guarantees to mid- and low-majors. An SEC or ACC school will be financially able to test their players multiple times a week, but will the school from the Atlantic Sun or WAC that needs the $75,000 payday just to make its budget? That coach said there was “no way” he’d allow his team to be on the same floor as an opponent that wasn’t testing its players.
There is, quite simply, no strong leader to answer these questions and forge a path forward. And the result is, after months of administrators and coaches working endlessly to put out potential fires, there’s less confidence on July 1 than on June 1 about what it’s going to take to get the season going.
RE: Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
Push season openers back to September 19th. Even with 12 games you are finished by early December. If things worsen you can move season to Spring by making the decision around August 31st.
(This post was last modified: 07-06-2020 01:42 PM by TOPSTRAIGHT.)
RE: Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
(07-06-2020 01:59 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: I wonder what the likelihood is that we will see some conferences attempt a fall season while others reschedule to spring?
I was thinking before that even just the FCS cancelling their season would create some interesting matchmaking opportunities for those who suit up. Navy, for instance, just had Lafayette cancel on them. If some other team has their FCS opponent bail on a Sep 12th date, Navy could host them instead.
Speaking as an ECU fan, there are about a dozen teams in the surrounding area that we'd rather play than Norfolk State (sorry Norfolk State). For instance, haven't played Virginia, Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland in years, have never played Coastal Carolina, haven't played UNCC as an FBS team yet. Haven't looked to see if any of those teams have FCS games the same week, but lots of fun possibilities this year.
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Pac-12 considering a spring 2021 season, with two non-conference games cancelled
