College football 2020 offseason thread

I think that you over estimate the breadth of support for playing football with the emotional intensity of support. The fans who want to see football are very passionate and vocal. But even in most SEC states I bet the majority of people really don't care much about the local team and could care less if they play or not. I think the only exceptions would be in states with really good teams.

 

It's not that fans don't want to see college football. I think that consciously or subconsciously, they feel having the season start and then stop due to the virus would be more of a bummer than just knowing it wasn't happening from the start.

 

I'm thinking that you've never lived in Alabama or Texas. I grew up in Georgia, which is football crazed, and I'd never seen anything like the insanity in either of those states.

 

This is spot on.

 

As I heard it, which was a combination of tweets and Reddit CFB, there was a conference call among the B10 coaches where this stuff was discussed. That may have been exactly what was happening.

 

Twitter Rangers are not a reflection of the real world.

(I was trying to say “Twitter ranters” but you know what? That works, too.)

 

The poll question was, "Do you support or oppose the decisions by the Big Ten and Pac-12 to cancel fall 2020 sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic (coronavirus)?"

An SEC fan can read that as, "Let 'em do what they want. They were just going to get walloped in the playoff semifinal anyway." Doesn't mean the SEC fan would necessarily support HIS conference making that same decision.

 

If that's what's happening, presidents can fire ADs and coaches, but not the reverse. Fans wouldn't give a shit if an AD got canned, but the others would notice.

 

It’s also some impressive pearl-clutching from a college beat writer.

Playing at Thanksgiving instead of January? How dare they be excited about that option?

 

My understanding of the internal politics of the Big 10 are this. Jim Delany was Commissioner of the Big 10 for 30 years. He perceived his role as Commissioner was to serve as an advocate for the AD's. So he would develop a consensus among the AD's and present it to the University presidents.

Kevin Warren, on the other hand, does not seem to really care what the AD's think. So, when the issue of the Big 10 playing this season arose, Warren reached his decision to suspend play with out input from the AD's or coaches. So the AD's and coaches feel betrayed and are now leaking to put pressure on Warren and the Presidents to play football.

But for the Big 10 to change course I think more pressure would have to come from people with more power than the player's parents. I think if we saw the Governor's of states calling on the local university Board of Trustees to review the decision or state legislatures passing resolution for the season to begin we might see some movement. But as near as I can tell, with the exception of Nebraska, those things are not happening.

So Big 10 football will remain suspended. Especially since there are enough schools like Texas Tech and NC State struggling with mass infection that the decision to suspend play can continue to be creditably defended.

 

As of today, 1000 Alabama students have tested positive for covid-19. Student body of 30,000. That's after 10 days of classes. What will the numbers be by late next month when football is supposed to start?

 

The ADs never would have hired Warren for that role. Warren knows that. You're loyal to the folks who had your back.

Beyond that, Warren doesn't want to play football. He just doesn't want to, doesn't think it should be played, period.