Will COVID-19 be the needle that finally bursts the sports bubble?

Here's something else to think about in terms of college sports, especially from mid-major on down.
I know for a fact some universities are already talking about making fall classes online only, no students on campus.
If there are no students on campus, that means no athletes on campus. No athletes on campus means no games played.
As for DII, NAIA, etc., more than half of the student population is athletes. If they can't play, they won't be in school.
The death spiral tightens.

 

I hope so; the money involved at every level of sports is asinine.

 

Sports will be fine.

What seats cost and what players make? That will adjust.

 

I'd be OK if when sports returns if D1 sports aren't multi-billion dollar business enterprises.

 

I'd like it if kids aspired to attend their Big State U instead piling on the tv bandwagon.
I'd like it if European soccer teams were made up of players from their country.

 

I don't know how many athletes are necessarily on campus anyway.

Joe Burrow was asked why he ran over and saluted the student section and he said he wanted to feel some connection to them because he's never sat in a class at LSU.

 

They’ve definitely gotten more expensive.

 

That's why I specifically references DII and NAIA.
I wasn't talking about SEC football or ACC basketball players.

 

Old Dominion whacked its highly successful wrestling program yesterday. They were going to do it even if there had been no virus, but this is important.
When instituting cuts from this, schools are going to look to whack non revenue sports. It’s something they’ve all wanted to do for years anyway.
Lacrosse, which I love and which has been growing — to my amazement— is next on the block after wrestling. For public schools especially, it is expensive because it so often means out of state scholarship money. Many schools have started programs in the past decade, which means they don’t have powerful alumni who can raise hell or money.
Swimming may also be vulnerable.

I am not saying these would be financially wise cuts. ODU says it will save $1 million from executing wrestling. But for many schools, fewer sports equals fewer headaches. Non revenue sports are far more likely to deliver bad national news than good. Witness the admissions scandal this time last year.

 

Burrow was a unique case, since he was a grad student who by his own admission went to LSU to study football.
I do wonder how often basketball and baseball players who have midweek games are in an actual class, though. For the ones who aren't planning to be one and done and actually give a shit, do they do a lot of their coursework online?

 

Tutors

I use that term loosely.