So how is this going to work…

I dont see football not happening… as much as the libs/orange bad man haters wish for that scenario. The data doesnt support cancellation.

I still have a feeling it’ll be cancelled. Sure hope I’m wrong.

I almost guarantee Football will be played in the fall. There is simply too much money, and as a result too many Universities that absolutely rely on the money from Football. I could see DivII and lower and maybe FCS cancelling, but I’d be shocked if FBS cancels, especially the P-5’s. You think the University of Alabama could survive without Football money?

Also, considering Football can learn from the successes and failures of other sports, they should be able to put reasonable protections in place. For instance keeping players in a bubble of sorts is important, to which having students in class remotely and not on campus would greatly benefit that.

So I think quite the opposite of you, Football is more likely to happen than not, even if it shouldn’t.

Why not try? Where do students go that has no covid risks? If we shutdown schools and colleges we will have quite a mess when covid reaches its end. That option is bad when you don’t even know the date for when we are dealing with only common flu. What about the thoughts of others that want to take manageable steps and continue with their lives. I expect the teams to try to make a season go with only the students and staff that wish to try. Those that don’t want the risk should do what they would if we closed the schools. Some students and staff could peruse online options to the extent they can be put together. I expect the bigger question is do we have fans in the stands or watching TV. TV is much better than nothing.

In risk management, we often have more risks than can be addressed given limited resources and time. An important principal of risk management would tell us not to treat all concerns the same when the cost of risk varies greatly across the population. In asset management a common strategy is to focus resources on the highest risk concerns, tapering off focus in the midrange and living with the low risk threats. This recognizes limits to removal of all risks and looks to optimize efforts to do what you can. If I was to apply that to the overall covid risk, I would put the most focus on assisting high risk individuals with a firewall separating them from the general population. They would need to accept responsibility to assure their protection. Those with significant possibility of risks should take measures less than a firewall but work hard at it. Those with little risk may go thru the most reduced measures. But it is important to note, even without schools open there continues to be covid risk for all.

In the extreme, everyone has the right to cocoon at home to the extent they have means. No student or staff should be forced to school. As a corollary, why should they be concerned if others choose to try to make school happen or make football happen? Choice is important, but with choice comes some individual responsibility to make your own choices work. I don’t want to tell anyone to go to school or to stay home from school. I do support requirements like mask and washing hands for entry. I think we will try.

Remember when curfew violations caused suspensions? Think we can keep 85 20 year olds in a bubble for four months? Given how much wishful thinking has governed this national sh1tshow, maybe we’ll actually try. Good luck with that.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/michigan-state-football-team-placed-under-quarantine-after-additional-positive-covid-19-tests/

I agree there is a lot of concern. Can we assume students without college will not gather anywhere, get together or see each other? Will life without college have much less interaction? I would hope we don’t simply suffer about the same but without being productive.

Sadly, Europe will go back to school before we do. The underling reason others do better is they are not divided and angry like we are. They work together and follow their leadership much better in a crisis. Some will say we lack leadership, however, there is not a single moment we have been united behind any leader even in a step that is clearly correct. We have a culture that would prefer to argue over address a crisis. The shocking data showing how much better other countries are doing has not got us sober and willing to work together yet.

The elephant in the room is not the question for school opening so much, it is are we willing to look at successful countries in this crisis and adopt some of their methods even if it requires us to work together and place politics in a small managed box. When was the last time we saw the USA finish near last? It would have to be some point when we were this much divided. We could do much better at closing out this virus.

That’s true, but if most Universities go to on-line / remote only then the safest place for the players to be would be on campus as no one else will there. It will be interesting to see if the U sticks with the hybrid or goes to almost all on-line. I’m going to be teaching a course there this next semester and my course is 100% online.

I am not opposed to on-line. To have football, I assume students beyond athletes need to be on campus. Hopefully, we can manage our lives on campus or at work as well as we would out of school or out of work. I assume young people will date much the same in or out of school. The incremental difference college adds for infection, I hope, can be somewhat managed and minimized. But I expect being on campus creates more interaction than staying at home. Testing and contact tracing has been reported as key for countries that are doing well. I expect that can be better in a structured campus environment than unstructured environments away from college. I just don’t expect closing colleges to be a significant step in closing out covid.