Just days after UConn became the first major college football program to gracefully bow out of playing this season due to the coronavirus, the Mid-American Conference – yes, a whole conference– will follow.
In a statement posted on Twitter, the conference announced that it will postpone its football season until the spring semester of 2021 to maintain the health and safety of its student athletes.
“This was not an easy decision, but one that we had to take in the best interests of our student-athletes, coaches and institutions,” said David Sayler, MAC Chairman of the Board of Directors of Athletics and Miami Director of Athletics, sei in a statement. “It is our responsibility to provide our student-athletes with an experience that enables them to participate at the highest level in as many ways as possible. After consulting with our Medical Advisory Panel, we felt we were just too unfamiliar with the ‘pandemic’ to deal with the fall season. ‘
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A favorite of viewers of ESPN and CBS Sports, #MACtion will definitely be missed this fall. More importantly, this decision could persuade more powerful conferences such as the Big Ten and Pac-12 to do the same, which would implode the entire NCAA landscape. And with Pac-12 presidents and chancellors set to meet on Tuesday, according to to ESPN, a decision to pull the plug could be difficult.
“No one wanted to be the first to do it,” a Power 5 coach told ESPN, “and now no one will want to be the last.”
“It feels like no one wants to,” said a Power 5 administrator, “but it’s getting to the point where someone will have to.”
There’s also this awful bit of info, thanks to ESPN:
Sources said that team doctors ran the sports market cases of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by viral infection, in university athletes who have COVID-19. College administrators saw the last week the Facebook post by Debbie Rucker, mother of Indiana offensive lineman Brady Feeney, who wrote that her son was still dealing with potential heart problems.
“What we do not know really haunted us, and that is why we came to our final decision,” [Northern Illinois athletic director Sean] Frazier said. “That is part of the data that our presidents used. This mother gave us a play. That stuff is extremely scary. ”
Between this and all of chaos continuing in Major League Baseball, you would think the NFL would reconsider its plans to move forward with its upcoming season, but no. As broad as it sounds, the NFL is actually looking capitalize about potential absence of college football.
Fan ProFootballTalk:
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL will likely move games from Sunday to Saturday, if college football does not continue this season. It’s unclear whether the games will be broadcast, streamed, or distributed on a pay-per-view basis, but the league would likely fill the vacant Saturday windows with NFL content.
So yes, in the midst of a global pandemic that threatens the health and safety of billions of people, the NFL will come out four football days a week: Thursday Night Football, Saturday, Sunday en Football Night of Monday.
I can not say I’m surprised, but I think the NFL will hold the death of high school football like the rest of us. Expect some upcoming announcements some great announcements.
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