First of all, my apologies for feeling compelled to do this instead of talking about football, but right now it’s probably important to have an idea of where we are now in terms of playing college football season this fall.
– It is important to distinguish at this point between perception and reality regarding whether there will be one and whether it will start on time. The perception is that things in the outside world (so to speak) will drive events in the world of college football and whether the news is good or bad impacts the direction the sport will take. I’d say the perception right now among college athletes is more pessimistic than it was about ten days ago due to the events surrounding the Ivy League, Big Ten, and Pac 12 ads, as well as the fact that the numbers in Texas are at a negative trend
The behind-the-scenes reality is that while this is true to some degree, the two worlds are more widely separated than people imagine due to the economy.
– From an economic point of view, Iowa state athletic director Jamie Pollard told Cyclone season ticket holders that if there is no soccer they will lose $ 40 million for the next six months. While you may think Cyclones are among the poor in college football, understand that this represents almost 50% of your total income and you can expect a similar loss ratio in most schools, including A&M.
Therefore, because the loss of income would be significant without sports, he said the urge is to play in the fall as safely as possible.
– Beyond the above, everyone on the A&M campus needs to play the season. Players are motivated by NFL career prospects (and there are plenty of them who could make it to NFL camps next season). Coaches understand that they have a very good team that has a great schedule to win at least ten games and provide a recruiting boost for future seasons and their careers. Employees will be fired or laid off if there is no season.
– Although there are a growing number of school districts in Texas and even states that have announced that they will not play or delay fall sports, these entities are not under the same financial pressures as NCAA schools. Football proceeds do not fund the operations of the athletics department. There is a social component to practicing the sport in terms of players, cheerleaders, bands and fans, but safety is their main consideration and they are not even sure how they can operate in the classroom, let alone the football stadium that represents an environment. which is under much less control.
– A&M players, coaches and staff continue to want to play the season. Until now, the program’s protocols have worked through voluntary trainings and organized trainings. There is confidence that they will continue to do so. Players may be tempted to congregate with other students, but there is much more at stake financially for them than anyone else on campus, and they will also have much more rigid schedules than they do today once organized training takes place and then camp begins. fall to keep them out of reach. problems anyway.
Those involved understand that there will be positive tests, but everyone is committed to working on it and there are established procedures for doing so. It is difficult to do that at the secondary level because there are not the same amount of resources dedicated to it nor can you find the same level of medical experience.
Therefore, do not relate what happens at the secondary level to what happens at the university level.
– A&M and most schools will continue to work publicly for physical assistance until the games are played. This is because the proceeds from donations comprise a significant portion of the revenue from the athletic department. The reality is that once the first game is definitely scheduled to play (regardless of opponent or date), you will see that more schools limit attendance and at first the restrictions will probably be quite severe (no fans in the stands). They will only reduce those restrictions if they have great confidence in their protocols (trying to control training environments is very different than the movements of thousands of people) and things improve off campus (a problem that is completely out of their control).
It is important to recognize that this is a different problem from actually playing the games. Schools will also want to retain those funds as long as possible in the hope that people will simply allow them to keep the payments on fees and donations and use them to finance any operation they can, so they don’t expect much in the way of the ads on that front by anyone.
– That doesn’t mean it won’t be a roller coaster between now and the start of a season. Administrators are watching the numbers and want to see things improve. Still, let’s get back to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s interview with Clay Travis at Outick The Coverage on Wednesday. Sankey had stated over the weekend (and a lot of this was done) that the trends were not good and they were running out of time.
However…
– Administrators at SEC meetings on Monday informed him that the trends within his programs were good and that the positive tests were in the single digits among athletes in SEC programs.
Those managers were confident in their ability to keep people healthy.
Student athletes are in a controlled environment. They are working to fill weekends with canceled games (and the number of such games will likely increase because some programs probably don’t have the resources to provide the same protocols as SEC schools).
He noted that while some administrators had talked last fall about not playing football unless the students were on campus, he used the term that schools could be “up and running,” which is a very different standard, especially since it probably You will see more online deals in the future anyway.
– Finally..
Due to external numbers (and not those of the athletes themselves), schools and leagues will want to see improvements in certain states and areas, which is why decisions have been postponed until the end of the month (we were supposed to have a zoomed meeting on A&M football coverage Tuesday with A&M, but even that was postponed.) Additionally, athletic departments will want to see how professionals run their businesses and whether their protocols (which are similar to college-level, except in terms of some leagues that play in one place) are maintained.
If everything goes according to plan (not perfectly, but within limitations), it will be much easier to have a college football season.
