College football in the spring is a fantasy that won’t come true
The Big Ten, I’m sure, has some of the smartest and most accomplished people in the country to consult with. I’m sure they got a lot of advice from the best and brightest of the medical, science, academic, legal and athletic communities.
I’m sure the people that run the conference came to the conclusion that canceling football (and all sports) for the fall is the right thing to do. I’m sure they did exhaust all options they thought were viable and feel comfortable that they are doing the right thing.
There is just one little issue, and that’s where they should consult me
– or really anyone with a brain and common sense – and I’ll even waive the $500,000 consulting fee.
Bag it, Big Ten and every other conference. Bag it until fall 2021 and stop wasting all of our time with these half baked, nonsensical pipe dreams about playing in the spring.
It isn’t practical and most importantly there will be nothing different come
Jan. 1. There isn’t some magical cure coming, there isn’t some safe vaccine coming by then and there isn’t going to be some magical formula where players can be safer than they are Sept. 1.
It is a ridiculous idea on so many levels – the fact that otherwise-smart people are seriously running this out there as a viable option, as if that is going to soften the blow of this all. It won’t, and it only makes them look foolish and naive.
It isn’t going to happen, and any suggestions that it can means only that they were lying about their reasons for canceling in the fall.
Is this heart condition that is caused by many viruses and has been around since people had hearts going to go away? Nope.
Is COVID-19 going to magically disappear? Nope.
Are the liability and medical concerns going to go away? Nope.
Come to think of it, the Big Ten should be leaders in the movement to cancel all sports until the fall of 2021, if not longer. If it isn’t safe to play sports like soccer and football outside in January, how can they possibly pull off basketball and other indoor sports?
Kicking the can down the road is a cute way for administrators to both act like they are doing something to ensure safety as well as dangle a carrot in front of our faces that there is some hope right around the corner. So, Big Ten administrators: if the data is saying it isn’t safe to play sports now, you won’t be able to pull it off in the spring, either. Do the right thing now and cancel every season until September 2021.
Since you have established it isn’t safe to play sports now, you can’t possibly believe anything will change by the new year.
I will tell you what will go away, though: most of your best players. If the Big Ten thinks that any of their top players with any aspirations of playing in the NFL are going to play, they haven’t checked the landscape recently. Kids want to play college football, but they want to play in the NFL even more. And risking injury and missing out on the combine and pro day workouts and all that leads up to the draft is not something most will want to do.
Also, what sense does it make to play in January and February, when it is the height of flu season? Aren’t we being told by Dr. Anthony Fauci and Co. that this is gonna be the deadliest winter ever, or something like that? And yet we are going to have soccer and football players in Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and
Minnesota outside running around in subzero temperatures?
As an aside, these aren’t the only silly pipe dream conversations that have come out of these last few days. The idea that some Big Ten members are going play without their conference is ridiculously dumb. And the idea that other leagues won’t eventually follow suit in canceling, as the Pac-12 did Tuesday, is in fantasyland, too.
Now that the Big Ten has said it doesn’t believe fall sports can safely be played, it needs to stick to its guns and stop selling dreams and fairy tales about how they will try again in the spring. Nothing about this pandemic will change between now and January, and most of the teams would be glorified scout teams given the number of players who would choose to opt out.