New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
A dizzying day in COVID sports world
COVID-19 grabbed our sports calendar Wednesday and shook and shook and shook before finally throwing it down on the table like a high-stakes game of craps at Mohegan Sun.
Which come to think of it, could well become an important part of the NCAA basketball season as a host bubble.
We’ve known since March that COVID had an insidious grip on the games we play. With only the bubble concept — its stern restrictions and frequent testing — proving absolutely effective, we’ve also known that when COVID restrictions started to lessen that restarting games and resetting schedules could be one hell of a crazy hailstorm.
Wednesday brought hail the size of footballs and basketballs.
Early in the day, the Big Ten took a 180-degree turn and made a dash for the cash.
Late in the day, while NCAA Division II, Division III and the Ivy League had called off all sports until after the first semester, Division I basketball voted to start playing Nov. 25. UConn basketball is on! Hallelujah! I have a job.
In between, UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford tweeted out the school has every intention of playing a spring football schedule. Which, of course, led to immediate speculation that independent UConn could join independent UMass in the Easter Basket Bowl.
And the CIAC Board of Control, moving up its meeting from Thursday, decided finally, finally, finally, finally, finally that full contact Connecticut high school football will not be played this fall. In the process, CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini carefully opened the door for spring football and threw open the windows for non-sanctioned club football by schools in the fall. The Department of Public Health must be thrilled.
With WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump, our commander in sports, taking much of the credit for exerting his influence, the Big Ten decided, “Begone COVID!” Bring on an eight-game schedule starting Oct. 24 and ending just in the nick of time to qualify for the College Football Playoff.
In the process the Big Ten, that prestigious group of research institutions and learned
scholars, proved it was much closer to rasslin’ alligators in the SEC than the ivory towers of the Ivy League.
Trump wants his votes in November in the Great Lakes region. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren got yelled at by some of his big-name coaches and a bunch of parents and folded like a lawn chair in a summer Lake Michigan thunderstorm. The more heat the college presidents took, the more they smelled the money. They saw the $549 million pot of gold distributed by the CFP last year. The bottom line became much stronger than their conviction and their caution of a month ago. Everyone loves football. Everyone has a price.
Hey, they’re going to test the free labor every day! (Something millions of at-risk workers would love). There will be no fans. Sure, LSU coach Ed Ogeron said most of his team has “caught” COVID and Texas Tech has said 75 players have had it. Sure, more than 8,500 students have tested positive on Big Ten campuses. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine! And with that, Nebraska became the flagship university of the Big Ten. Huskers rule. Northwestern drools.
In a mid-afternoon tweet from Amherst, Bamford said UMass intends to have a spring football season: “It will likely be a truncated schedule due to availability of opponents. As we have updates, we will share them publicly.”
Long-time college sports writer Mark Blaudschun, who has been working for Sports Illustrated TMG, tweeted, “Sources: With NCAA setting up football protocols for fall and spring practices (and games), real chance UMassUConn football will be played.”
Wow. Two football seasons? COVID. Crazy times. What’s next? Geraldo Rivera finding the Civil ConFLiCT Trophy? Immediately texted Pat McKenna from UConn athletic communications.
“Have heard nothing about that,” McKenna texted.
Blaudschun has broken his share of news involving UConn over the years. So we’ll see.
Shortly before 2 p.m., the CIAC made its announcement that fall football is off the table and is keeping open an option to play in the spring, “provided it does not negatively impact spring sports.”
If local health departments allow football to be played, Lungarini said, it can be played as a club sport at schools just like girls ice hockey is — and without the CIAC adherence to COVID mitigation strategies. There are multiple private groups, one notably in Fairfield County, looking at forming teams for high school players.
Lungarini said if players compete on those club teams they can still compete in the CIAC games in the spring. On Thursday, the CIAC football committee also will be looking at 7 on 7, combines, and linemen challenges as nonsanctioned fall activities.
Lungarini stressed for the umpteenth time that the DPH’s inconsistencies on what’s recommended for scholastic vs. non-scholastic youth sports promotes an inequity in opportunities for kids who can pay for that experience.
In one sentence, without raising his voice and sounding accusatory, Lungarini called out the DPH for conflicting stances and potentially closing the door on financially disadvantage kids unable to afford to play in an outside league. He was playing rough. In the face of his hardline detractors (angry football parents are the hardest), Lungarini clearly wants the world to know the CIAC did everything it could to convince the DPH and the state to play this fall. “Exhausted all potential strategies to mitigate risks,” he said.
So it’s on the DPH, he was essentially saying, and besides they haven’t been nearly as concise with the youth sports and they’re playing everywhere around the state.
Well, not everywhere. Some towns aren’t playing. And the Meriden Raiders, who have had two separate COVID-19 cases and faced a number of complaints since July, shut down for the season on Wednesday.
Lungarini made it clear no one knows if the COVID metrics will be any better in late February. Some states, including Massachusetts, have devised a plan for the spring. He stressed the spring sports lost their entire season last school year and winter sports lost state tournaments and that the CIAC is sensitive to cutting their number of games in rescheduling. Facilities, field playability, where everything stands with COVID, there is no specific timeline.
There are a lot of questions about fall club football. Who’s providing the practice and game fields? The equipment? If it’s the high schools, will they be reimbursed? What about the coaches? And liability? Much to know yet.
As sun set on Wednesday, the sun officially rose on D-I hoops, men and women. By Nov. 25, threequarters of all D-I schools will have either finished fall semester and released their students from in-class studies.
We’re looking at nonconference tournaments at “bubble” sites like Mohegan Sun. We’re looking at games on empty campuses. Two words: Be careful. Three words: Be extra careful. Back to two words: Be fair.
The $700 million the annual NCAA Tournament takes in nowadays essentially pays for the existence of the NCAA and smaller athletic programs. And there was no tournament in March.
NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt has talked about cutting up to 50 percent of the games and still having teams eligible for the 2021 NCAA Tournament. He also has said the NCAA has no plans to adopt the ACC coaches’ unanimous and unilateral proposal to let all schools into the tournament this one year.
I worry about an equal playing field here. I worry about how uniform the scheduling plan will be based on COVID infection rates. With college sports, I always worry about the money grab. The Pac-12 is out until the New Year. No Yale until after the first semester. And who knows how much smaller schools can afford right now?
Times are tough on athletic departments. The NCAA has furloughed employees.
UConn basketball, men and women, will be fine. And I have a job. Shouldn’t I just worry about myself ? Isn’t that the world today? I mean, some of the smartest people in the world in the Big Ten and their WWE Hall of Fame adviser would agree.