College Football, 2020

[alfred russel]

The new information being that the parents of players, the players themselves, and the coaches were furious, and there was political pressure, and public pressure, and things seemed to be going okay in other conferences?

They caved in to the pressure. But good for them to back off a dumb decision.

No, that's not at all what happened, but do go on believing that. You are funnier by far than the truth. 

Right, so what happened was all that pressure came down on the conference, but the conference leadership is so morally strong they stayed true to their original decision.

All that changed was that they figured out a way to do daily testing (with a test approved back in May) and between August and September science apparently proved that covid wasn't so dangerous after all.

[derspiess]

Taking my son & nephew up to see TCU at WVU in a couple weeks.  First opportunity we've had in 5 years.  WVU is not exactly great this year but it will be a fun trip.

[derspiess]

Had to substitute my son's friend in for my nephew, but we had a great trip to Morgantown.  WVU had its best game of the year.  Granted, TCU was a mediocre opponent but WVU was only favored by 2 at home.  I'm still not sold on Neal Brown yet, but he coached a really good game.

[alfred russel]

I really like the idea that "starting in the middle of worst part" is somehow worse than starting even before that, and just continuing right on through.

It's Trumpian level double speak. If starting to play football right now is bad, then surely *continuing* to play football right now MUST be worse....right?

Are you now going to come back and admit you are wrong? You are possibly going to have an undefeated PAC 12 team with no shot at the playoff because they didn't want to play games while shit was better than it is now. Right now there are 3 undefeated teams and even if no more games are canceled, none are scheduled to play more than 5 games (because of the late start and cancelations).

Ohio State is scrambling to get games in because despite being undefeated it has only played 4 games and probably needs to get to 6 to get into the Big 10 championship.

Meanwhile, among all the FBS schools, however "irresponsible" they have been--playing football, not playing football--there hasn't been a single covid death among players or coaches.

[Berkut]

I really like the idea that "starting in the middle of worst part" is somehow worse than starting even before that, and just continuing right on through.

It's Trumpian level double speak. If starting to play football right now is bad, then surely *continuing* to play football right now MUST be worse....right?

Are you now going to come back and admit you are wrong? You are possibly going to have an undefeated PAC 12 team with no shot at the playoff because they didn't want to play games while shit was better than it is now. Right now there are 3 undefeated teams and even if no more games are canceled, none are scheduled to play more than 5 games (because of the late start and cancelations).

Ohio State is scrambling to get games in because despite being undefeated it has only played 4 games and probably needs to get to 6 to get into the Big 10 championship.

Meanwhile, among all the FBS schools, however "irresponsible" they have been--playing football, not playing football--there hasn't been a single covid death among players or coaches.

No, I am going to come back and note that I was right - schools being cautious and careful, cancelling games when needed, and not just playing so they can have a shot at some title has, so far, worked - and thank goodness there have not been any deaths from Covid. There have been plenty of cases, of course.

I really could not care less if a Pac-12 team, undefeated or not, has a shot at some playoff that won't mean shit this year because, you know, it wasn't a normal year. There are more important things to worry about.

[Berkut]

In other news...after Arizona lost 70-7 to ASU in the Territorial Cup (and yes, ASU had not yet won a game this year as well), the Sumlin Era is over at Arizona.

It's been a really astoundingly bad decade to be a Wildcat fan. One shitty, run down, washed up coach after another.

[jimmy olsen]

Discrimination against a Mormon, at Utah State? 

Seems more likely it was a "who knows what this island  **** really believes" kind of comment.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/30499320/utah-state-players-vote-sit-game-alleged-remarks-noelle-crockett

Utah State has canceled Saturday night's scheduled game at Colorado State because of concerns voiced by football players about religious discrimination in the search for a new football coach, the university said in a statement Friday.

The decision came after Aggies players said earlier Friday that they had opted out of the game because of comments allegedly made by Utah State president Noelle Cockett about interim coach Frank Maile.

The school said it would meet with players to "hear their concerns in an open dialogue so it can address them."

"I am devastated that my comments were interpreted as bias against anyone's religious background," Cockett said in a statement. "Throughout my professional career and, especially, as president of USU, I have welcomed the opportunity to meet directly and often with students about their experiences. Regardless of how difficult the conversations might be in the coming days, I remain committed to giving our students a voice."

The Mountain West Conference hasn't yet ruled the game a no-contest, saying Friday night that it would determine the official standing at a later date.

Stadium reported Friday that during a videoconference Tuesday with Cockett and Aggies athletics director John Hartwell, Utah State's football leadership council lobbied for Maile to replace former coach Gary Andersen, who was fired after the team's 0-3 start.

During that videoconference, according to the Stadium report, Cockett purportedly voiced concerns about Maile's cultural and religious background. Maile, a Utah State graduate, is Polynesian and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is also the Aggies' co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach.

According to Stadium, an Aggies player conducted a survey that asked players how they felt about Cockett's alleged statements. The report said that three-fourths of the Utah State players expressed concerns.

During a meeting Friday morning, the players voted unanimously to not play in the game.

In a statement provided to Stadium, Utah State's players wrote: "The Utah State football players have decided to opt out of our game against Colorado State due to ongoing inequality and prejudicial issues between the players, coaches, and the USU administration.


"On Tuesday, December 8th, the Utah State University Football Leadership Council held a zoom meeting with Noelle Cockett, President of USU, and John Hartwell, the Athletic Director. The purpose of the meeting was to have a say in the search for our new head coach. During the meeting, we voiced our support for Interim Head Coach Frank Maile. In response to our comments, their primary concern was his religious and cultural background. Players, stating their diverse faiths and backgrounds, then jumped to Coach Frank Maile's defense in treating everyone with love, equality, and fairness.

"It is not the first time issues of repeated discrimination have happened. In December 2019, our head equipment manager used a racial slur against one of our African-American teammates. After disregarding the incident, pressure resurfaced to investigate in the summer of 2020. After the investigation, the administration concluded he would continue to be employed."

Arkansas State coach Blake Anderson resigned on Thursday to become Utah State's new coach.

"We want our message to be clear that this has nothing to do with the hiring of Coach Blake Anderson, the recently-named head coach of the program," the players wrote. "We are sure he is an excellent coach; we look forward to meeting him and his staff. We are highlighting the ongoing problems of inequality and want to create a better future for the community of Logan and Utah State University."

[Berkut]

Do you think Anderson is wondering if he has can get his Arkansas State job back?

[alfred russel]

No, I am going to come back and note that I was right - schools being cautious and careful, cancelling games when needed, and not just playing so they can have a shot at some title has, so far, worked - and thank goodness there have not been any deaths from Covid. There have been plenty of cases, of course.

The ACC, SEC, and Big 12 can say the same things as the Pac 12, and have teams in a position to win championships (well not the Big 12 because all their teams suck, but that is a non-covid related problem).

I really could not care less if a Pac-12 team, undefeated or not, has a shot at some playoff that won't mean shit this year because, you know, it wasn't a normal year.

Why won't it mean shit this year? I spent the weekend in upstate south carolina hearing people talking about how a title would mean even more this year, because the teams had so much to overcome off the field. In the end, a title will go in the record books, and the players will get rings. Kind of shitty some teams went through all the prep and practicing to get ready for the season but their administrations wouldn't let them play enough games to get into a championship, and their fan base has people like Berkut that "could not care less".

There are more important things to worry about.

We should focus on what really matters. Avoiding close contact with others (and trying to stop others from choosing to otherwise) so we can all continue trudging toward our previously scheduled deaths likely in our late 70s.

[grumbler]

So, I had a pretty high opinion overall of Corey booker, until he proposed a new law governing college athletics.  College athletics does have some major problem, regarding both the treatment of athletes and the NCAA's refusal to even seriously investigate cheating.  But Booker proposes to blow up college athletics completely.

There are some decent elements of the plan, like providing medical coverage for sports-related injuries for up to five years from graduation, and guaranteeing a degree for those who leave early for the pros, but there are two proposals that would destroy college athletics:

First, it would replace the NCAA with a federal-government-run governing board of none members, appointed by the POTUS.  This board, and its supporting bureaucracy, would run all intercollegiate athletics and enforce the rules.  One can imagine how much politics would fuck that up.  I don't even.

Second, it would direct that the "profits" from revenue sports (defined as any sport where a school's income exceeded the cost of scholarships) be divided equally between the schools and the players, with the player share being pooled and then divided among all players in that sport within that division of the sport.  For instance, half the total revenue in excess of scholarship costs for Division I football would be turned over to the government, who would then give each player their share.  Back-of-the-envelope calculations show that this would be something north of $300,000 per player.  Louisiana-Monroe's punter would get the same paycheck as Alabama's quarterback.

Booker is seemingly oblivious to the fact that this would terminate every non-revenue sport in intercollegiate athletics, barring those needed to maintain gender balance per title IX.  For the sake of grossly over-compensating a few thousand athletes, several tens of thousands of positions allowing students to attend college will be eliminated.  It's a travesty.

Further, Booker's scheme will make revenue-sports athletes employees.  At that point, we are going to see lawsuits for restraint of trade if schools ty to require their athletes to be students as well (since attending college isn't related to the job of playing professional sports).  What university or college even has the remit to run professional sports teams?  They are going to have to spin them off if the athletes become professional as the Booker bill suggests.  Oh, and if being accepted to, and attendance at, universities is a requirement that works to the disadvantage of any protected groups, requiring professional athletes to be students is also a violation of EEOC rules.

This is a terrible idea all around.  If the excess money generate by revenue sports is so horrible from a moral sense, then the rules should be changed to allow schools to offer full scholarships to the non-revenue athletes, rather than professionalizing the revenue sports.  It's ridiculous that the 28 members of a softball team have to split 12 scholarships.

[Valmy]

Yeah I think that if the players end up being paid they need to be some kind of loosely sponsored minor league professional club where maybe employees can get access to take university classes if they want but their main job is to play football or basketball or whatever. At least that is what it seems to me.

[alfred russel]

Pac 12 man....disgraceful. You have a "conference champion" that went 3-2 in the regular season and finished 2nd in their division.

The conference and fans like Berkut don't seem to care about this season, so if they don't care about the integrity of competition in their conference I guess that is their business.

But Army is 9-2 and was supposed to play a Pac-12 team in the Independence Bowl, but all the potential Pac-12 opponents have opted out. So the bowl is being canceled.

https://www.al.com/sports/2020/12/army-snubbed-by-bowl-games-despite-9-2-record.html

"We had guys in tears," Army coach Jeff Monken said in an interview with ESPN. "We pulled off the biggest wins of these seniors' career, they just won the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy back, that's going to be their legacy, and they're looking forward to playing in a bowl game one time together, before they go off in the United States Army, and we're sitting here telling them, 'Sorry, guys, you can't play.'

"You can talk about a playoff system and people bitching about they're not a top-four team, 'Oh, we should be in.' All we want is a bowl game. All we want is a chance to play."

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/army-determined-to-play-in-bowl-game-despite-being-left-out-at-9-2-amid-independence-bowl-cancellation/

Army is willing to play anyone with 2 days notice:

Monken also noted that his team will be ready to fill in for any team that falls out for COVID-19 issues should a bowl call him. He said they could be ready in two days.

"If we got a Dec. 31 bowl game, if you call us on the 29th, we'll have those guys flying there on the 30th," Monken said. "What I'm hoping is some of these bowl games, when they hear enough of this about Army, they're going to say, 'You know what? If somebody cancels, we're going to take Army. We're going to be the knight in shining armor and we're going to look like a hero taking this team.'"

In order to keep a chance to fill in for another team that cancels, the team is staying at West Point over Christmas so they can keep isolated for Covid--meaning they are giving up going home for Christmas.

It turns out some people give a shit, even if Berkut and the Pac 12 don't.

[Valmy]

That sucks for Army, a great season that might not even be rewarded by a Bowl Bid.

Maybe they and Texas A&M and Indiana and Cincinnati can make a playoff for screwed over teams.

[PDH]

San Jose State has the best year for the Spartans ever, they go undefeated and win the MWC by beating Boise State handily in the championship game.

Their reward - the Arizona Bowl?  Well, at least they got the championship.

[Valmy]

Texas underachieved and embarrassed itself all year in a comedy of errors and incompetence and gets a return trip to exotic San Antonio to play their tormentors from Boulder. At least Texas got a typical football season while the rest of the country went through crazytown.