NWAkron

135 students at UNC Chapel Hill have COVID. The student newspaper front page reads "Cluster&*ck"

I will sit through the games in the dead of Winter. I was at the Thanksgiving Snow Bowl!! and the Pitt game in the torrential rain and that one during the polar vortex.

I hope so, too. however, the disfunction and the greed in the NCAA and the Power 5 had been laid bare over the last few weeks.

Jerry Brewer of the Washington Post wrote this. It may be behind a paywall but I will provide link and a few thoughts he shared in his long column. It's better to read the entire column and a few others he wrote on the topic. I'm not taking a side but found his views insightful. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/15/college-footballs-con-has-been-laid-bare-by-coronavirus-crisis/ "It is futile to hang morality in college football’s closet. Don’t bother trying. The integrity of the sport is so compromised that even a perceived noble gesture during this pandemic serves as little more than a well-stitched mask to preserve the con of amateurism. At the end of a week that featured a historic rupturing of the sport, the Big Ten and Pac-12 may appear as the foremost careful and concerned conferences, while the rest of the Power Five looks daring, reckless or worse. But if trying to salvage college football is akin to guiding a yacht through treacherous waters, all factions should unite around one depressing thought: The ship is sinking. That’s because honest maintenance has been neglected for a while. Some can jump on lifeboats and get out early. Some can play their music louder and enjoy themselves for as long as possible. But this thing is going to submerge, by the force of the relentless novel coronavirus or by the will of enlightened players and others who have turned crisis into clarity about a system of exploitation." "Two of the sport’s most prestigious conferences just opted out on the advice of their medical advisers, fearing covid-19’s link to the heart condition myocarditis. And SEC coaches are flustered because they need to know — right now — how they got Arkansas and Mississippi State or Alabama and LSU as the additional teams on a schedule that still qualifies, despite their insistence on playing, as more of a suggestion than a stone-cold reality. This is why they make the big bucks — and most don’t offer to take pay cuts to help their struggling athletic departments. With the nation still struggling to contain the coronavirus, with schools reopening in some communities and autumn on the horizon, it figures to get increasingly difficult for colleges to play football and other sports this fall. But go ahead and argue about scheduling."

Southern Conference cancels (Arths old home). 9 players on Oklahomas team test +. The NCAA needs to find a way to shut this down or basketball will be gone, too.

They should only allow Zipsnation members to attend the games. Problem solved.

I guess the faculty union's dreams will come true.

Nothing is happening in November. And if there's a season in January there won't be any fans allowed at the games. These guys can plan and plan but unless there's a vaccine college sports for the fan base is over.

I knew what you meant. Too many moving parts all to make $$ off the athletes.

I saw an article in which the Purdue coach lays out a plan for Spring football. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/big-ten-football-coach-has-comprehensive-proposal-for-spring-season/ar-BB17Vlqv

Putting student athletes in a bubble isn't going to work. Ohio State MIGHT be able to swing that but a school like Rutgers won't do it. The MAC certainly couldn't justify the cost. and at that point the conferences and schools would basically be admitting that these unpaid athletes are solely there to play sports and make $ for the schools. Put all the Akron players in Quaker Square. Bus them there and back. Take away their cars. Feed them. Convert the old ballrooms into study areas. Meanwhile all the other students are able to move around campus. Put the soccer players in a bubble? The swim team? I've thought through all these ideas, too. Basically, it comes back to ... if you have to do all of this then they probably shouldn't be playing.

there's a good question and answer at 35 minutes.

I agree with you. The science is the science. I posted a link yesterday that has a good discussion with Pac 10 officials regarding why they made their decision. Considering the huge amount of $ involved, I doubt the Big 10 and PAC 10 didn't look at every option available before cancelling. I read Cykron's post and that's what I figured the schools would do: limit fans and tailgating, etc. However, ultimately that becomes unworkable and the safety of the players is paramount. From following this issue on twitter and in the news, I'm realizing that there are many different interests who are going to lose $ if there is no college football. It could be the beer industry, sports agents, restaurants, the families of the top players, and whoever else profits from the game and has their own agenda which isn't the safety of the players. The presidents, AD's, and the conference commissioners have to put all those competing agendas aside and listen to their medical team. The medical experts don't have an agenda. They gain nothing or lose nothing from a season. The highly paid coaches need to be seen advocating for their players and if that means pushing for play they will. And it was easy for the incoming OSU president to say she supports playing football. What confuses me is that the other conferences apparently have medical experts who have a differing opinion than the big 10 and pac 10. My thought is that they are for now trying to appease those with agendas until they can't any longer. Another huge outbreak of COVID and there is no basketball season or March Madness.

https://pac-12.com/article/2020/08/11/pac-12-conference-postpones-all-sport-competitions-through-end-calendar-year I for one am disappointed and confused about all of this. Embedded in this article is a link to a Zoom discussion of the parties involved in making the PAC 10 decision. It's very informative and clarified some issues for me.

This is utter chaos and no way to "run a railroad." It's either safe to play or it isn't. With all the millions and millions at stake, the idea that the Big Ten or Pac 10 jumped the gun or gave up too soon is ludicrous. But this falls on the NCAA for not having cohesive leadership. Then you have all these people with financial interests or political interests in keeping the season alive chiming in with their literal two cents and it's just a toxic stew.

Whether or not one believes the science, these conferences have made it crystal clear (although, belatedly and in a disjointed manner) that there will be no athletics until COVID is under control.

You are just a rotten human being. There are actually true Akron fans on here who are sad and incredibly disappointed about all of this and you choose to grab your handful of salt and rub it in the open wounds. I don't know what the University of Akron did to you that's made you such a negative troll, but your desire to make everyone else miserable proves to me that whatever it was you deserved it.

The rumblings on Twitter aren't hopeful for a Fall season. Testing all the players all the time doesnt come cheap. (And Hilltopper voted there would be no games and he's usually right). Just read...it's cancelled. #SaveBasketball.

At a military school, isn't that like insubordination?

As always Pluto is like a month late to the party. Hes regurgitating old news and ideas.

Maybe whats his name is right. Will just be Ohio schools playing each other

Can't catch a break but was going to happen eventually on one of the MAC teams. Maybe a false positive

I certainly hope so. If those ACC teams can play other MAC schools they certainly could play Akron. It's difficult to understand why this is happening other than looking at Pitt, BC, and ND being in states without as high a rate of infection (and no I'm not trying to start a political debate).

Whatever the case Clemson needs to pay up. (And SC's % positive is over 14% compared to Ohios 5%) https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/college/2020/08/06/mid-american-conference-2020-football-season/stories/20200806129

Hopefully, Zips will get the cash and save our players from traveling to a COVID hot bed/