Big Ten cancels fall sports

11 August 2020, 03:29 PM

Mid-American and Mountain West already did. Others considering what to do.

quote:
Big Ten Conference presidents and chancellors voted Tuesday to postpone all fall sports seasons, including football, with the hopes of playing in the spring, it announced Tuesday.

"The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward," Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement. "As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall.

"We know how significant the student-athlete experience can be in shaping the future of the talented young women and men who compete in the Big Ten Conference. Although that knowledge made this a painstaking decision, it did not make it difficult. While I know our decision today will be disappointing in many ways for our thousands of student-athletes and their families, I am heartened and inspired by their resilience, their insightful and discerning thoughts, and their participation through our conversations to this point. Everyone associated with the Big Ten Conference and its member institutions is committed to getting everyone back to competition as soon as it is safe to do so."

https://www.espn.com/college-f...fall-football-season

11 August 2020, 05:27 PM

QuirtEvans

It appears that the Commissioner of the Big Ten drove this decision because of his personal concern about possible lifelong cardiac complications from infection.

11 August 2020, 06:40 PM

ShiroKuro

quote:
possible lifelong cardiac complications from infection

You mean he has some redeeming, human qualities? Wow.

I am still waiting for our conference and our uni in particular to step up...

BTW, I sometimes help our tennis program with their translation needs (they periodically try to recruit players from Japan) and this year, they finally succeeded in getting one of their target players to agree to come here. I no zero about the tennis schedule, but I imagine it would be impacted. More to the point though, I cannot imagine how his parents feel thinking about sending him to the US in the middle of this ~~sh*tstorm~~ pandemic.

11 August 2020, 06:46 PM

wtg

PAC-12, too.

11 August 2020, 07:27 PM

Piano*Dad

quote:
I am still waiting for our conference and our uni in particular to step up...

You will wait long, I fear. Clemson would only cancel under extreme duress.

11 August 2020, 07:40 PM

Nina

Three things this might foreshadow, in declining order of likelihood but not into total fantasy:

1. Emmert is toast
2. College athletes will be represented (legally) by agents and unionize
3. NCAA is dissolved or significantly reconstituted

11 August 2020, 08:20 PM

Piano*Dad

Once one of the Power Five conferences folds, the value of the big-money contracts falls, as does the value of post-season games that involve huge payoffs to the schools. Now that the big 10 is out, this should lower the cost of pulling out for the next one in line. Ultimately, we'll be down to the SEC playing itself, largely for a pittance of COVID-reduced gate receipts and local TV.

11 August 2020, 08:29 PM

QuirtEvans

quote:
Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
quote:
I am still waiting for our conference and our uni in particular to step up...

You will wait long, I fear. Clemson would only cancel under extreme duress.

The pressure is mounting, and it's called potential liability. You cannot claim that you chose the gold standard course of action when two Power Five conferences canceled their schedules. Given the potential for long-term cardiac, respiratory, and neurological issues, the possible liability is huge. Just wait until the governing boards of these universities start hearing from their lawyers about the magnitude of the potential risk. Given the Big Ten and Pac 12 cancellations, the plaintiff's bar will be salivating.

Imagine if counsel starts warning those boards about the limitations of the liability insurance and their potential personal liability.

I imagine the schools will try to get the players to sign liability waivers. I'd be warning them that there's a decent chance those liability waivers won't hold up.

12 August 2020, 03:50 PM

QuirtEvans

quote:
In an email to Sports Illustrated, prominent college sports attorney Tom Mars offered this chilling view of what the Big 12, ACC and SEC could be getting into:

“Whatever conference(s) decides to play football this fall will be taking a ridiculously high risk they may soon regret. I know and have talked with some of the best plaintiff’s lawyers in the country this week, and they’re praying the SEC, Big 12 and/or the ACC are greedy enough to stay the course. If things go sideways, the plaintiff’s Bar will immediately get their hands on the internal financial analyses of the schools (a FOIA layup), get the conference financials through the discovery process, and then just stand in front of the jurors and point to the conferences that decided not to risk the health of their student-athletes. Good Lord, I’d hate to be the lawyers defending those cases.”

12 August 2020, 03:56 PM

QuirtEvans

https://www.si.com/college/202...myocarditis-concerns

12 August 2020, 04:26 PM

Mary Anna

The Big 12 is hanging tight.

We just got an e-mail clarifying the schedule, which is reduced to one out-of-conference game.

Oh, and we also just got an email about the "Welcome, Freshmen!" event. It'll be held in the football stadium and masks are required. Extra seats will be blocked off to enforce social distancing. However, there will be food that attendees can eat in their seats, so maybe the masks are only for entering and exiting?

What could possibly go wrong?