Wren Baker says we wouldn’t play today (WFAA)

[meangreen11]

DENTON, Texas — It's a nightmare to imagine, but it's becoming a reality for many colleges in America: a fall without football.

"If the decision had to be made today, we wouldn't play," admitted Wren Baker, athletic director at the University of North Texas.

read more: https://www.wfaa.com/mobile/article/sports/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-college-football-other-fall-sports-in-2020/287-a477cd8d-d410-483e-a48f-6e0f2cc37e40

[BillySee58]

Message could not be any more clear.

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

Hoax. /s

Edited July 17, 2020 by SteaminWillieBeamin
Forgot the sarcasm tag.

[Wag Tag]

Yep. GMG 

[Cr1028]

2020 has to be the worst year in the history of years.

[DeepGreen]

40 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

2020 has to be the worst year in the history of years.

Maybe if we used all of the terms we hear daily- 2020 “Reimagined”;  a 2020 “Re-boot”; 2020 “Restart”.  Any others that I missed?

[BillySee58]

57 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

2020 has to be the worst year in the history of years.

There’s still time to turn this thing around and, strictly from a sports standpoint, get things back. Get the numbers down, have a basketball season starting in November, get a full football season, or at least a 10-game conference season, starting in the spring, etc. 

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by BillySee58

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

Hopefully. Wish we had the mask mandate the whole time. I really hope we can turn this around in short order.

[jdennis82]

I continue to be appreciative of the fact that we have a leader who seems pragmatic in decision making and balances calculation and transparency when he speaks publicly.

[UNT18Grad]

This really, really pains me to say, but I would rather not have a season and go into next year with the same team instead of half-assing our way through this one and having things get cancelled once one player gets the virus. 

However, the financial ramifications of not having a season are crippling, the NCAA would be forced to give everyone an extra year of eligibility so we would also be paying more than ever for our athletes in 2021 and beyond due to few seniors leaving, and a whole new class coming in.  Paying more than ever after a season where we have zero revenue come in and are still paying our coaches salaries is truly the worst case scenario for our athletic program and I would imagine many schools, UNT included, will be put into very tough positions.

[VideoEagle]

But the decision isn't being made today. Things change rapidly and will most certainly be different in a few weeks. A few weeks ago, things were far better. And based on non-political sources like Your Local Epidemiologist, there has been improvement since each day since last weekend. The decision do not need to be made now - neither the Big XII nor the SEC have made decisions - so let's wait and see. 

[Cr1028]

1 hour ago, UNT18Grad said:

This really, really pains me to say, but I would rather not have a season and go into next year with the same team instead of half-assing our way through this one and having things get cancelled once one player gets the virus. 

However, the financial ramifications of not having a season are crippling, the NCAA would be forced to give everyone an extra year of eligibility so we would also be paying more than ever for our athletes in 2021 and beyond due to few seniors leaving, and a whole new class coming in.  Paying more than ever after a season where we have zero revenue come in and are still paying our coaches salaries is truly the worst case scenario for our athletic program and I would imagine many schools, UNT included, will be put into very tough positions.

Are you thinking the NCAA would allow more than 85 scholarship players for a year?

[RBP79]

We can start the season on Nov7....the Covid will be gone on the 3rd.

[keith]

One of the main problems as I see it is there is no identifiable target and/or the target keeps moving with respect to this virus.  When political or public health "leaders" are pressed for answers on what they are looking for in their decision making the response is typically "we'll have to see where we are," but that doesn't really answer the question.  Is it transmission rates (new daily cases, total cases, etc.), hospitalizations, deaths, affected age groups, comorbitities, raw numbers, percentage of population, treatments, a vaccine, something else or all of the above? Does the curve need to be flattened or does the curve need to go away?  I think people will rally around a goal, they just don't know what the goal is.

[UNT18Grad]

6 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

Are you thinking the NCAA would allow more than 85 scholarship players for a year?

They'd have no choice, and it would be for much longer than a year.  They have already set the precedent by granting spring sport athletes an extra year for missing this season.  With recruiting already in full swing they can't expect teams to maintain the same roster size if nobody leaves and roughly 25 new faces show up.  I seriously doubt coaches will be willing to budge on the amount of scholarships they can offer, schools would to save money, but no way the coaches want that.  Even if they reduce the scholarship number by one from 25 to 24 it would still take 25 years for things to reset. Cancelling the season will change the way college sports operate forever. 

Not sure if they would carry this policy to football or not (one of dozens of questions that would need to be answered asap) but with those spring athletes the NCAA gave the schools power to reduce scholarship aid to $0 to those who were in their final year of eligibility.  I can't imagine any school telling a 4-5 year scholarship athlete that they can come back for their missed senior season but they have to pay their own way for everything, but that's a decision the NCAA left up to schools.  Again, with football you're dealing with roughly 20 scholarships vs maybe 5 in those spring sports so football is a whole different animal.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2020/03/30/coronovirus-ncaa-grant-spring-sports-athletes-extra-eligibility/5090362002/

Edited July 17, 2020 by UNT18Grad

[MrAlien]

unfortunately its getting worse, and likely will continue to get worse into August... over 17% of Covid19 tests are coming back positive in Texas and that's just to high to have social interaction let alone physical sports... in the midst of all this TMS is going to host a NASCAR race with up to 75K fans in person this weekend just a few miles from our campus.  If we want football in the fall, then we need to lock everything down now.

[SlimSlamSlum]

After the basketball tournament was cancelled, I let the department keep the money I had used to buy my full set of tickets to the entire tournament. I renewed my football tickets very early on for the 2020 year. My wife has already informed me that if the season is cancelled, we won't be letting the department keep our money. I am not going to argue with her, but I do wonder what it will do to the department if everyone wants a refund. I assume some of that money has been spent. I also wonder what it does as far as club points, or whatever you call them, goes as well.

[MeanGreenTexan]

1 hour ago, SlimSlamSlum said:

After the basketball tournament was cancelled, I let the department keep the money I had used to buy my full set of tickets to the entire tournament. I renewed my football tickets very early on for the 2020 year. My wife has already informed me that if the season is cancelled, we won't be letting the department keep our money. I am not going to argue with her, but I do wonder what it will do to the department if everyone wants a refund. I assume some of that money has been spent. I also wonder what it does as far as club points, or whatever you call them, goes as well.

They came out with some options if the season is cancelled a few months ago.

1. You get a refund of your ticket money.

2.  You can donate your ticket money to the MGSF.

3.  You can push your ticket money to next season, effectively giving the AD an interest-free short term loan.  (This is likely what my family will do).

I don’t think these options pertain to the MGSF donation though, since that’s a donation, but I could be wrong there.

 

[Matt from A700]

Tomorrow is Day 1 of about three straight weeks of pro lacrosse between Major League Lacrosse (ESPN family of networks) and the Premier Lacrosse League (NBC family of networks). Three MLL games tomorrow on ESPN+.

[NM Green]

I allowed FC Dallas to push my season ticket to 2021. It’s good and easy for them. Of course I wanted to throw a tantrum when almost the whole freaking team showed up to Orlando positive with Covid and had to withdraw from the MLS is Back tournament. But I have since calmed down and told them just push it to 2021.  That is what I will do with the Mean Green. 
 

GMG