Coronavirus Pandemic Impacts

[Five Two]

So the Big 10 AD's were all in favor of playing football:
https://twitter.com/SportsBizMiss/status/1297552745424195584

 

[Pablo]

So the Big 10 AD's were all in favor of playing football:
https://twitter.com/SportsBizMiss/status/1297552745424195584

Gregg Doyel
@GreggDoyelStar
·
Aug 20

Lawyers circling. Coaches grandstanding. Athletics directors equivocating. Presidents hiding. But sure - let’s blame this whole thing on Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren:



Doyel: Get off Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren's back and contact your school president
Everyone’s booing Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren as if canceling the football season was his fault. It’s not.
indystar.com

"Everyone’s booing and throwing tomatoes at Warren, as if this whole thing – canceling the season, and letting that action speak for itself – is his fault. And it’s not.

It’s your fault, Penn State president Eric J. Barron. Here’s why: Your athletic director, Sandy Barbour, told the media earlier this week: 'It’s unclear to me whether or not there was a vote. No one’s ever told me there was.'"

"Canceling the 2020 Big Ten football season will cost the conference upwards of $1 billion. The projected revenue loss is somewhere between $50 million and $100 million for each school.

Only the presidents can do such a thing – including your president, Sandy Barbour – but it’s Kevin Warren’s job, as the face of the conference, to announce it. He did that on Aug. 11, thinking he’d be backed by his presidents, but now he knows better. League presidents are sitting quietly as Warren gets blamed for everything, including the Big Ten’s handling of this bombshell announcement.

Which is ridiculous.

When Warren announced the decision Aug. 11, he acknowledged the fatal threat of myocarditis to young athletes. He said it was a factor. He mentioned 'the number of cases that are spiking, the number of deaths, not only in our country (but) in our states where many of our schools are located.' He said that was a factor. He said the uncertainty going forward was a factor.

Was that not enough? We’re in the middle of the worst pandemic of our lifetime, a pandemic that, when all is said and done, will be the worst in recorded history. But we needed Kevin Warren to spell out exactly why the Big Ten canceled the football season?

Here. Let me spell it out:

C-o-r-o-n-a-v-i-r-u-s.

The momentum against Kevin Warren is breathtaking, with parents of players around the conference writing angry letters and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields starting a petition that has drawn more than 280,000 signatures, which is more than one signature for every American killed by the coronavirus. Consider me unimpressed with 280,000 signatures.

But parents of players are buying plane tickets to Chicago to confront Warren on Friday morning. On Twitter, Ohio State coach Ryan Day continues to recruit high school kids, I mean he's defending his players, by saying he wants to play this season and using the hashtag #FIGHT.

I’m wondering if some of these parents headed to Chicago are taking the grandstanding Ohio State coach seriously.

Meanwhile, the president at Minnesota said last week that there might not have been a vote among Big Ten presidents. In fact, she suggested, there was no vote.

'We didn't vote, per se,' Joan Gabel said.

Some advice: When people start talking Latin, make a run for it. They’re equivocating, another word for lying."

 

[GMUgemini]

This whole thing is going to destroy any last shred of pretense that college athletics is amateur and part of the educational mission of the university. Put a pin in it, amateur college athletics is done.

 

[Pablo]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/back-to-school-in-pandemics-shadow-how-two-universities-are-bringing-students-to-campus/2020/08/21/bbe6447c-e2f5-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html?hpid=hp_local1-8-12_virus-campuses-840pm:homepage/story-ans:

"Upheaval at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed the risk of aggressive opening plans. The university started its term in person on Aug. 10, but a week later it switched to all-remote instruction for undergrads after coronavirus cases spiked among students.

Gregory Washington, George Mason’s president, cited the Chapel Hill episode in an email exhorting his students in Northern Virginia to be diligent about wearing masks, keeping six feet away from other people and socializing only in very small groups.

'Let’s all do the right thing,' Washington recently wrote to students. 'Mason’s story does not have to be UNC’s story. But it’s up to each of us. Let’s be safe this semester and get through to December to give ourselves something to celebrate at the end of the year.'

Masks, plastic shields and lots of hand sanitizer are part of the protocol as students check in at George Mason University for the start of the school year. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

As Virginia’s largest public university, George Mason enrolled more than 37,000 students last year. Many are graduate students or undergraduates who live off campus. In response to the pandemic, the school switched much of its instruction to an online format, slashed classroom seating capacity and allowed professors to choose whether they wanted to teach remotely or face to face.

It also limited undergraduate housing. A little more than 3,000 undergraduates are expected to live on campus this semester, about half the normal total. Everyone who comes to campus will be required to answer daily public health screening questions.

In addition, the university periodically will administer viral testing to groups of students who do not have symptoms of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, to check for potential outbreaks. Lawn signs dotting the campus show masked figures greeting one another with elbow bumps, not handshakes. 'Patriots protect Patriots,' they declare, referencing the university mascot."

"Some faculty members say it’s premature to teach in person. Others are unsure.

'I’m not optimistic that we’ll stay open that long,' said Peter N. Stearns, a professor of history and former George Mason provost. Students tend to gather, he said, in ways that make public health rules hard to enforce. 'It’s all about the numbers. We’ll see what happens.'”

 

[Pablo]

https://twitter.com/Stadium/status/1297673724691243008?s=20


Trivia questions:

Name 3 Patriots who played in the NBA?

Which one played in the NBA playoffs?

 

[Five Two]

https://www2.gmu.edu/news/588101
"Dear Patriot Nation:"

Are we the 'Mason Nation' or the 'Patriot Nation'? Whichever it is, can we stick with one and use it or is 'Mason Nation' for athletics and 'Patriot Nation' for the general university community?

 

[FreeGunston12]

https://www2.gmu.edu/news/588101
"Dear Patriot Nation:"

Are we the 'Mason Nation' or the 'Patriot Nation'? Whichever it is, can we stick with one and use it or is 'Mason Nation' for athletics and 'Patriot Nation' for the general university community?

Not to get political, but I am wondering if this is a conscious effort to minimize the use of the Mason name - which would be a reversal of recent years of effort to rebrand as Mason instead of say GMU.

 

[Pablo]

Jon Rothstein
@JonRothstein
·
1h

Sources: While early season tournaments in college basketball continue to evaluate options for a non-conference bubble, nothing is expected to be officially cemented until the NCAA makes a decision on the start of the season in mid-September.

 

[Walter]

Not to get political, but I am wondering if this is a conscious effort to minimize the use of the Mason name - which would be a reversal of recent years of effort to rebrand as Mason instead of say GMU.

If I say, "not to get political," can I get political?

But in today's woke political environment, is Patriot or Mason worse? So confusing.

FYI, if either are replaced, I will no longer be a supporter of my alma mater. However, I might be okay with the Jim Larranaga University Irish Cubans.

 

[tblack33]

If I say, "not to get political," can I get political?

But in today's woke political environment, is Patriot or Mason worse? So confusing.

FYI, if either are replaced, I will no longer be a supporter of my alma mater. However, I might be okay with the Jim Larranaga University Irish Cubans.

Lol the only thing left that keeps you supporting the school is the mascot? I can't tell if you are joking.

 

[phoenix-arizona]

I might be wrong, but are there any VA schools that have the mascot as Cardinals? It's the state bird right?

Fairfax State University Cardinals

 

[Patriot8]

Commonwealth State University Dogwoods

For the record: Patriot Nation sounds better.

 

[GMUgemini]

https://www2.gmu.edu/news/588101
"Dear Patriot Nation:"

Are we the 'Mason Nation' or the 'Patriot Nation'? Whichever it is, can we stick with one and use it or is 'Mason Nation' for athletics and 'Patriot Nation' for the general university community?

No idea. But "patriot(s)" seems to be what past presidents have used when addressing the students/staff of the university (I looked up letters from Cabrera and Merten to see how they addressed them). Doesn't look like a rebrand given the logos and headers on the link there.

 

[phoenix-arizona]

I like that--Commonwealth State University.

Commonwealth State University Cottonmouths

 

[GMUgemini]

Too close to Virginia Commonwealth University...no thanks!

 

[phoenix-arizona]

 

[Patriot8]

Fairfax City College
DC Metropolitan University
Eagle Bank University

 

[psyclone]

Jordan and AJ comments on preparing for the season :

https://gomason.com/news/2020/8/25/...basketball-controlling-the-controllables.aspx

 

[Patriotsince81]

Even though I go into the year with modest expectations that there will even be a season it's always fun to read about the team. It's great that both AJ and Jordan have added some weight/muscle. It can only help.

 

[sleeperpick]

Jordan and AJ comments on preparing for the season :

https://gomason.com/news/2020/8/25/...basketball-controlling-the-controllables.aspx

AJ is a born leader and will have the team on his back this year just like last. Hope he can stay healthy and get some help from the rest of the starters. He is poised for a huge senior season