Coronavirus Pandemic Impacts

[Pablo]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...gh-school-league-plans-fall-without-football/:

"There will be no public high school football in Virginia this fall as the Virginia High School League is moving forward with three options for scheduling a modified sports season in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

With fall approaching and the number of coronavirus cases in the country rising, including in Virginia, the executive committee voted Wednesday to delay the start of the sports season — though the format is still under discussion.

The VHSL plans to make its final decision among the following three options July 27:

1.) Keep the fall, winter and spring seasons in their usual order but cancel all fall sports except golf and cross-country.

2.) Swap the order of fall and spring sports, which allows activities with a lower risk of spreading the virus — baseball, soccer and track and field — to begin soon while football, which is high-contact, waits until about March. Boys’ and girls’ lacrosse are considered high risk and would not be played at all this school year.

3.) Start sports in December and play three condensed seasons. This option — conducting winter sports from Dec. 14 to Feb. 20, fall sports from Feb. 15 to May 1 and spring sports from April 12 to June 26 — appears popular in other states. While it shrinks all three seasons, it delays sports until schools potentially reopen and can decide how to deal with outbreaks."

 

[Pablo]

Brett McMurphy
@Brett_McMurphy
·
3m

NCAA & Power 5 commissioners will make medical recommendations to add uniformity to COVID testing procedures for players, including PCR weekly tests at least 72 hours before games, sources told @Stadium. 1st reported by Yahoo. For example, testing on Wednesdays for Saturday games




Brett McMurphy
@Brett_McMurphy
·
11h

NCAA will allow FBS schools to count 2 games against qualifying FCS teams toward bowl eligibility this season. This likely will only impact Group of 5/independents since all Power 5 schools likely to play only Power 5 opponents this year

 

[Pablo]

Brett McMurphy
@Brett_McMurphy
·
52m

How critical is next 2 weeks? Mark Emmert told NCAA Council if decision had to be made now NCAA fall championships (soccer, cross country, volleyball & FCS football) likely would be canceled, sources told @Stadium. FBS officials have said they won’t make decision before late July

 

[Pablo]

https://www.bigeast.com/news/2020/7/16/general-big-east-update-on-fall-sports-plans.aspx:

"NEW YORK – The BIG EAST Conference and its member institutions have announced updated plans for their six 2020 fall sports, as follows:

• Due to the unprecedented and continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, BIG EAST fall sports schedules will not include any non-conference competition.
• No decision is being made at this time regarding BIG EAST fall sports conference competition and championships. In the coming weeks, the BIG EAST will continue to monitor COVID-19 conditions across the country and in BIG EAST communities and will provide further updates on dates and formats as appropriate. All decisions regarding fall conference competition will continue to be guided first and foremost by the health and safety of BIG EAST campuses and their athletics program participants and will be made in accordance with NCAA actions and policies.

The sports affected are: men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball and field hockey. The BIG EAST’s plans for the 2020-21 winter and spring sports seasons remain unaffected at this time."


Dana O'Neil

Retweeted



Sean Robertson

@CBS6SportsSean
·
3h

Just received word from two sources the @MEACSports has canceled the 2020 Fall Sports season, to include Football. No word on if they would moved those affected Sports schedules to the Spring. That means no MEAC-SWAC Challenge.






Dana O'Neil


@DanaONeilWriter
·
56m

Source: West Coast Conference will delay start of fall sports until September 24. Non conf games ok for now. Hope is to allow flexibility for nearby non-league games if possible.

 

[Pablo]

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/7...l-stadium-limited-seating-coronavirus-big-ten:

"Illinois announced Thursday that it will limit seating at Memorial Stadium to 20% capacity (10,000-12,000 people) during the upcoming football season.

The attendance limit is one of several measures the university is taking to limit the spread of COVID-19. Other steps listed on the Illini website are:

• Face coverings will be required in public areas, and six-foot social distancing will be observed.
• Tailgating will not be allowed.
• Increased cleaning will be conducted during the game and areas such as restrooms may be closed for brief periods for cleaning.
• Concessions will be “grab ‘n go”.
• All tickets will be delivered via mobile device.

Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman said during a webcast that athletes will make their own decisions about returning campus and all financial aid will be protected.

The school has been conducting weekly COVID-19 testing and has done about 1,000 tests so far, he said.

'One of the real challenges for me has been dealing with the uncertainty,' he said. Illinois is still working on schedules for football and all fall sports."

 

[Pablo]

Jeff Goodman
@GoodmanHoops
·
1h

Horizon League announces it will delay the start of fall competition for all sports (championship and non-championship) with the understanding that if competition occurs, it will not begin before October 1.

 

[Pablo]

Brett McMurphy
@Brett_McMurphy
·
22m

Even though Colonial Athletic Association is canceling football this fall, James Madison plans to play as an independent if FSC playoffs are still held, sources told @Stadium. CAA will allow schools to play as independents if they desire

 

[Pablo]

Jon Rothstein
@JonRothstein
·
37m

July 20th remains the start date for college basketball programs to begin "permissive" --- not mandatory ---- summer basketball activities, per Dan Gavitt. *Individual schools and conferences can still decide if they won't begin these activities due to health and safety reasons.





Jon Rothstein
@JonRothstein
·
50m

The MAAC will not have summer access for its basketball student-athletes, per release. Basketball activities will commence when the full student body returns to campus.

 

[GMUgemini]

A10 just postponed fall sports.

 

[tblack33]

A10 just postponed fall sports.

To be expected, surprised they didn't do it in the sooner considering we don't have football.

 

[Pablo]

https://www.secsports.com/article/29389826/sec-schools-commit-scholarships-student-athletes:

"BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (July 17, 2020) - Southeastern Conference student-athletes who elect to not participate in intercollegiate athletics during the fall 2020 academic semester because of health and/or safety concerns related to COVID-19 will continue to have their scholarships honored by their university and will remain in good standing with their team, the Conference announced Friday.

The action is the result of a unanimous vote of the SEC's Presidents and Chancellors following a recommendation of the Conference's Athletics Directors."

"The SEC will continue to monitor developments related to COVID-19 to determine at a later date if the policy should be extended to the Spring semester of 2021 or beyond."

 

[Pablo]

Brett McMurphy
@Brett_McMurphy
·
11m

Southwestern Athletic Conference will announce Monday it is canceling fall sports, sources told
@Stadium. SWAC is latest FCS league that won’t play football in the fall

 

[Pablo]

A10 just postponed fall sports.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports...conference-postpones-fall-sports-shift-spring:

"The conference already put together a regionalized pod conference schedule for fall sports, which eliminated 25 percent of its games. If they are able to play in the fall, the season would start Oct. 4. If not, they will use the same conference schedule they've already made for the spring. McGlade acknowledged there is a chance conference teams won't be able to compete for fall NCAA championships if those championships remain as scheduled, but league leaders felt they had to look out for the safety of their athletes and coaches first.

Basketball remains unaffected for now, but McGlade added that there's no consideration of regional pod scheduling for hoops.

Schedules for winter sports, other than swimming and diving fall contests, remain unchanged. League leaders agreed it was too early to make decisions about what to do about the basketball season, which begins in November."

 

[psyclone]

https://www.espn.com/college-sports...conference-postpones-fall-sports-shift-spring:

"The conference already put together a regionalized pod conference schedule for fall sports, which eliminated 25 percent of its games. If they are able to play in the fall, the season would start Oct. 4. If not, they will use the same conference schedule they've already made for the spring. McGlade acknowledged there is a chance conference teams won't be able to compete for fall NCAA championships if those championships remain as scheduled, but league leaders felt they had to look out for the safety of their athletes and coaches first.

Basketball remains unaffected for now, but McGlade added that there's no consideration of regional pod scheduling for hoops.

Schedules for winter sports, other than swimming and diving fall contests, remain unchanged. League leaders agreed it was too early to make decisions about what to do about the basketball season, which begins in November."

Other details provided by A10 FAQs:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.si...documents/2020/7/17/Fall_Postponement_FAQ.pdf

 

[Pablo]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29488579/blue-jays-not-allowed-play-games-canada:

"The Toronto Blue Jays have been denied approval by the Canadian government to play in Toronto amid the coronavirus pandemic."

"The Blue Jays said they are finalizing plans for an alternative site for regular-season home games -- possibilities include their training facility in Dunedin, Florida, or the home of their Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, New York. Both sites, however, pose issues.

Florida is one of the states hardest hit by the coronavirus, and players have said they preferred to play in Toronto.

A source told ESPN's Buster Olney that one of the primary concerns with Buffalo is the quality of the ballpark lights -- which are regarded as worse than MLB standard.

MLB needed an exemption to a requirement that anyone entering Canada for nonessential reasons must self-isolate for 14 days. The U.S.-Canada border remains closed to nonessential travel until at least Aug. 21.

COVID-19 cases are surging in the United States, while Canada has flattened the epidemic curve.

The NHL has received an exemption for its restart to the season, but that was a far simpler case because the games are restricted to two hubs -- Edmonton and Toronto."

 

[Pablo]

Brett McMurphy
@Brett_McMurphy
·
15h

SWAC officially announces no fall sports & plans to play 7-game football schedule in spring

 

[Pablo]

Brett McMurphy
@Brett_McMurphy
·
1h

Governor asks New Mexico & New Mexico State to cancel football this fall, based on state’s increase in positive COVID cases b/w ages 20-39, @GeoffGrammerr eports. New Mexico governor states it is “critical you postpone collegiate athletics in this moment of escalating danger"

 

[tblack33]

How this NBA and MLB seasons go will be the biggest indicator of if we'll see CBB this winter. If the NBA can't do it with all of their resources and the damn bubble, then there is a 0 percent chance. If they can keep the cases low (0 is an unrealistic expectation for any sport) then I think we still have a small glimmer of hope of a conference only, no fan season, with a reduced march madness. They'd have to set March Madness up similar to the NBA bubble and play all at one site with severe movement restrictions on the teams while they are in the tournament.

 

[Pablo]

https://www.vuhoops.com/villanova-b...0-21-opinions-options-ncaa-villanova-wildcats:

"Poll
What do you think is the most realistic return-to-play scenario for college basketball in 2020-21?

• A — College hoops season returns normally (as much as possible)
• B — 2020-21 college basketball season is cancelled
• C — Start season in Nov., but a full regular season of conference opponents only
• D — Start season in Jan., but shortened regular season with conference-play only
• E — Full college basketball season, but delay start to January and extend season past April
• F — Other! "

 

[Patriotsince81]

https://www.vuhoops.com/villanova-b...0-21-opinions-options-ncaa-villanova-wildcats:

"Poll
What do you think is the most realistic return-to-play scenario for college basketball in 2020-21?

• A — College hoops season returns normally (as much as possible)
• B — 2020-21 college basketball season is cancelled
• C — Start season in Nov., but a full regular season of conference opponents only
• D — Start season in Jan., but shortened regular season with conference-play only
• E — Full college basketball season, but delay start to January and extend season past April
• F — Other! "

My mind says B.
My heart hopes for E.
Would settle for D.