I might be wrong but I don't think it's actually Newsom's call. If it was Newsom's call, all California universities would be closed in the fall (or not closed, either way, it would be all or none). But right now it's only the state schools.

This issue for college sports is if the universities are closed and only doing online learning, how are you going to do athletics? You're going to open up some sort of housing for just the athletes? If so, is it dorms or apartments. What about practicing? You're going to need staff there besides just the coaches. How would that work? This goes beyond just California. I've seen other instances of schools saying if there's no classes, we're not doing sports in the fall.

Even if it is not directly Newsom's call, I doubt the Regents will buck him. Most of the sitting Regents are Brown appointees who also happen to be big political donors and insiders.

I think DeSantis was trying to attract NFL teams to play in Florida, although he might take college too. The Citrus Bowl in Orlando is otherwise empty, but I doubt that University of Florida, Florida State, or University of Central Florida are too excited about the idea of sharing their facilities if they have a season. The NFL is actually a terrible roommate.

The idea about the more open football tournament got me thinking about the spring sports again. It's not just that they would lose practice time in the fall; it makes scheduling games a pain. Football schedules a good number of its games a year or more in advance but this is not really as true of softball and baseball. Softball has a significant number of its pre- season games locked up in tournaments. We will still be dealing with the fallout from COVID- 19 well into next year and that makes the prospect of 4- 6 teams using the same diamond and dugouts each day quite difficult. If you have a softball complex with multiple fields available you can make it work, but there's still the matter of all that travel.

Baseball often doesn't release its schedule until December, and I've come to learn that is because they often really are finalizing it that late. What a pain to have to schedule non- conference games with so much uncertainty about your season. It's not like you can just back out and have no financial commitments. It's the NCAA, not hotels.com.

Anyhow, to minimize travel and give schools more time to prepare their safety plans I wonder if perhaps non- conference games would be cancelled for 2021 (assuming the season takes place). The season starts when conference play normally begins (roughly mid- March ). You play your conference opponents and that's it. First place team from each conference goes into the NCAA playoff field, then you have true regionals (no CA teams playing in VA or TN in the first round). Of course this would hurt UCD's record quite a bit, but they could pick up surprise wins against teams just as under- prepared as they.

I don't know- I don't really care for the games with no spectators idea. That's fine for sports like tennis or golf that can be pretty dull to watch anyway, but the main point of sports is showcasing the amazing things highly- trained athletes can do that most people can't. Take away the spectators and what's the point ? Watching on TV is definitely a poor substitute. For the most part I don't care much about UCD football + basketball, but that's because I rarely go. I care plenty when I actually do attend. However, I do understand they have to go through these baby steps first. It's just quite frustrating.

Notre Dame to open Campus for Fall 2 weeks early

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/498440-notre-dame-to-open-campus-two-weeks-early-for-fall-semester

Header: Under COVID-19
This just in. . .
CNN reports this breaking news:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, told the President: “This morning 3 Brazilian citizens were killed by the Covid-19 virus so-far this week.
Trumps face went egg-shell white with shock. The blood drained from his face and to everyone’s amazement he collapsed to the floor. Minutes passed and to everyone’s relief President Trump got up shakily and then sat back on his chair.
His staff, who was nothing less than stunned at this amazing display of emotion and empathy from a President who is not well known for such behavior,, nervously watched as he sat, head in hands, waiting to see if he would faint again.
Finally, the President looked up and with a shaky quivering voice asked Dr. Fauci:
*”How many people is a Brazilian?”*

Hey everyone. Stay safe and hope we get thru this disaster soon.

I had to shake my head when she even went against faculty in ordering that the UC system abandon the SAT and supposedly create their own test. If you are going to admit less prepared students then the system should provide remedial opportunities or prepare for a reduced graduation rate.

NCagalum

Yo no entiendo. Quien es Ella?

I believe they are referring to Janet Napolitano. The UC announced last week that they will be phasing our the use of the SAT and ACT for admissions.

Covid-19 ethics.
SMU bringing back it’s football team for practices starting June 6.
Dallas County currently showing 200+ cases and significant deaths from Covid-19 now per week and not dropping.
NCAA: all teams will have to test all players prior to active practice or games.
Covid test cost: $200+/-
CDC: Covid testing not readily available for everyone due to lack of test kits
CDC: Covid testing should be prioritized for vulnerable populations
CDC: does not mention college football, NFL, NBA as a vulnerable population.
Question: is this ethical??

You make some very good points. I live in Dallas so I'm right in the middle of the example you're citing. Dallas and the surrounding counties have been very aggressive in their re-openings, pretty much turning a blind eye to the fact that both cases and deaths have never really shown any sustained downward trend and if anything have ticked upwards. It's very disconcerting to say the least; the general attitude seems to be that the virus is now a thing of the past and we can return to normal everyday life which is so far from reality it's not even funny. We're just setting ourselves up for a resurgence. So to see SMU staking their claim to such a large number of tests certainly raises some serious questions. In the case of SMU, I'm assuming it's a case of them spending whatever it takes to get their hands on however many tests the deem necessary, which as a private school which a large endowment is a piece of cake for them to find the money in the budget. Is it right morally? Well I'd certainly like to make sure that all medical facilities, private practices, clinics, etc that need tests have ample amounts on hand before they're just put out there on the open market to go to the highest bidder.

Texas started reopening the end of April and now has the highest number of Covid-19 patients it has even had: 1,935. This is very bad. I hope California avoids this outcome.

I've got bad news for you.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/?itid=sn_coronavirus_2

Now, there is the caveat that we're testing more than before, but the cases certainly aren't going down. Bunch of other states are seeing similar bumps also.

The issue with looking at the overall data for the US is it looked like cases were going down because New York blew up so badly originally and really got stuff under control. So the overall daily new cases were going down but the non-NY cases were going up.

My wife is always looking forward as she plans family gatherings and trips. And each month I find myself making the same comment, “lets give it another month and re-evaluate.”

I sent in all my team aggie and season ticket renewal fees/donations anticipating we will have sports next season. Lets hope we have a season.

No surprises. Covid still rising in all the SEC states. Texas is breaking all infection records as is Florida GA, SC and NC. Football next month? Ridiculous but true.

It's really getting bad or should I say worse here in Dallas. Everyday we are setting a new high in cases and hospitalizations are also again on the rise and yet if you drive around and look at the parking lots of restaurants and retail stores it looks like it's business as usual. On top of that, I'd say less than half of the people you see out even wear masks. It absolutely amazes me. There are very few things in life that can actually be described and as issue of live and death, and this is literally one of them, and yet nobody here seems at all concerned.

A lot of people are just ignorant about how dangerous this virus could be if they got infected. It's like, "Out of sight, out of mind." This disease can be horrible if you're not lucky. Just consider that healthy 20 year old who just had to have a double lung transplant or the healthy soldier that spent 7 weeks on a ventilator and new models say that deaths could escalate dramatically if the virus surges again.

The worst thing about people ignoring the safety guidelines is that if they get infected they can then spread it around to others before they know they are sick. So their cavalier behavior becomes dangerous to others...but they don't consider that...

Trump is now going to start having his rallies again and he wants the places packed like sardines and, even though he continues to minimize the risks of the virus, everyone who attends has to sign a waiver saying they will not sue if they contract Covid-19. Unbelievable...a complete failure of leadership...

You're spot on. It's almost as if we're living in two parallel universes. Who would have thought a global pandemic could become a partisan and cultural issue and create such a divide. Only someone as completely tone deaf and incompetent as Trump could use this as a wedge issue as opposed to using it to united and bring everybody together in a collective effort to "defeat" the virus. The opportunity was there and instead he weaponized it and it's costing lives.

I broke down and finally got a haircut this week, it had been about 5 months and made myself go. I see the same guy who works in a small shop so I knew there wouldn't be crowd. We both wore masks like sane people, but then lo and behold the two people in the next chair over came in and neither wore a mask and were talking and putting god knows what into the air in the salon. I couldn't get out of there fast enough, but despite me wearing my mask, they're ignorance / selfishness could have possibly infected me.

I hate to get too political on here, but I certainly appreciate your perspective. Living in Texas it's obviously not the easiest of places to have a left of center perspective on things. It's definitely times like this I wish I were back in a place like California. I know it's not perfect by any means but it's better than the lack of leadership we have at the state level here that once again is literally killing people.

And to make things even worse, all these states know this is happening. But the way they want to fix the problem is by hiding the statistics on the new cases. This is beyond incompetence. It is a conscious disregard for the health and safety of our country.

Yeah, I don't know which is worse, the states that as you said are simply failing to make public their statistics on cases and hospitalizations because they know they won't be pretty or the states that readily acknowledge they are rising rapidly and STILL insist on going full steam ahead with their re-opening and will not even consider rolling back some of their allowances on businesses and gatherings. It's truly unbelievable the actions of some of out so-called leaders.

My state is actively lying about the numbers. I think that is worse than just withholding them or disregarding them. The fired statistician revealed that the state's calculation totals all negative tests but only one positive test per person and that people tested multiple times (like healthcare workers) are skewing the numbers, so that if one person was tested weekly for 10 weeks and got 7 negative and 3 positive, the state counts it as 7 negative "people" and 1 positive person to inflate the negative person count. I also think counting by county is deceptive in some cases. I live in an area where subdivision sprawl covers a 5 county area that blends together and county lines seem arbitrary. My particular county has lower numbers, but the next county over (about 2 miles away) is through the roof since Memorial Day so safety is relative. Masking rate here is low, but interesting to pay attention to who does and doesn't comply, for example in my non scientific observations, Lowes customers are more willing to social distance than Home Depot customers.

Fugawe09-

In the book “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn (which is excellent by the way) the story includes the observation that in much of the South republicans will always go to Walmart and Home Depot as opposed to Costco and Lowes because the latter stores are owned by Democratic supporters. The former, republican. I have no idea if this is true, but it does fit the apparent additional fact that in the South mask wearers are sometimes referred to as “liberal pussies.” This sure fits your narrative. I do know that Lowes gives a 10% discount to veterans and thats why I go there. HD does not. Active service only. So we have now politicized retail. Why not a virus? Makes perfect sense to me. Next: Sex?
Wait a minute. A friends daughter at UC Santa Barbara says that she has a republican sorority sister who absolutely will not date a non-republican. So we are close, No?

Lowes gives a 10% discount to veterans and thats why I go there — 69aggie

I had no idea that Lowes gave veterans a 10% discount. I could have saved a lot of money over the years. Thanks for enlightening us!

Need DD214 or veterans photo ID card and you are good to go. Don’t know why they don't promote this.

I find the sociological divisions that the pandemic has highlighted in the country quite fascinating. I would definitely agree with the liberal / conservative divide among Lowes and Home Depot customers. The other one that I really notice in my part of the world is the Target / Walmart divide, where you see a much higher percentage of customers at Target wearing masks whereas its a significantly lower percentage at Walmart. Not surprising since Target is a very progressive company that attracts more left-leaning individuals and Walmart is a favorite among those on the right.

I also find this fascinating. But who the hell checks on the retailers CEOs political position before they buy? Not me. Must be fox or whatever. In do not see this in calif.

You have a point that it is difficult to track the values of every company and if you get too choosy you won't be able to shop anywhere. Most publicly traded companies minimize direct political donations and funnel it through PACs that hedge their bets by donating to both sides of the aisle, although most tilt right because they want to keep their wage and benefit costs low. There are a few (tend to be privately held/family companies) like Hobby Lobby, Jimmy Johns, and Chick-fil-a that I choose not to patronize because of their owners' extreme stances. But in cases like Target vs Walmart, where they might be about the same on social responsibility, I tend to choose the former because their stores are cleaner with a better clientele. See peopleofwalmart.com for explanation. That said, my observation has been that mask usage in my town seems to vary to some degree by store, time of day, day of week, and likely other factors. I'm sure the big box retailers are using face masks as a data point in their research. They already use AI cameras to note what departments you go to first and how long you look at items before putting them in the cart.

California numbers continue to go up also.

This thing isn't going away, especially since most (all?) states continue to open things up more.

It's definitely a scary time for those of us who don't have out heads in the sand and are informed to the reality of this pandemic. The latest U of Washington projection put out today projects 200,000 deaths by October 1. I just wish more people would take this thing seriously and do things that are so simple and easy such as wearing a mask that are proven to make a huge difference in reducing transmission.

The Sac Bee has an interesting article today addressing concerns educators have about the potential liability school districts face over the COVID situation this fall. They fear a “perfect storm” brewing that will have schools dealing with lawsuits from both sides over mask requirements and other COVID prevention measures, i.e. what if your child who wears a mask is put in a class where the parents of some of the other children do not allow their kids to wear masks or social distance based on so-called “first amendment” rights? Both you and the 1st amendment parents could sue the school in this scenario. So says the article schools want indemnity from the state This coming fall. How does this not apply to sports at any level?

I am trying to remain politically neutral, at least on this site, but I think it's ironic that some of those who downplay the COVID-19 virus and want to accelerate the return to those halcyon days of yesteryear by opening up the economy, opening up schools, etc., want to have indemnity laws and personal waivers. Why would anyone need to waive the effects of a mild flu-like illness, or why would governments and businesses need to be indemnified against litigation over the same?