Different perspective on BIG 10 football's 180

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/brennan/2020/09/16/big-ten-football-decision-marks-darkest-day/5793238002/

Another article..

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/dan-wolken/2020/09/16/big-ten-got-played-president-trump-and-hes-eager-celebrate/5821009002/

Pac 12 getting a shot in the arm, Oregon and California leading the charge:

https://www.oregonlive.com/collegefootball/2020/09/with-oregon-and-california-governors-signing-off-pac-12-charges-ahead-toward-a-fall-football-season-issues-answers.html

I think the schools/conferences currently playing (with stated desire to do so by players) have triggered a change in the attitude of the hold-out leagues by showing it can be done. Sure there may be some hiccups, but all in all it is a net positive for players/schools/students/bands and alums.

Personally I think it is either play this fall or bag it till next fall. Most leagues will have played and it would be weird playing on a “temporal island” not to mention that spring is just weird to be playing football. It’s possible that FCS might go in spring given more unanimity in no-play decision this fall.

I don’t think most FCS schools have the resources to provide the testing required. Question will be whether things have changed enough after the first of the year that will allow play with reduced testing. Else, I think several FCS leagues or teams will bail.

UC Davis is talking about testing the entire student body and faculty/staff weekly. They’re able to run the test in house. Not certain, but i suspect it’s a PCR which is quick, accurate, and very specific. I think Dr. Mike is correct, most schools don’t have the resources. We are fortunate to have a medical school and a veterinary school, both with the ability to run these tests.

an advantage of being a major university. Portland State seems to be on life support (especially losing two PAC12 games) and EWU seems to be having serious issues. Supporting certain protocols seems to be unrealistic. Not sure if that’s what is driving the SUU possible opt out.

As a side note, the final week of the proposed schedule (from NCAA FCS championship guide) falls on Picnic Day. So, Causeway and Picnic Day!

For what purpose? Why test healthy young people, and healthy asymptomatic young people?

Well, not sure how to answer this. But a guess would be to prevent super spreaders.

The Boise State article was interesting. They had a separate article about their baseball program, which was eliminated.

Apparently the coach, Gary Van Tol, is still under contract for 2 more years (albeit at whatever reduced total was agreed upon). I wonder what random assignments they'll give him so that he can sort of earn his pay ? Teach a P.E. class ? Work in the academic advising area ? He could help the players who are still there, but Boise State would appear to have no vested interest in paying for their success at other colleges. It's not like BSU is a community college.

Yet, they still are supporting the student- athletes in an unexpected way. Of course you would expect them to get access to weight rooms and other services student- athletes would normally receive, but apparently the ones who are sitting there in limbo waiting to transfer will be given access to Memorial Stadium for practices. As I mentioned in the baseball section Memorial Stadium doesn't belong to BSU; it doesn't even belong to the city of Boise. It's located about 3 miles from campus in Garden City- at the county fairgrounds. There must be some multi- year agreement in place. They might have to be flexible with scheduling as the Boise Hawks of minor league baseball (the primary tenants) may become a full season team under MLB's new agreement with Minor League Baseball. Not sure why MLB wants to keep the Hawks and axe the Salem- Keizer Volcanoes. There are other league teams in OR, but not in ID. The ballparks are comparable. Must be Boise's proximity to the Portland area.

Anyway, what an odd situation for the players. About 3/4 of their 2020 team has transferred out and there aren't enough remaining to play intra- squad games or even scrimmage against say, a high school team. They'll probably have to limit their practices to taking BP and playing flies and grounders. I guess Van Tol's biggest role will be helping the holdovers find transfer homes, since he and his coaches are the ones who know these players best.

Legal purposes...

my daughter, a college junior, caught Covid-19 from an asymptomatic, apparently healthy young woman. Between four and six of their mutual friends were infected by the same person. My daughter's contact was at dinner outside at a local restaurant. The rest of our family was quarantined for two weeks after the health department contacted her to inform her she had been in contact with someone who tested positive.

We had breakfast together the day before she was contacted. By the time she went for her test she was running a 101 degree fever. Two days later she got her positive result. I had gone to work the next day and was in contact with numerous people. Fortunately I did not get it and infect my colleagues.

She was fortunate to have a mild case, but she is still recovering and about a month later still tires easily. While not as fit as she was when she ran cross country and track as a college freshman, she is normally a healthy young woman who is not in any 'danger' groups.

That's why you would test everyone. The University of Idaho has come up with an in-house testing system but it isn't testing weekly. Students had to get tested upon their return to campus in order to attend in-person classes.

"For what purpose? Why test healthy young people, and healthy asymptomatic young people?"

Just a guess, but to make sure they are healthy?

You raised a good point, although it wasn't the point of your post, about the falsehoiod being spread that all this outdoor dining is doing much to slow the spread of COVID- 19. All it is doing is making people think, "Oh boy, a picnic with my buddies...it's a nice day!" It's not making people any more cautious about avoiding close contact" I don't know about your neck of the woods, but here in Sacramento it borders on ridiculous. A big offender is the University of Beer (not the one in Davis- which I don't think serves any food made on the premises). Yesterday the porch was PACKED with football fans. Not only weren't the tables six feet from each other, but people were practically up in each other's faces when they got up to use the bathroom, etc. If anything they're conning a lot of not very cautious people. The thought process behind this reminded me of those students in the Segundo DC who would get two hamburgers, fries, and a diet cola. There's the UCD tie- in.

I don't want to disparage restaurants for doing the best they can to stay in business under the circumstances- it's the customers who are being stupid. I honestly felt safer from COVID eating inside a Texas Applebee's in July than I would have at any of the makeshift "street food" (because your table is in the middle of the road) places. What's really to stop some smartphone- obsessed nitwit from driving through that silly barrier and killing a bunch of people, all because of a TikTok video.?

, my wife told our daughter that if she was going to bars she couldn't come over and visit our home. So she stopped going to bars, and when she caught the virus it was from doing the 'safe' or 'safer' thing. You're right, I don't know if outdoor dining really makes a difference, but I would rather eat outdoors than indoors. I've pretty much stopped doing either. No going to BWW for football on Sundays, but on the bright side we now have Live TV on Hulu so I can get the NFL and Premier League games. The downside here is that we've been hit with Minshew Mania, and on Sunday I got the Jaguars v. Titans instead of my Steelers.

Other Sports - UC Admissions scandal - Varsity Blues 2.0.

....back to the topic. Mountain west will begin football, and a week ahead of PAC-10. MAC to play also. That would leave only 3 FBS schools refraining from football this fall.

San Jose is relocating to Humboldt so they can start practicing, since Santa Clara county hasn’t given them the okay. Stanford is in the same boat but start their season 2 weeks later. Seems like a pretty costly expedition for the Spartans but I’m not sure what else they could do

Wow. Somoa cookhouse can use the business.

Sounds like a real shit show with SJSU. Just send 5 busloads up to Humboldt to get by county health, but don’t let ‘host’ county know about.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/10/02/covid-and-college-football-san-jose-state-does-an-end-around-health-officials/

State limits seem like to will be hard to really prepare. Limit of 75 players (I think we suit up 100 or so for preseason).

Aside from covid, not sure where you can go to get away from the smoke.

I was unaware of the Mendocino / August Fire, approaching 1 Million acres. Ridiculous. Years ago, we allegedly tore out many logging / fire roads because of lawsuits from the "Let it Burn" coalition. :rage:

Unprecedented fire season (250% of our previous high) and homelessness aside, Governor Newsom has put a commission together to study reparations and transgendered individuals get to pick their own prison (i.e., a 6'3" 200# male can choose the women's prison).

Go Ags!

according to my AQI app, air quality in Arcata is below 50. I believe that’s pretty accurate.

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Just saw a trailer on espn that pac-12 was only going to allow patents/relatives into games with no general public allowed. I first thought that was stupid, but then realized, that at least for the Bay Area schools, it’s about their normal attendance anyway.....

You're right. That is pretty stupid. Sac State was going with a similar plan before the baseball season was called, only they included professional scouts.

How exactly do they intend to determine who's a relative and who isn't ? They'll probably go with a player pass list sort of deal but that counts on the player being honest. They could easily just put their friends on the pass list and claim they are siblings. Given most student- athletes live away from home being a parent or relative does not decrease the likelihood of having and spreading COVID- 19. I get that it's about limiting the size of the gathering, but their logic is faulty. They might as well just give each participating athlete (no redshirts) 4 tickets to invite whomever they wish.

my point was the lack of logic in limiting spectators to that few. In an outdoor stAdium with say 70,000 seats you limit spectators to say maybe 500 at most? I can see no tailgating, but to limit to that extent in an outdoor facility seems draconian. You could have a half-way decent experience with a spread out band and say 10% or 15% of capacity.