The Crimson Might Have Set Unstoppable Wave In Motion to Halt College Football This Fall
College football fans are used to the Crimson Tide being out in front of the sport, as Alabama has won five national championships since 2009. But it's the other Crimson that might end up defining the 2020 season.
Monday, the chances of college football playing this fall took a real hit when Harvard announced it will have remote classes for the upcoming semester and allow just 40 percent of the students on campus (mostly freshmen).
The announcement, similar to what Yale unveiled last week, was likely a foreshadow for the Ivy League, which is due to reveal its 2020 plans for football on Wednesday.
The expectation is that it will try and play in the spring, if it can. Another possibility is to cancel the season altogether.
"Some of the attributes that we most value about our campus are exactly the things that make adaptation to pandemic conditions particularly challenging," the Harvard release said. "Our bustling urban environment, the ease of grabbing the T into Boston, our intergenerational residential communities that house 98% of our undergraduates, our global research community of students, faculty, staff, postdocs and visitors from around the world – Harvard was built for connection, not isolation.
"Without a vaccine or effective clinical treatments for the virus, we know that no choice that reopens the campus is without risk. That said, we have worked closely with leading epidemiologists and medical experts to define an approach that we believe will protect the health and safety of our community, while also protecting our academic enterprise and providing students with the conditions they need to be successful academically."
The movement to postpone the football season until February is gaining serious momentum, with Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley recently saying a spring football season is “doable.”
However, it would create its own set of problems that would have to be worked out, from eligibility to scheduling, plus the dangers of playing two seasons in 12 months.
While the number of confirmed cases are dramatically on the rise in the sun belt states, experts are predicting a second wave of the coronavirus in the fall. Consequently, numerous schools are looking at wrapping up the semester before Thanksgiving.
Schools are a week away from holding their first official team workouts, with coaches having their first direct access to players.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey says a deadline date to determine if a football season can be played in the fall remains “unknown,” but noted that there's still a month until the start of traditional camps, the first week of August.
“You have to think about, ‘What will you know in January that will be different?’" Sankey told Sports Illustrated after a U.S. Senate committee hearing last week.
"It’s been difficult to predict. We have to be careful in our decision making. Even amidst the concerning data now, we want to make sure we take care of our young people first and then we’ll see what happens through July to make decisions.”
Meanwhile, our own Tony Barnhart has had enough. His column today: So You Say You Want College Football In 2020? Then put on a damn mask.
• More College Football
Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated has an interesting read about how black football coaches are working together like never before, with many participating in twice-weekly gatherings via Zoom.
They're speaking openly while gathering in private. He wonders what if they took the message public?
An excerpt: "What began with about 35 running backs coaches talking football in the early weeks of the pandemic shutdown has exploded into a movement of sorts, amplified by the racial strife that has gripped America since late May. Coaches have flocked to the meetings, both the general Thursday night calls and the Sunday HBCU version. They are eager to follow the group’s motto—“listen, learn and network”—while hearing many of the leading Black men in their profession speak with remarkable candor. The topics can be as mundane as facility fundraising or as weighty as race, politics and police relations in America."
Check out his story about how it's time black coaches feel the freedom to speak out.
Baseball
If Major League Baseball is able to pull off its shortened season the team that may be the most dangerous could be ... the Tampa Bay Rays?
That's according to SI's Tom Verducci.
His thinking centers around the story of pitcher Peter Fairbanks, and how the franchise is able to find gems on a budget. From pitchers one through 15, the Rays have the best pure stuff in baseball.
"I would say they set the curve for pretty much everything," Fairbanks said.
Only three teams won 90 games six or more times from 2010-19: the Yankees, Dodgers and Rays.
They find Picassos in attics, Tiffany lamps in basements and pitchers with outlier stuff in the dumpsters of other organizations.
Tampa Bay more than keeps with the big-spending teams in its division, but this season has an extra advantage because it'll be a sprint and not a marathon.
Sports Illustrated
Did you notice?
• The 10 biggest NFL what ifs of the past 10 years.
• LSU coach Ed Orgeron is spending his strange offseason falling in love with boxing.
• The CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos are keeping their name after “an extensive year-long formal research and engagement program with Inuit leaders and community members across Canada.”
• The Bucks shut down their practice facility after getting their coronavirus test results back and aren’t expected to reopen it before the team travels to the NBA bubble in Orlando.
• A 2020 MLB season would be just as bizarre for broadcasters as for players.
On the lighter side
• UFC’s Paul Felder challenged a trash-talking fan to fight.
• Bryson DeChambeau had a little hissy fit over a CBS cameraman filming an on-course outburst.
• Carlos Correa is asking his wife to stay out of salons during the MLB season in hopes it will lessen his chances of contracting the coronavirus.
• She makes a point ...
For more SI Hot Clicks.
