Ivy League Says No Football This Fall, but Big 12, Power Five, and the rest of Division I still Hoping
STILLWATER -- In what is a terrible precursor for anyone hoping that there will be a college football season this fall the Ivy League has squashed all of it's fall sports and postponed all athletics competition until 2021. Nothing as far as competitive and intercollegiate athletics until January. This includes football, cross country, soccer, sailing, and even the start of the basketball seasons for men and women.
The decision was made by the Ivy League presidents and their decision is the first of a Division I conference to declare they are not playing football in the fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The presidents of the Ivy League schools did say practices would be permitted, but competition will wait until there is significant improvement with the coronavirus.
It was the Ivy League that first shut down basketball and all other spring sports last March. They were criticized for being premature in their decision, but two days later the NCAA had shut down the highly profitable NCAA Men's Basketball Championship and all other competition in winter and spring sports.
I do not believe you will see as immediate a follow of the Ivy League action this time. The general feeling is the commissioners of the Division I Power Five Conferences, including Bob Bowlsby of the Big 12, are going to wait and see how things continue.
The news lately has not been good with Texas and Oklahoma having a large number of recent positive tests. Oklahoma and their head football coach Lincoln Riley waited to report later with Riley advertising it would be safer, but Oklahoma had virtually the same results when testing student-athletes and also reported two staff members tested positive. Kansas and Kansas State have recently shut down training because of positive tests.
Oklahoma State has held steady with football and no recent positive tests. The basketball team reported late last week and early this week an athletic department source said the team had no positive tests. A very strong sign.
Bob Bowlsby is still hopeful, but is very cautious about football and certainly, predicts it won't go smoothly.
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"It feels like the train is on the tracks and we’re moving forward little by little," Bowlsby said recently of the Big 12. "We’re back on campus training. Some are having an experience like UT and others haven’t had any positive tests. I think that’s probably the way it’ll be through the season if we’re able to get there. One foot in front of the other. So, when you ask about my level of confidence, I’m confident in the medical professionals that we’re working with and the consultants and the leadership of the institution, but this is a very virulent virus. We’re going to have to learn to coexist with it."
Bowlsby has always said he anticipated a football season, if played, that would be bumpy and highly disrupted.
“We could have individual institutions that have big flare-ups and decide that they’re going to close school,” Bowlsby said in a radio interview. “Or we could have schools that go right through and really don’t have any problems and get all 12 games in. I think the reality of dealing with some schools having 12 games and some schools having other numbers is fairly likely.”
Meanwhile, a group of Big 12 athletic directors from Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma, TCU, and West Virginia continue to work on protocols and contingencies for the upcoming football season.
Imagine the reaction by many if there is no football or if there are no fans allowed for football, both are real possibilities.
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It might be safe to assume right now that unless the spikes we are seeing in the southwest and midwest with the coronavirus don't drop that the football season would be delayed.
In the Ivy League they are looking at what it will take to play football next year, as early as January or more likely, February.
As for the possibility of playing football then, Princeton football Coach Bob Surace, speaking to the New York Times, characterized it thusly: “One word. Hope.”
