Howe: Hawkeyes About to Be Part of Science Experiment

[SpiderRico]

The virus is here to stay now, we're just going to have to learn to live with it and live with the repercussions that come with it. We certainly can't close down everytime there's a spike and I don't think places will. I think we've gotten over the initial "Oh shit" shock that comes with the introduction of a virus for which there's no vaccine or treatment.

What's been nice is the CDC has come out with new info now that we've lived with this thing for the last several months....things like it's a helluva lot harder to contract from surfaces than first thought.....things like the actual mortality rate (given the huge asymptomatic population that goes largely untested) is roughly .4%, and is really .2% for anyone younger than 75 and/or not in a nursing home.

I think once we get to Sept and start playing football, we're going to be that much more knowledgeable and realize that for the majority of people, it's akin to a bad flu. For those over 75 and/or with a pre-existing, you're going to most likely have to stay out of the public or wear a mask until a vaccine is created or herd immunity takes over.

 

[Stanzi]

I'd imagine the student athletes will be a lot more open to playing than the pros. Teenagers and those in their early 20's usually feel they're invincible. They also don't have huge contracts in play or children/spouses they're going home to after games/practices. Plus they aren't going home to their parents during the season so that really isn't a risk either. Just my opinion but I'd imagine the large majority of student athletes will be open to participating like normal.

 

[Motigerhawk]

Heck ya. This doesnt affect the young. They are just asymptomatic carriers. They wont get sick. They may go home and cough on their gma who has a lung disease and she dies, but then again maybe not. I have 2 stories of people, 1st hand, with lung cancer who got this disease and didnt die.

So full speed ahead. Iowa football for the win. Maybe we get a break and OSU and PSU and Wiscy cancel their seasons. Then we get to the playoffs.

Though it may be against 3 SEC teams, but we have shown we can handle those teams.

Iowa wins the National championship is my new prediction.

 

[westender]

If I was a 20 year old "kid", hell yeah I would want to play football. And yes they should be able to make up their mind as they are adults and could have been drafted into combat at age 18.

 

[westender]

Heck ya. This doesnt affect the young. They are just asymptomatic carriers. They wont get sick. They may go home and cough on their gma who has a lung disease and she dies, but then again maybe not. I have 2 stories of people, 1st hand, with lung cancer who got this disease and didnt die.

So full speed ahead. Iowa football for the win. Maybe we get a break and OSU and PSU and Wiscy cancel their seasons. Then we get to the playoffs.

Though it may be against 3 SEC teams, but we have shown we can handle those teams.

Iowa wins the National championship is my new prediction.

Dude, if one went home and coughed on Grandma, that is on the "kid" and Grandma. We personally are not going around anyone elderly even if we feel okay. Thats the deal. So if someone engages in that is on them personally, and Grandma can tell them she is avoiding contact.

 

[RobHowe]

As I wrote in my column linked in the OP, which you guys all have read , Ken O'Keefe will be 67 in August. KF will be 65 in August. Fran just turned 61. Kirk Speraw will be 64 in August.

According to official state records to date, 87 percent of the deaths in Iowa are people 61 and older.

There are older people that will be involved in the experiment. It's not just the players.

 

[BryceC]

What I don't get is people getting pissed about it. Nobody on this board has any influence on whether football comes back in the fall or not. And let me assure you, football will be back in the fall. So at this point, it's about trusting the schools and everybody involved in this to do the best the can to mitigate the possibility of illness and death.

 

[westender]

As I wrote in my column linked in the OP, which you guys all have read , Ken O'Keefe will be 67 in August. KF will be 65 in August. Fran just turned 61. Kirk Speraw will be 64 in August.

According to official state records to date, 87 percent of the deaths in Iowa are people 61 and older.

There are older people that will be involved in the experiment. It's not just the players.

Witnessed KF running some sprints indoors a couple years back during a kids camp as you probably at times have seen him do similar. He is not your average 65 year old when it comes to fitness.

 

[RobHowe]

KF is in better shape than am I, and he's 12 years older than me.

He's still at a higher risk for the virus, according to the CDC.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

KF is not alone in being an older coach. I am buying into that while it is likely the players may carry, few will get seriously ill or die. But, what happens to the season when Nick Saban is hospitalized with COVID? Or what does Iowa do when the week of the NW game, 50% of the NW football team tests positive.

Rob's experiment title is apt for sure.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Or what does Iowa do when the week of the NW game, 50% of the NW football team tests positive.

I don't think Northwestern is gonna play even if we have a season. Those smart kid schools with massive endowments have a much different risk calculus than a school like Iowa.

 

[homes]

I don't think Northwestern is gonna play even if we have a season. Those smart kid schools with massive endowments have a much different risk calculus than a school like Iowa.

Question: If NW keeps the students off campus this fall, will they offer a discount on their tuition? I guess that question applies to any school who elects to keep students away. Some students may just say eff it, and never come back, and come to realize they don't mind not having some massive debt throttling them for the next x number of years.

 

[Fryowa]

Question: If NW keeps the students off campus this fall, will they offer a discount on their tuition? I guess that question applies to any school who elects to keep students away. Some students may just say eff it, and never come back, and come to realize they don't mind not having some massive debt throttling them for the next x number of years.

No one really goes to college to learn unless you're a grad/post grad student in a highly specialized or scientific field that needs lab time.

You go to college to get a piece of paper; how that happens doesn't really matter to most students. Let's be honest, most of us here with bachelors degrees learned what we need in our careers on the job.

Universities (even NW) make their money off the 4 year wonders like me who go into business, liberal arts, communications, etc. where they're just looking for that transcript that says they finished. NW doesn't pay it's bills with masters and PhD students, the cash cows are the undergrads who want to get their piece of paper so they can get off the farm and compete with 500 other schleps for a job in Chicago, KC, Denver, or wherever to pay their $180,000 loans. If you really asked most of them they don't give a shit how they get their ticket.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Question: If NW keeps the students off campus this fall, will they offer a discount on their tuition? I guess that question applies to any school who elects to keep students away. Some students may just say eff it, and never come back, and come to realize they don't mind not having some massive debt throttling them for the next x number of years.

To quote my econ professor when he let us out of class 15 minutes early to thunderous applause on one of those glorious April days in Iowa where the temp had gone from like 30 to 70 in 36 hours: "Before you leave, please think if there is any commodity or service you ever buy where you cheer when you get less than what you paid for." The kids ain't gonna give a crap.

That said, no way they can collect on the dorm rentals if they don't have students on campus. Northwestern ain't gonna have any issues with that, but a lot of colleges are really reliant on that rental income and a lot of them have a shitload of debt that is totally reliant on that revenue stream.

 

[okeefe4prez]

NW doesn't pay it's bills with masters and PhD students, the cash cows are the undergrads who want to get their piece of paper so they can get off the farm and compete with 500 other schleps for a job in Chicago, KC, Denver, or wherever to pay their $180,000 loans. If you really asked most of them they don't give a shit how they get their ticket.

Not true. Really elite schools with top notch research arms make ungodly amounts of money off of IP licensing and research grants. Northwestern is tied into all the huge pharma companies on the north shore of Chicago and I would guess they pull close to a billion dollars a year out of that stuff. Top schools have in house legal departments that just do licensing and grant deals and they are every bit as protective of their IP as Fortune 500 companies. Hell, I think even Iowa State made 9 figures off of licensing IP rights related to the fax machine. It ain't an accident that the University of Iowa has dumped so much cash into the med school and hospital. That's the only potential goldmine at that school.

 

[Fryowa]

Not true. Really elite schools with top notch research arms make ungodly amounts of money off of IP licensing and research grants. Northwestern is tied into all the huge pharma companies on the north shore of Chicago and I would guess they pull close to a billion dollars a year out of that stuff. Top schools have in house legal departments that just do licensing and grant deals and they are every bit as protective of their IP as Fortune 500 companies. Hell, I think even Iowa State made 9 figures off of licensing IP rights related to the fax machine. It ain't an accident that the University of Iowa has dumped so much cash into the med school and hospital. That's the only potential goldmine at that school.

As far as my post I was comparing income from grad schoolers vs undergrads. The post I was replying to suggested that maybe a university should discount tuition because students weren't getting the same quality education by using distance learning.

My response was simply to say that undergrads are by orders of magnitude more profitable for a college, and that's the demographic that's just "here for the beer" and isn't generally going to be hurt by distance learning, not compare all sources of income. Google puts NW's undergrad enrollment at over 8,000 students and that's way over half a billion just by itself.

Undergrad students like I once was are the puppy mills of education.

 

[Fryowa]

a lot of colleges are really reliant on that rental income and a lot of them have a shitload of debt that is totally reliant on that revenue stream.

Deleted.

Sorry, I had what I think was a thoughtful reply but it mentioned Uncle Sam.

 

[okeefe4prez]

My response was simply to say that undergrads are by orders of magnitude more profitable for a college, and that's the demographic that's just "here for the beer" and isn't generally going to be hurt by distance learning, not compare all sources of income. Google puts NW's undergrad enrollment at over 8,000 students and that's way over half a billion just by itself.

Yeah, and my response to you is simply that you're wrong. The undergrad stuff at a school like Northwestern makes money, but they have opaque pricing (they have a lot of discounts to fill out the class with some semblance of whatever they deem to be diversity) and a lot of physical assets and labor input costs. The marginal profit in the business school or law school is way higher than the undergrad because they require very little by way of facilities (no labs at all) and everyone pays full freight at those programs. But the real profit center at a place like that is the research arm. Nothing else is even close. In all honesty, if they cut 3/4ths of the undergrad school and the associated facilities cost and administrative bloat and just left the hard sciences undergrads, they would be even more profitable.

That said, for probably 99% of schools in America, your take is absolutely right, but for places like NU, Standford, MIT, Georgia Tech, etc., there is so much money in the research pool that it has rendered the undergrad cash cows that they run virtually meaningless.

 

[westender]

KF is not alone in being an older coach. I am buying into that while it is likely the players may carry, few will get seriously ill or die. But, what happens to the season when Nick Saban is hospitalized with COVID? Or what does Iowa do when the week of the NW game, 50% of the NW football team tests positive.

Rob's experiment title is apt for sure.

50%, then they still have enough to play. Just like back in grade school. Jimmy you are playing Center, etc.

 

[Ree4]

No one really goes to college to learn unless you're a grad/post grad student in a highly specialized or scientific field that needs lab time.

You go to college to get a piece of paper; how that happens doesn't really matter to most students. Let's be honest, most of us here with bachelors degrees learned what we need in our careers on the job.

Universities (even NW) make their money off the 4 year wonders like me who go into business, liberal arts, communications, etc. where they're just looking for that transcript that says they finished. NW doesn't pay it's bills with masters and PhD students, the cash cows are the undergrads who want to get their piece of paper so they can get off the farm and compete with 500 other schleps for a job in Chicago, KC, Denver, or wherever to pay their $180,000 loans. If you really asked most of them they don't give a shit how they get their ticket.

I will say that you're right about learning on the job, but there's a pretty big foundation I learned while at the U of I, but then again my degree path was very different than most!