Why Spring Football will not work.

[RyDogg]

Sure they could make it work in the Spring and it will be football. But what quality will it be? MAC level? worse? the talent level will definitely be lower. Depending on how much prep/practice time they get, the preparedness could be lower than usual. Will we be back to the old age of a mythical national championship? Split champions? no Champion?

As far as health goes, yes the NFL plays up to 20 games a year, but there is a reason players have to be 3 years out of high school in order to go pro. young men's bodies develop and mature from ages 18-22 and need that maturation to handle harder hits, more games and less recovery. Also, the NFL gets a full off-season to heal, recover and further strengthen their bodies for the next season. that is even more important for college age players.

It will work, but what will be the quality and cost?

 

[kicker22]

It wouldn't be perfect but at least it'd be close enough to try giving it a go. Hell the NBAs wasn't perfect with players doing right by it and they are pros. One would hope with how this has unfolded that it might have scared the seriousness of the situation into them some more. But yeah no you're right. Out of 100 football players or so they'll be 5 to 10 maybe more knuckle heads and that's more then it takes to mess it up for everyone. It's not fool proof unless you really quarantine them off. I just wish they'd try. This sucks balls.

I think the inconsistencies with how the virus is perceived is one of the driving forces pertaining to the perception /inconsistencies of how serious things are. It's hard for college football players or college students in general . Hard to scare or really inform anyone with how political this has been and the fact that even in big time college athletics the Power 5 conferences can't even agree on the severity of the issue. On one extreme it's being labeled as nothing more than an over hyped flu bug and on the other side of the equation some are still calling for shutting things down again. The answer is somewhere in between, but I can totally understand those that don't take it as seriously as others based on how things have played out and how they continue to play out.

 

[HuckFinn]

Let me clear up the confusion for you. There is years of data available on the health effects of football. That would include the amount of time the body needs to recover after a long physical football season before ramping up to do it again. There is less data available on the risks to healthy young athletes regarding covid. The data we do have suggests the short-term and long-term health risks to college athletes is almost nil. There are anecdotal and speculative theories out there that fear the worst. Some people believe those unknown risks are too great. Other folks, like myself, believe that it is reasonable for an athlete and their family to believe those risks are remote, manageable and worth taking.[/QUOTE

Respectfully I disagree. The recovery time for kids this age is mercifully short. And, the spring season will likely be abbreviated. Even if they play as late as April, September is 4 months away. These kids train 12 months out of the year. I just can’t conclude that we are placing them at any more risk than playing 12 games in 3 months.

As to the dangers of Covid, you are right, there is not a plethora of data at this time. In my world, that calls for caution. I could be wrong, but your post sounds like those in denial about the pandemic.

 

[Hawkeyes5]

Not to mention this...

B1G football in January/Feb makes zero sense. Here are the average HIGH temps for some B1G cities in Jan/Feb. Lincoln 33/39 Iowa City 31/35 Minneapolis 22/26 Madison 27/31 Chicago 32/36 Ann Arbor 31/35 East Lansing 30/33 State College 33/37. Bloomington is the hot spot with 36/41. Sounds like great football weather. Oh yeah, there's that whole snow and ice thing too. Genius...just genius.

Want to play only in domed stadiums? So much for the college football vibe and competitive balance. A few teams get little or no travel, the rest travel for every game.

Not to mention BIG 10 Basketball?? Crazy ...

 

[Stanzi]

The conferences playing this Fall aren't going to have fans in the stands so it's unlikely the B1G schools would have fans in the stands if they do in fact start playing in January so the location of games is mostly irrelevant.

There are plenty of domes available and if there aren't any fans no one will have an advantage. A season starting in January can easily work if you play in domes and don't have bye weeks. You could get the season over with by mid-March which then gives players nearly 6 months before next season's games begin.

 

[kicker22]

The conferences playing this Fall aren't going to have fans in the stands so it's unlikely the B1G schools would have fans in the stands if they do in fact start playing in January so the location of games is mostly irrelevant.

There are plenty of domes available and if there aren't any fans no one will have an advantage. A season starting in January can easily work if you play in domes and don't have bye weeks. You could get the season over with by mid-March which then gives players nearly 6 months before next season's games begin.

Is the SEC aware of this?