Not trying to be Debbie Downer here but anyone with half a brain knows that football carries the freight for all other sports save basketball and a very few baseball and hockey programs. Losing March Madness hurt a lot but losing football could be deadly. We've already seen Stanford (literally the best run athletic department in all sports for the past 25 years placing no lower than 1st in the director's cup in any year) have to cut 11 sports. I'm talking nationally ranked and relevant squads. It's kinda like a family in which both parents are temporarily out of work. All of the things college sports athletes & fans have become accustomed to are possible (at the highest levels) because of football and basketball (schools taking huge subsidies aren't competing for titles). The whole system breaks down if there is no football. Even still there are facilities debts to be paid, contractual salaries to be paid, and declining enrollments to help defray the cost. It could take 10 years to recover non-revenue sports. Instead of offering a complete suite of sports schools may likely do the absolute minimum to shore up the books if we lose football.

There were other sports before football started generating mass revenue. Its just that the facilities weren't so gold plated and in the big schools they didn't fly everywhere.

I hate seeing sports played by real students get cut so that they can have 20 analysts in addition to their dozen football coaches. And they have 85 scholarships which only serve to stockpile talent at the big programs. You probably have 15 or so redshirt. That gives you 3 full offenses and defenses and 4 left over for special teams. You could lose a third of your team to injury and still have 2 full teams not counting walk-ons, which every big program has 20-30. The NFL got by with 40 players and a 7 member taxi squad into the 70s and maybe the 80s. 70-75 scholarships is plenty.

Track was the big sport before football became big.

On the Big West (Hawaii, FCS UC Davis and Cal Poly) and WCC (BYU) side? Not too concerned. A compact geography with 17 of a combined 21 members in California says fall sports have a chance to go on without football.

(07-19-2020 03:31 PM)bullet Wrote:  There were other sports before football started generating mass revenue. Its just that the facilities weren't so gold plated and in the big schools they didn't fly everywhere.

I hate seeing sports played by real students get cut so that they can have 20 analysts in addition to their dozen football coaches. And they have 85 scholarships which only serve to stockpile talent at the big programs. You probably have 15 or so redshirt. That gives you 3 full offenses and defenses and 4 left over for special teams. You could lose a third of your team to injury and still have 2 full teams not counting walk-ons, which every big program has 20-30. The NFL got by with 40 players and a 7 member taxi squad into the 70s and maybe the 80s. 70-75 scholarships is plenty.

Track was the big sport before football became big.

When was that?

I'd imagine that if football is cancelled because the virus is too bad that it will be a long while till we see any sports. It would be a near certainty that you'll not see any winter sports because they are all played in smaller indoor venues where the chance of transmission is greater than in big open air stadiums.

(07-19-2020 03:52 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 03:31 PM)bullet Wrote:  There were other sports before football started generating mass revenue. Its just that the facilities weren't so gold plated and in the big schools they didn't fly everywhere.

I hate seeing sports played by real students get cut so that they can have 20 analysts in addition to their dozen football coaches. And they have 85 scholarships which only serve to stockpile talent at the big programs. You probably have 15 or so redshirt. That gives you 3 full offenses and defenses and 4 left over for special teams. You could lose a third of your team to injury and still have 2 full teams not counting walk-ons, which every big program has 20-30. The NFL got by with 40 players and a 7 member taxi squad into the 70s and maybe the 80s. 70-75 scholarships is plenty.

Track was the big sport before football became big.

When was that?

Probably before the time of anyone on this board. 20s and 30s.

(07-19-2020 05:17 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 03:52 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 03:31 PM)bullet Wrote:  There were other sports before football started generating mass revenue. Its just that the facilities weren't so gold plated and in the big schools they didn't fly everywhere.

I hate seeing sports played by real students get cut so that they can have 20 analysts in addition to their dozen football coaches. And they have 85 scholarships which only serve to stockpile talent at the big programs. You probably have 15 or so redshirt. That gives you 3 full offenses and defenses and 4 left over for special teams. You could lose a third of your team to injury and still have 2 full teams not counting walk-ons, which every big program has 20-30. The NFL got by with 40 players and a 7 member taxi squad into the 70s and maybe the 80s. 70-75 scholarships is plenty.

Track was the big sport before football became big.

When was that?

Probably before the time of anyone on this board. 20s and 30s.

College football was big time by the time university presidents started to complain about students travelling two states away to agitate a bag of wind.

Xichigan was making road trips to Toronto and Montreal in the 1870's.

(07-19-2020 08:25 PM)dxdtdemon Wrote:  Xichigan was making road trips to Toronto and Montreal in the 1870's.

Those road trips are relatively short though and they were playing teams that played football in any form back during the infancy of the game.

(07-19-2020 09:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 08:25 PM)dxdtdemon Wrote:  Xichigan was making road trips to Toronto and Montreal in the 1870's.

Those road trips are relatively short though and they were playing teams that played football in any form back during the infancy of the game.

Montreal is Vermont territory.

(07-19-2020 03:31 PM)bullet Wrote:  There were other sports before football started generating mass revenue. Its just that the facilities weren't so gold plated and in the big schools they didn't fly everywhere.

I hate seeing sports played by real students get cut so that they can have 20 analysts in addition to their dozen football coaches. And they have 85 scholarships which only serve to stockpile talent at the big programs. You probably have 15 or so redshirt. That gives you 3 full offenses and defenses and 4 left over for special teams. You could lose a third of your team to injury and still have 2 full teams not counting walk-ons, which every big program has 20-30. The NFL got by with 40 players and a 7 member taxi squad into the 70s and maybe the 80s. 70-75 scholarships is plenty.

Track was the big sport before football became big.

All you have said is reasonable but does not address the underlying financial realities. Name a track program in the black. The massive quantity of scholarships is quite frankly justified by their financial contribution. In many cases it would justify more. You may not like the heft and expense of football but it literally pays everyone else's bills. Remove football and you have intramural league and no competitive sports teams save basketball.

(07-19-2020 03:33 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  On the Big West (Hawaii, FCS UC Davis and Cal Poly) and WCC (BYU) side? Not too concerned. A compact geography with 17 of a combined 21 members in California says fall sports have a chance to go on without football.

This is positive news. Hopefully they can make it happen.

(07-19-2020 10:35 PM)Big Ron Buckeye Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 03:31 PM)bullet Wrote:  There were other sports before football started generating mass revenue. Its just that the facilities weren't so gold plated and in the big schools they didn't fly everywhere.

I hate seeing sports played by real students get cut so that they can have 20 analysts in addition to their dozen football coaches. And they have 85 scholarships which only serve to stockpile talent at the big programs. You probably have 15 or so redshirt. That gives you 3 full offenses and defenses and 4 left over for special teams. You could lose a third of your team to injury and still have 2 full teams not counting walk-ons, which every big program has 20-30. The NFL got by with 40 players and a 7 member taxi squad into the 70s and maybe the 80s. 70-75 scholarships is plenty.

Track was the big sport before football became big.

All you have said is reasonable but does not address the underlying financial realities. Name a track program in the black. The massive quantity of scholarships is quite frankly justified by their financial contribution. In many cases it would justify more. You may not like the heft and expense of football but it literally pays everyone else's bills. Remove football and you have intramural league and no competitive sports teams save basketball.

If football gets killed off, then you can kiss basketball goodbye too, and the intramural idea too.

(07-19-2020 10:37 PM)Big Ron Buckeye Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 03:33 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  On the Big West (Hawaii, FCS UC Davis and Cal Poly) and WCC (BYU) side? Not too concerned. A compact geography with 17 of a combined 21 members in California says fall sports have a chance to go on without football.

This is positive news. Hopefully they can make it happen.

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article244208122.html

Both Sacramento State University and University of California, Davis are in the Big Sky Conference for football, which announced in May it would leave the decision to resume play up to the schools. UC Davis plays in the Big West for all other sports.

As of now, both universities plan on having their seasons continue pending approval from county public health officials and with safety guidelines suggested by these officials

I wouldn't say it's positive news. But no cancellations so far.

CofC, UNCW, Northeastern, Drexel, and Hofstra don’t play football in the CAA. NU and Hofstra used to. NU, Hofstra, Drexel, Towson, and W&M all “postponed” fall sports. But the southern schools still plan to press on, because the SoCon and Big South still haven’t made any decisions yet.

But all it takes is one D1 athlete dying in any sport, a major outbreak at a school, maybe even a non-D1 athlete dying (most of the D3s have already cancelled), and more than likely things are scuttled for the fall at best, maybe the winter, perhaps even the spring.

The litigation against the school and conference would be enormously high.

See how much grief baseball is getting for going ahead with a 60 game divisional schedule with probably no fans anywhere except for a few rooftops.

If it was up to a lot of folks (led by Olbermann and a few others), sports in North America would be completely cancelled until at least January (conveniently after the election), maybe until a vaccine. No golf, no NASCAR even. A lot of these folks believe even one positive case in a league is enough to shut things down.

People are taking the pandemic more seriously than any other event I can recall. The rest of the world is fed up with our response and taking it out with travel bans and sanctions. They see all 330 million plus of us as virus spreaders, even though 70% of the population has been doing what they can to stop the spread for over 4 months. The Bahamas just shut down to US travelers. The Bahamas.

(07-20-2020 01:26 AM)sctvman Wrote:  CofC, UNCW, Northeastern, Drexel, and Hofstra don’t play football in the CAA. NU and Hofstra used to. NU, Hofstra, Drexel, Towson, and W&M all “postponed” fall sports. But the southern schools still plan to press on, because the SoCon and Big South still haven’t made any decisions yet.

But all it takes is one D1 athlete dying in any sport, a major outbreak at a school, maybe even a non-D1 athlete dying (most of the D3s have already cancelled), and more than likely things are scuttled for the fall at best, maybe the winter, perhaps even the spring.

The litigation against the school and conference would be enormously high.

See how much grief baseball is getting for going ahead with a 60 game divisional schedule with probably no fans anywhere except for a few rooftops.

If it was up to a lot of folks (led by Olbermann and a few others), sports in North America would be completely cancelled until at least January (conveniently after the election), maybe until a vaccine. No golf, no NASCAR even. A lot of these folks believe even one positive case in a league is enough to shut things down.

People are taking the pandemic more seriously than any other event I can recall. The rest of the world is fed up with our response and taking it out with travel bans and sanctions. They see all 330 million plus of us as virus spreaders, even though 70% of the population has been doing what they can to stop the spread for over 4 months. The Bahamas just shut down to US travelers. The Bahamas.

My UG school is a football affiliate school of a D3 conference that has cancelled all fall sports. The primary conference hasn't cancelled yet but probably will in the next week or two.

(07-19-2020 10:35 PM)Big Ron Buckeye Wrote:  

(07-19-2020 03:31 PM)bullet Wrote:  There were other sports before football started generating mass revenue. Its just that the facilities weren't so gold plated and in the big schools they didn't fly everywhere.

I hate seeing sports played by real students get cut so that they can have 20 analysts in addition to their dozen football coaches. And they have 85 scholarships which only serve to stockpile talent at the big programs. You probably have 15 or so redshirt. That gives you 3 full offenses and defenses and 4 left over for special teams. You could lose a third of your team to injury and still have 2 full teams not counting walk-ons, which every big program has 20-30. The NFL got by with 40 players and a 7 member taxi squad into the 70s and maybe the 80s. 70-75 scholarships is plenty.

Track was the big sport before football became big.

All you have said is reasonable but does not address the underlying financial realities. Name a track program in the black. The massive quantity of scholarships is quite frankly justified by their financial contribution. In many cases it would justify more. You may not like the heft and expense of football but it literally pays everyone else's bills. Remove football and you have intramural league and no competitive sports teams save basketball.

That's only true for a small percentage of the D1 schools who maintain football programs. For the vast majority of the rest, football is a cost center - not a profit center. Now you may try to argue that even at those schools who run deficits in the ADs, it's an expense gladly paid by these schools due to the marketing angle. I find this hard to believe since most schools that run the deficits are not reproducing "college atmospheres" close to the 30 - 40 profitable schools. If you are a student choosing to attend a university in a G5 conference for their sports, chances are you are going their because of 1) cost of attendance, 2) location and/or 3) choice of major.

Other...sports? Like NFL Football?