(08-10-2020 08:36 PM)Transic_nyc Wrote: This year has been one non sequitur after another. Nothing that we would call common sense is happening. There is no scenario that would be too outlandish to consider when it comes to college sports.
All the while it is exposing the fault lines between academics, fans, athletes, donors, coaches and sports writers.
Of those which do you believe to be the most deluded?
For me it's the academics. They have grown so fat and happy on ever increasing tuition and COLA's all the while convincing themselves that excellence has been maintained while standards have been lowered for the sake of growing enrollment. They have a god awful mess that they don't know what to do with and COVID is potentially a much greater threat to the classroom experience than to sports.
So what do we get, hyper concern from academics for sports, but insistence that the classroom can be saved and at risk to whom? Their older professors.
Coaches know what they are up against. Fans have been social distancing and wearing masks all Summer. Donors know they are needed more than ever to stem the tide against the programs, and the damned sports writers only know how to stir the pot to get readers and views and hits. IMO when the sportswriters conspire with the academic administration they only drive the delusion of the latter.
Athletics is going to handle the virus far better than the main campus where the real risk to the athlete exists.
The students started drifting back into Auburn (even with no classes) after the 4th of July and a summertime COVID rate rose from single digits per week to 40 per week and for no other reason than about 15% of the students were back with nothing to do and they partied together, shopped without masks or distancing (until the Governor mandated otherwise) and now the total infection rate for the county has doubled and classes don't start back for another week. There's your problem for the athletes, and the professors, and everyone else.
But the dumb*** presidents think all will be okay by sacrificing sports to avoid liability. At least down here the donors and coaches are lined up against them and so far winning.
IMO all of the core curriculum should be taught online as that cuts out almost half of the on campus enrollment for the Fall. Then the Juniors and Seniors and Grad students could attend classes that were distanced with air that circulates from the outside. It frees up classrooms, time slots, labs, parking, and doesn't stress the community.
Now if the academics would do something logical like that they could make up losses by having no limit on the Freshman and Sophomore class sizes since they would all be online. The governor could mandate 100% transfer credit to other state schools and Auburn and Alabama could keep the best of the rising Sophomore Class and those not making the cut are guaranteed their work isn't lost if they transfer in state.
The trick during the virus is to keep enrollment and revenue up while downsizing the campus exposure. These dinosaurs need to think outside of their very tight little boxes, especially since the virus may be around for a few years.
Return to athletic dorms and managing sports gets much easier. Also the riskiest behavior in a college town comes from Freshmen and Sophomores who think they've just joined the best party they will ever have. Keep them at home and the rest aren't nearly the risk.
So it's times the academics took a long hard look at who they are and the ways they are stuck on because those are the biggest obstacle to stopping the virus on a campus.
