Supposedly the cost of testing was the final straw per this SI article.

As the college football season grew increasingly closer to shutting down for the fall, a primary reason against moving ahead has emerged.

And as usual, it had as much to do with money as with the welfare of the players, coaches and personal involved.

According to several sources familiar with the process, a primary reason why the Mid-American Conference became the first FBS league to place a hold on football for the fall season, involved the cost of COVID-19 testing, which could be as many as 100 people at least twice a week.

It is also a primary reason why almost half of the FCS schools have made the decision to postpone the fall football season.

Conservative estimates projected that cost at more than $20,000 a week, which far exceeded the budget limitations of athletic departments already facing loss in revenue and added costs.

And for all the chatter you heard about the concern for the well being of the coaches and players, money is the key factor.



https://www.si.com/college/tmg/mark-blau...up-of-five

(08-09-2020 10:14 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Supposedly the cost of testing was the final straw per this SI article.

[i]As the college football season grew increasingly closer to shutting down for the fall, a primary reason against moving ahead has emerged.

And as usual, it had as much to do with money as with the welfare of the players, coaches and personal involved.

Yes, the money was IMO key. Losing all those Buy games exposed the MAC to massive losses and they run their football on massive operational losses to begin with.

Give the MAC credit - they've gotten a lot of Noble Shine from the press lauding them for Doing The Right Thing for society.

But I suspect the loss of buy games and the need for testing killed the season.

We were looking at just five buy games, down from an original fifteen. Kent State alone would've lost out on six million dollars for getting their faces beaten in. You can't handle that loss on top of the increased operating costs that COVID would bring.

(08-09-2020 10:30 AM)Love and Honor Wrote:  We were looking at just five buy games, down from an original fifteen. Kent State alone would've lost out on six million dollars for getting their faces beaten in. You can't handle that loss on top of the increased operating costs that COVID would bring.

Yes. I know that COVID testing can be costly, but not at the level of the lost Buy games.

MAC programs are operationally far underwater even with Buy games. Without them ....

(08-09-2020 10:14 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Supposedly the cost of testing was the final straw per this SI article.

As the college football season grew increasingly closer to shutting down for the fall, a primary reason against moving ahead has emerged.

And as usual, it had as much to do with money as with the welfare of the players, coaches and personal involved.

According to several sources familiar with the process, a primary reason why the Mid-American Conference became the first FBS league to place a hold on football for the fall season, involved the cost of COVID-19 testing, which could be as many as 100 people at least twice a week.

It is also a primary reason why almost half of the FCS schools have made the decision to postpone the fall football season.

Conservative estimates projected that cost at more than $20,000 a week, which far exceeded the budget limitations of athletic departments already facing loss in revenue and added costs.

And for all the chatter you heard about the concern for the well being of the coaches and players, money is the key factor.



https://www.si.com/college/tmg/mark-blau...up-of-five

I just listen to an interview with the NIU AD on ESPN and he stated money was part of the decision to postpone fall sports. He indicated there were definitely other factors just as important as the loss revenue from not playing P-5 schools.

I'd love to read one of the buy game contracts as to liability for canceling a game.

(08-09-2020 10:40 AM)Ohio Poly Wrote:  I'd love to read one of the buy game contracts as to liability for canceling a game.

Google "CSNBBS Arkansas State Miami lawsuit".

Miami cancelled a trip to Arkansas State because of a hurricane, dragged their feet on rescheduling, Arky sued, drama ensued.

There's a lot to learn there.

It was 100% a financial decision. Which begs the question why be at the FBS level if you can't afford to without body bag games? The next big shoe to drop will probably be a mass realignment of programs to where they really should be. Don't want to highjack the thread so I made one for that topic. https://csnbbs.com/thread-904264.html

(08-09-2020 10:14 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Supposedly the cost of testing was the final straw per this SI article.

As the college football season grew increasingly closer to shutting down for the fall, a primary reason against moving ahead has emerged.

And as usual, it had as much to do with money as with the welfare of the players, coaches and personal involved.

According to several sources familiar with the process, a primary reason why the Mid-American Conference became the first FBS league to place a hold on football for the fall season, involved the cost of COVID-19 testing, which could be as many as 100 people at least twice a week.

It is also a primary reason why almost half of the FCS schools have made the decision to postpone the fall football season.

Conservative estimates projected that cost at more than $20,000 a week, which far exceeded the budget limitations of athletic departments already facing loss in revenue and added costs.

And for all the chatter you heard about the concern for the well being of the coaches and players, money is the key factor.



https://www.si.com/college/tmg/mark-blau...up-of-five

Yes, it is money, but looked at another way, there wasn't the money needed to provide the safety measures to ensure the well-being of players, coaches, and support personnel, let alone fans.

Money is a means to an end. I'd hate to lose sight of that.

(08-09-2020 11:48 AM)NotANewbie Wrote:  

(08-09-2020 10:14 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Supposedly the cost of testing was the final straw per this SI article.

As the college football season grew increasingly closer to shutting down for the fall, a primary reason against moving ahead has emerged.

And as usual, it had as much to do with money as with the welfare of the players, coaches and personal involved.

According to several sources familiar with the process, a primary reason why the Mid-American Conference became the first FBS league to place a hold on football for the fall season, involved the cost of COVID-19 testing, which could be as many as 100 people at least twice a week.

It is also a primary reason why almost half of the FCS schools have made the decision to postpone the fall football season.

Conservative estimates projected that cost at more than $20,000 a week, which far exceeded the budget limitations of athletic departments already facing loss in revenue and added costs.

And for all the chatter you heard about the concern for the well being of the coaches and players, money is the key factor.



https://www.si.com/college/tmg/mark-blau...up-of-five

Yes, it is money, but looked at another way, there wasn't the money needed to provide the safety measures to ensure the well-being of players, coaches, and support personnel, let alone fans.

Money is a means to an end. I'd hate to lose sight of that.

Correct. “I can’t afford to pay for comprehensive testing to keep my players safe” is a very different than, “...profits fell and we said screw it.”

I can understand the MAC not being able to afford testing to keep players safe. My concern is the timeframe. If this is the New Normal & a requirement in a post Covid World, the MAC, and other leagues considered minor, may never come back.

(08-09-2020 01:01 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  I can understand the MAC not being able to afford testing to keep players safe. My concern is the timeframe. If this is the New Normal & a requirement in a post Covid World, the MAC, and other leagues considered minor, may never come back.

If you assume that continual testing will be needed over the long term, that is a strong consideration. However, if there is an effective vaccination available the need for that testing is eliminated, and the financial impact will be relatively small.

In fact, if as a society we are serious about heading off coronavirus for the forseeable future, a wise move would be to make the vaccine available to all for free. The cost to the economy would be far less than the costs of a recurrence of another outbreak.

(08-09-2020 10:14 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Supposedly the cost of testing was the final straw per this SI article.

As the college football season grew increasingly closer to shutting down for the fall, a primary reason against moving ahead has emerged.

And as usual, it had as much to do with money as with the welfare of the players, coaches and personal involved.

According to several sources familiar with the process, a primary reason why the Mid-American Conference became the first FBS league to place a hold on football for the fall season, involved the cost of COVID-19 testing, which could be as many as 100 people at least twice a week.

It is also a primary reason why almost half of the FCS schools have made the decision to postpone the fall football season.

Conservative estimates projected that cost at more than $20,000 a week, which far exceeded the budget limitations of athletic departments already facing loss in revenue and added costs.

And for all the chatter you heard about the concern for the well being of the coaches and players, money is the key factor.



https://www.si.com/college/tmg/mark-blau...up-of-five

Imagine that!

Testing and a continued watched/monitoring of people would eat away the money from the P5 schools as well. It is not worth the risk since a lot of schools already have so many student athletes contracting the virus.

The Big Ten is following the MAC's lead and shutting it down. Is someone going to start a thread claiming the Big Ten did it for financial reasons, too?

This isn't about finances. This is about keeping people safe from a deadly virus.

(08-10-2020 12:18 PM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  The Big Ten is following the MAC's lead and shutting it down. Is someone going to start a thread claiming the Big Ten did it for financial reasons, too?

This isn't about finances. This is about keeping people safe from a deadly virus.

Different conferences can have different reasons for shutting down. The B1G stands to lose a lot of money by not playing so they aren't doing it for money.

The MAC is in a different situation.

As for society more generally, it seems to me that as bad as the virus is, we have badly overreacted to it. A case of CV19 isn't like a black mamba bite or rabies. Directly protect those with high risk, let everyone else conduct the business of society. Sadly, a decision to shut down football would be in line with the "lock down" mentality of March that did so much damage to society. And thanks to the media, that is still the dominant public mindset.

(08-10-2020 12:18 PM)Schadenfreude Wrote:  The Big Ten is following the MAC's lead and shutting it down. Is someone going to start a thread claiming the Big Ten did it for financial reasons, too?

This isn't about finances. This is about keeping people safe from a deadly virus.

Its about money. The potential short term and long term financial exposure to the universities from allowing sports to be played is huge. The NCAA says there can be no assumption of the risk by the players. So, what can the universities do? The annual budget for Michigan is $9 billion. Do you really think the President and BOD are willing to risk multiple multimillion dollar lawsuits, e.g., because someone dies or has heart problems in 10-15 years because of corona, just to play fall sports? Even if the schools do everything in their power to keep the athletes safe, it would not stop a lawsuit suggestion the schools knew or the risk and still had the athletes play.

No buy games + no ticket sales + low TV money = why bother

(08-10-2020 08:30 PM)solohawks Wrote:  No buy games + no ticket sales + low TV money = why bother

Yes, Buy games apparently bring in alot more to the MAC than the media deal.

Now that the Mountain West, the Big Ten, and the Pac 12 have followed the MAC in shutting it down, I think we can see this is not about money. This is about listening to the experts.