[FlamesHighontheTide]

So, at this point there are 19 MLB players with COVID or who atleast haven't returned to team activities. That is 1.05% of all the players on MLB rosters this season(60 per team). Just trying to get some more information out there for us.

[Purple Haize]

Were they symptomatic or asymptomatic?

[thepostman]

I didn't see it mentioned. Regardless, I do wonder if seeing this will at least push back the college football season. I was hopeful for a while but seeing stuff like this makes me start to doubt it. We will find out more as this week moves forward and the conferences start making their decisions.

[Purple Haize]

I didn't see it mentioned. Regardless, I do wonder if seeing this will at least push back the college football season. I was hopeful for a while but seeing stuff like this makes me start to doubt it. We will find out more as this week moves forward and the conferences start making their decisions.

If they weren’t symptomatic then it’s an overreaction. It’s something that needs to be factored in. I believe we are the only country that counts the asymptomatic as “Cases”.

[thepostman]

I know that is true of China, and now of Russia but I hadn't read that as true of any other country. I could be wrong, I just haven't read that anywhere but I have cut way back on my media intake on all things covid other then local news.

Regardless, you can claim it is an over reaction (and it may be) but there is no doubt it'll be part of the conversation.

I want football to happen but nothing is trending in the right way for me have much faith it'll happen. At least not by the beginning of September.

[TH Spangler]

I know that is true of China, and now of Russia but I hadn't read that as true of any other country. I could be wrong, I just haven't read that anywhere but I have cut way back on my media intake on all things covid other then local news.

Regardless, you can claim it is an over reaction (and it may be) but there is no doubt it'll be part of the conversation.

I want football to happen but nothing is trending in the right way for me have much faith it'll happen. At least not by the beginning of September.

Seasons will probably be delayed until after November 3th.

[flamehunter]

No college football would mean a $70 million hit to the Blacksburg economy
Big money at stake all across the country. This is one town's take on the possibility of no football.

[ballcoach15]

Question

In reference to some college football players "opting to sit out the season", are they actually scared of catching the virus or is there a "hidden" reason ?

[thepostman]

I'd imagine they'd rather not risk getting the virus but I'm not them so who knows.

[Jonathan Carone]

Question

In reference to some college football players "opting to sit out the season", are they actually scared of catching the virus or is there a "hidden" reason ?

Most who are opting out are doing it for health reasons.

Outside of skill positions, most football players are technically obese. That means they're at a higher risk to get sick.

About 10% of the black athletes likely carry the sickle cell gene. That means they're at a higher risk to get sick.

Even though most are unlikely to die if they have the virus, it's proven to cause heart issues like myocarditis which could shut a player down for a season similar to Eduardo Rodriguez in MLB.

Black people are dying at 2.5 times the rate of white people so the risk is higher if the do get sick.

The reason UConn shut down was because their players and coaches didn't feel it'd be safe to play. While many on this board don't take covid very seriously, there are plenty around the country who see it as a very big deal.

[olldflame]

All of those risk factors are exactly the same whether they play football or not. They are also pretty much the same for every team. It will be interesting to see after the season what the damage from Covid was for players on teams who competed vs those who sat out. The outbreak on the Marlins had absolutely nothing to do with them playing baseball.

There is little doubt in my mind that other factors played at least as big a role in UConn's decision as fear of getting sick. They had lost 6 games due to decisions their opponents conferences made and were struggling to put together a schedule. After being awful the last 3 years, they had 20 players transfer out this off season, and were counting on a boatload of JUCOs to put a team on the field. They probably benefit from a year off to "regroup" as much as any team in the country would.

[ballcoach15]

NCAA Division II and III have canceled all fall sports.

I think athletes will be more likely to catch virus by not playing, than if they were playing. By playing they would be in a more structured environment. With no season they'll have more free time to catch virus.

[lynchburgwildcats]

They did not cancel fall sports. They cancelled the NCAA championships. The schools and conferences can still play this fall if they want. Though I suspect most who haven’t done so yet will fall in line with what seemingly most have done (at least in D3) and postpone fall sports to the second semester.

[RubberMallet]

I don't think you can really talk about the "ramifications" of people doing x, y, or z because of coronavirus. There will be ramifications but i think they will be fairly muted as everyone is going to put all their baggage and losses on this thing and quite frankly it will be totally justifiable! now there are real world things like draft position and other stuff for people potentially going pro and what not but everyone is effectively in the same position.

[Sly Fox]

Expect a call from the NCAA today that the FCS Championships are toast. It is looking more and more like FCS is totally going to be gone this fall leaving a handful of independents to help fill schedule slots for FBS schools. Spring football has now gone from a silly idea a few months ago to a likely reality for this classification.

[ballcoach15]

I don't know why, but I think spring football will not be as easy to pull off as some schools may think. It will be like the watered down NBA season that I think is playing now somewhere in Florida.

[JK37]

I don't know why, but I think spring football will not be as easy to pull off as some schools may think. It will be like the watered down NBA season that I think is playing now somewhere in Florida.

Orlando? It’s only, like, the #1 tourist destination in the World. As in, Disney World.

And as someone who reads 1,938,485,033,949 newspapers daily, how do you not know the NBA is playing at WDW?! You probably still have a subscription to the Lexington Herald-Leader kicking around.

[ATrain]

Question

In reference to some college football players "opting to sit out the season", are they actually scared of catching the virus or is there a "hidden" reason ?

Most who are opting out are doing it for health reasons.

Outside of skill positions, most football players are technically obese. That means they're at a higher risk to get sick.

About 10% of the black athletes likely carry the sickle cell gene. That means they're at a higher risk to get sick.

Even though most are unlikely to die if they have the virus, it's proven to cause heart issues like myocarditis which could shut a player down for a season similar to Eduardo Rodriguez in MLB.

Black people are dying at 2.5 times the rate of white people so the risk is higher if the do get sick.

The reason UConn shut down was because their players and coaches didn't feel it'd be safe to play. While many on this board don't take covid very seriously, there are plenty around the country who see it as a very big deal.

And if we didn't have quite as many people not taking it seriously (including on this board) and treating it as the very big deal that it is, perhaps our nation would be in a better off spot today, but I digress.

The NCAA has said that if 50%+ of schools in a division are not going to play, then the championships will be canceled. We have already seen the Ivy, Patriot, America East, Northeast, SWAC, MEAC, CAA, MAAC, MAC, and A-10 cancel or postpone fall sports. This affects soccer, volleyball, cross country, and field hockey - in addition to football (FCS and FBS). We may not have any, or very few, collegiate sports.

[lynchburgwildcats]

Sounds like Big Ten is going to be either cancelling or postponing all fall sports. Expect other Power 5 conferences to follow.

Thanks a lot you idiot virus hoaxers and anti-maskers.

[cruzan_flame13]

Sounds like Big Ten is going to be either cancelling or postponing all fall sports. Expect other Power 5 conferences to follow.

Thanks a lot you idiot virus hoaxers and anti-maskers.

[Sly Fox]

Many of the skeptics are claiming that spring football is nothing more than a smokescreen to hold on to kids into the spring semester. If the The Rock is able to get the XFL rolling in the spring it will serve the purpose of showcasing the layers to the NFL. They wouldn't need a spring season.

My beef with the spring season is that you are barely gaining 4 months to get the pandemic under control. Most of the proponents are suggesting training camp in Jan with season from February to April and bowls in May. Think about February weather up north. Typically college football is done by Thanksgiving with nothing but dome stadiums and palm trees for the remaining games. That won't be the case for the vast majority fo schools with open air stadiums.

Then there is the matter of trying to keep college kids with time on their hands out of trouble. We are still talking about 18- to 22-year-olds in most cases.

[olldflame]

Many of the skeptics are claiming that spring football is nothing more than a smokescreen to hold on to kids into the spring semester. If the The Rock is able to get the XFL rolling in the spring it will serve the purpose of showcasing the layers to the NFL. They wouldn't need a spring season.

My beef with the spring season is that you are barely gaining 4 months to get the pandemic under control. Most of the proponents are suggesting training camp in Jan with season from February to April and bowls in May. Think about February weather up north. Typically college football is done by Thanksgiving with nothing but dome stadiums and palm trees for the remaining games. That won't be the case for the vast majority fo schools with open air stadiums.

Then there is the matter of trying to keep college kids with time on their hands out of trouble. We are still talking about 18- to 22-year-olds in most cases.

And the kind of trouble they wil get into is likely to place them in greater danger of catching the virus than playing football. All of those players on the Marlins did not catch Covid on the diamond or in training.

[Purple Haize]

Magic City Wings has now become a catch all joke in my circle of friends

[ballcoach15]

Playing in the spring will not allow enough recovery time before the 2021 season begins. Plus it will probably overlap NFL Draft Combine.
Once again the weak leadership of NCAA/Conference Commissioners is showing.

[FlamesHighontheTide]

plus we are talking about cancelling a season due to a more severe case of flu. America had more hospitalizations due to the flu from December 21 2019 to March 28 2020 then we have of COVID-19 total right now.