Any ideas what college sports look like this year?

I don’t see how football pulls off a season. There’s a lot of players. The locker room can’t be avoided. They’re in each other’s faces just in the huddle. Then there’s everything that happens every play at the line and more so on running plays. Then, with college football the players are on campus and in dorms with thousands of other students. 

Well they've all been practicing most of the summer and it hasn't been some mass chaos.  I'm hopeful that this has been put in perspective a bit.

Don't most football teams have their players in team specific dorms or at least floors? I feel like that at least restricts things a little bit.

I feel like it will be a little like what we've seen with MLB. As long as you can keep players in their little team cocoon it will be fine. When you let them out into the world to see other players from other teams is when things will get dicey.

Son says his coaches are telling him to plan on a normal fall. He, on the other hand, has laid out a pretty extensive plan for what he thinks it will look like. We'll see who's right.

College sports this year reminds me of my trip to the Bahamas in 1986.   A friend of mine and I decide after a few cocktails that we want to go paragliding.   So, up we go.  We're a few hundred feet up in the air enjoying the incredible Bahamian scenery.   Eventually we notice there are a bunch of locals that are hurriedly putting together a paragliding landing platform on the ocean below us.   We quickly realize that is our landing platform and this "oh $hit" feeling comes over us.  Our focus turns from enjoying the scenery to how are they going to get us down safely.  The boat circles a bunch more (extra) times waiting for the landing platform to be completed.   We got our moneys worth in air time.   Finally, the locals piece the landing platform together after much trial and error.  The boat starts bringing us down, and we eventually land in the ocean about 50 yards from the platform.   My girlfriend and I have to quickly figure out how to release all of our harnesses (there was no safety demo) and we have to swim for the platform.  This is how I see college sports in 2020-21.   They are going to miss the ocean platform by 50 yards.

As always, JMO.

@baseballhs posted:

Well they've all been practicing most of the summer and it hasn't been some mass chaos.  I'm hopeful that this has been put in perspective a bit.

That has been attainable because after a game or practice, the player goes home to his own environment.  Or if traveling with mom or dad or both. Also mom and dad might get to decide where you go and with whom you go with. 

Now players are off to college where they will be coming into contact with a lot more people than your son did this summer.  The school should have published a report, to be approved by your state as to the plans for players coming to campus. You could do a search online or contact the school. I am not a parent of a student, so I dont know if sending out the plan went to students.  But I did see online a 25 page report to the state as to FAU plan for students/educators to return. 

I am assuming that all students must test on their own before they return to campus. Should be interesting.

MAAC just cancelled football for this fall. Press conference to announce this morning 

@TPM posted:

That has been attainable because after a game or practice, the player goes home to his own environment.  Or if traveling with mom or dad or both. Also mom and dad might get to decide where you go and with whom you go with. 

Now players are off to college where they will be coming into contact with a lot more people than your son did this summer.  The school should have published a report, to be approved by your state as to the plans for players coming to campus. You could do a search online or contact the school. I am not a parent of a student, so I dont know if sending out the plan went to students.  But I did see online a 25 page report to the state as to FAU plan for students/educators to return. 

I am assuming that all students must test on their own before they return to campus. Should be interesting.

No, football players have been on campus since mid June.  They are practicing. They are staying in dorms or apartments.  If you haven’t heard much about it, I’d consider that success.   My son reports Monday. No test until we arrive.

@baseballhs posted:

No, football players have been on campus since mid June.  They are practicing. They are staying in dorms or apartments.  If you haven’t heard much about it, I’d consider that success.   My son reports Monday. No test until we arrive.

Ok, you meant football, sorry.

But the same scenario. It's been a controlled environment and every player had to quarantine before they could get together as a team. Know what happens when everyone returns?

Did you hear about any craziness in football?  Its been going on for 2 months.  Yes, there have been some cases, but they quarantined those that needed to be and moved forward. How is it any more or less controlled now?   They were already on campus and already practicing.  I don't want to start down the gloom and doom road honestly.  I was just curious about any new protocols that athletes would be doing.  My friend said her son gets tested every week for football.  We were told players at our school would just be tested on arrival and then if they had symptoms or were a close contact to someone who tested positive.  If at any point they test positive, they must quarantine for 10 days but will not have to be tested or quarantined for the next 3 months.

I have on daughter who plays Big 10 basketball and her boyfriend plays football at the same school. My other daughter manages WBB in the ACC. At both schools, the kids do not all stay in the same dorms (football or basketball). For summer work outs, they got tested every 5 days and both they and contacts were quarantined if tested positive. Football cohorted work outs in a way that if someone got COVID, you wouldn't lose all your linemen. Basketball did the same (so not all the guards practiced together). I believe the football team had 5 kids test positive, WBB didn't have any. The school was less prepared to support quarantined kids than I would have hoped and the prognosis for fall and winter sports literally changes daily. For example, the ACC has a nearly firmed up (conference only) football schedule but the Big 10 hasn't finalized theirs. For basketball, the ACC is talking about grouping away games (e.g. ND will play Duke, UNC and NC State all in the same 5 day period) but they haven't finalized that yet. The girls basketball team got sent back home (which is normal) and the date for their return to school has changed multiple times. The schools are really scrambling to build the plane while they fly it.

I think our school has one dorm allocated for quarantines.  They haven't stated that, but I know ton of kids from one specific dorm got moved to a new location and that was the rumor.  From our call, I got the feeling that they would try to practice baseball in a similar way you mentioned with football.  Not all pitchers are going to work out together, not all catchers, etc.  they would have more like workout pods.  Our coach stressed that they team that made it to Omaha would be the team that stayed the healthiest.  He also said that the large rosters would likely be helpful this year.  If we had an outbreak, we might not be down to our #5 pitcher, but down to our #15.  It will be interesting.

@Iowamom23 posted:

Don't most football teams have their players in team specific dorms or at least floors? I feel like that at least restricts things a little bit.

I feel like it will be a little like what we've seen with MLB. As long as you can keep players in their little team cocoon it will be fine. When you let them out into the world to see other players from other teams is when things will get dicey.

Son says his coaches are telling him to plan on a normal fall. He, on the other hand, has laid out a pretty extensive plan for what he thinks it will look like. We'll see who's right.

Under normal circumstances most colleges have done away with athlete only dorms. But they match athletes with teammates as roommates. Things may be completely different for this year. I would think the athletic department would want to isolate athletes from remaining school population.

We have an athletic dorm.  I don't know that there aren't any other students, but it is predominantly athletes.

@baseballhs posted:

We have an athletic dorm.  I don't know that there aren't any other students, but it is predominantly athletes.

There has to be other students. Athletic only dorms are no longer allowed. 

@adbono posted:

There has to be other students. Athletic only dorms are no longer allowed. 

Although under current conditions they probably should be 

@baseballhs posted:

Did you hear about any craziness in football?  Its been going on for 2 months.  Yes, there have been some cases, but they quarantined those that needed to be and moved forward. How is it any more or less controlled now?   They were already on campus and already practicing.  I don't want to start down the gloom and doom road honestly.  I was just curious about any new protocols that athletes would be doing.  My friend said her son gets tested every week for football.  We were told players at our school would just be tested on arrival and then if they had symptoms or were a close contact to someone who tested positive.  If at any point they test positive, they must quarantine for 10 days but will not have to be tested or quarantined for the next 3 months.

I did hear of one P5 program where a few players went out and brought back COVID.  It really is literally impossible to achieve a plan, in my opinion.  

Students should be coming COVID free. Not arriving with, then have to quarantine at school. JMO

@adbono posted:

There has to be other students. Athletic only dorms are no longer allowed. 

Compliments of the behavior of Nebraska and Oklahoma football players. I remember when athlete only dorms were banned. But a lot of non athletes move out of these dorms after freshman year. Hell, I moved out. Like a frat house was going to be more civil!  Junior year I had an apartment and ate at the frat house. 

@RJM posted:

Compliments of the behavior of Nebraska and Oklahoma football players. I remember when athlete only dorms were banned. But a lot of non athletes move out of these dorms after freshman year. Hell, I moved out. Like a frat house was going to be more civil!  Junior year I had an apartment and ate at the frat house. 

Same for me. I opted not to live (for free) at the athletic dorm and paid for an apt instead. Athletic dorm was like Animal House. No way I could have kept my grades up in a difficult major if living there. 

@adbono posted:

MAAC just cancelled football for this fall. Press conference to announce this morning 

You mean MAC, (Mid-American Conference) right?  Actually all fall sports are cancelled.