Will All College and University Athletic Programs Survive COVID-19?

[VetteMan]

College football teams who are not playing games this fall will be allowed to hold up to 12 hours per week of team activities. As part of a practice model approved Wednesday by the NCAA's Division 1 Council, football teams that don't play this fall and plan to play in the spring, will be allowed to conduct up to 5 hours per week of non-contact on field drills, while the rest of the 12 hours can be used for strength and conditioning workouts, meetings and film review. Athletes will be required to have two days off per week, and no more than four hours of team activities can be held in one day. The model serves as a hybrid between the normal in-season model that allows teams to hold up to 20 hours of team activities per week, and the offseason model that limits teams to 8 hours of team activities per week.

[Omega]

College football teams who are not playing games this fall will be allowed to hold up to 12 hours per week of team activities. As part of a practice model approved Wednesday by the NCAA's Division 1 Council, football teams that don't play this fall and plan to play in the spring, will be allowed to conduct up to 5 hours per week of non-contact on field drills, while the rest of the 12 hours can be used for strength and conditioning workouts, meetings and film review. Athletes will be required to have two days off per week, and no more than four hours of team activities can be held in one day. The model serves as a hybrid between the normal in-season model that allows teams to hold up to 20 hours of team activities per week, and the offseason model that limits teams to 8 hours of team activities per week.

Oddly enough, this could be somewhat of an advantage for the Buckeyes in terms of player development, especially freshmen.

[Omega]

Universities cutting sports due to financial stresses caused by the response to covid-19 may hinder US Olympic efforts:

https://www.wspa.com/news/stanford-spor ... mpic-team/

[Omega]

It took the University of North Carolina about one week for their plans to collapse. After a spate of Covid-19 infection clusters during the first week of classes, the University will shift all undergraduate instruction to remote learning Wednesday, and continue efforts to greatly reduce residence hall occupancy. The ACC may now have to defend having their teams play, while one of their campuses is effectively shutdown. I'm guessing that if you can successfully defend having tutors, do your student athletes assignments, then the defense of playing with a campus shutdown will be child's play. Could a University really think that in-class instruction is the main source of transmission, if students are still on campus living in dorms and wherever?

UNC set to resume football practice:

https://www.wspa.com/sports/unc-clears- ... me-monday/

[Omega]

U of Iowa becomes first Big 10 school to cut athletic programs in the age of the covid-19 plandemic:

IOWA CITY, Iowa – It was bound to happen, sooner than later, and it happened on Friday in devastating fashion.

The University of Iowa Athletic Department announced that four sports will be eliminated as part of the financial fallout from the Covid-19 global pandemic.

The four sports that will be cut are men’s and women’s swimming, men’s gymnastics and men’s tennis.

https://hawkfanatic.com/2020/08/21/iowa ... to-accept/

[VetteMan]

Dr. Brian Hainline, the NCAA's Chief Medical Officer said that the pathway to play sports is so exceedingly narrow right now, everything would have to line up perfectly, a major part of that "everything" is testing, which still is not up to snuff. Right now if testing in the United States stays the way it is, there's no way we can go forward with sports. Currently testing in the United States is hampered not just by the availability of tests, but by the length of time it takes to get results. With multiple days, and sometimes weeks, between the tests and the results, it would be nearly impossible to ensure the safety of players, who would require both tests and results very close to gameday. With things as they are right now and the new tests only just approved by the FDA and not widely available, Hainline gave his overall assessment. We are not in a place today where we can safely play sports.

[VetteMan]

80 Students, 12 faculty and Staff Members have tested positive for Covid-19, in Ohio States first round of testing for fall semester. Less than 2% of Ohio State students, faculty and staff tested positive for Covid-19 in the University's initial round of testing for fall semester. Ohio State said that 80 students ( 1.16% ) tested positive from August 14-22, while 12 staff and faculty ( 1.44% ) tested positive from August 1-22. A total of 7,719 members of the University Community have been tested for Covid-19 so far.

[VetteMan]

The University of Alabama has 566 recorded cases of Covid-19 in it's first week of classes with students back on campus, with 531 coming at the Tuscaloosa campus. The Mayor has shut down bars for two weeks and said that the fall season is in serious jeopardy. Also, on Friday a 14 day moratorium was placed on all in person student events outside of classroom instruction. I guess that doesn't include football practices. There has been a rapid rise in cases, particularly among fraternities and sororities. It will be interesting to see if University of Alabama eventually sends the students home, but keeps the football players on campus, as the University of North Carolina has done.

[alabama mike]

The elite programs/blue bloods of college football will make it just fine. Others will not be so lucky. Those programs will face reductions in other sports or programs shutting down completely. I especially feel sorry for the small colleges in D II, III and NAIA.

[VetteMan]

The elite programs/blue bloods of college football will make it just fine. Others will not be so lucky. Those programs will face reductions in other sports or programs shutting down completely. I especially feel sorry for the small colleges in D II, III and NAIA.

You hit the nail on the head, we have only seen a small sample of what has happened up until now, and the sad thing is it's only going to get worse.

[VetteMan]

North Carolina States season opener at Virginia Tech has been postponed for two weeks Wednesday, because of a cluster of Covid-19 cases among Wolfpack athletes. The delay comes two days after North Carolina State paused all athletic activities. There have been 27 positive cases tied to athletics in the most recent round of 693 tests. Virginia Tech has declined thus far to release results of it's coronavirus testing.

[VetteMan]

Positive tests for Covid-19 has forced a pair of SEC teams to cancel at least a practice or two, as the league announced guidelines for game day covering everything from who will be allowed on the field to the press boxes. Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt said he cancelled Fridays practice due to a few more positive test results, while Auburn has also cancelled the last couple practices because of positive test results this week.

[VetteMan]

The University of North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham says the school will begin football and other fall sports without fans at home because of the pandemic. In an open letter to fans Friday, Cunningham says the restriction will last through September for football, men's and women's soccer, field hockey, volleyball and cross country. In addition, tailgating won't be allowed on campus. This decision was the only way we could move forward with competition. Our student athletes want to play, and we must do so as safely as possible. The school has cancelled all in-person undergraduate classes in favor of online only instruction after multiple coronavirus clusters on campus since students returned for the fall semester.

[VetteMan]

According to the University's Covid-10 dashboard, over the course of 24 hours on August 27th, 91 out of 1,463 students (5.86%) tested positive for the virus bringing the total the total number of positive cases among students up to 495 (2.15%) . The daily average from August 21-27th is 58 positive tests. A total of 22,978 Ohio State students have been tested for Covid-19 so far. The dashboard also reports that on campus isolation and quarantine housing is over half full with 219 of the 414 spaces filled. 16 employees of the University have tested positive between August 1-27th out of 1,125 tested, raising the total number of cases in the Ohio State community too 511. The testing data, which was updated on Saturday comes after Ohio State began the fall semester on August 25th.

[VetteMan]

Auburn expects to return to practice Monday minus 16 players sidelined after positive Covid-19 tests. Coach Gus Malzahn said Sunday night that the Tigers had 5 positive's early in the week and 4 more after additional testing on Thursday. With contact tracing, seven others who had close contact with them face a mandatory 14 day quarantine. We had two position groups where we did not have enough guys, he declined to say which positions. Players who test positive must stay isolated for 10 days, followed by a 7-day reacclimation process.

[VetteMan]

Texas Tech University will eliminate 40 positions from it's athletic department and reduce the salary of many remaining employees, in the face of an expected 25 million reduction in revenue over the next year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The cut's are expected to save Texas Tech roughly 4.5 million. Employees with annual salaries of $30,000 or more will see reductions of 3% to 14% in pay.

[VetteMan]

Not an especially good look for Miami ( Ohio ) University athletics today, as 27 student-athletes tested positive for Covid-19, after some went to an off-campus party a week ago. All Miami University student athletes, and any coaches or staff who were in any contact with them, have been put under quarantine by the Butler County Health District.

[VetteMan]

In order to account for student athletes who will have to miss games because of positive coronavirus tests, contact tracing and regular injuries, the Big 12 determined on Friday that teams with at least 53 players available, including seven offensive linemen, four interior defensive linemen and one quarterback, must play or it will be considered a forfeit. If teams have fewer than 53 players available and don't meet the position benchmarks, the game would be declared a no-contest if it can't be moved to a later date. Teams that fall below 53 players, but are still able to meet the position benchmarks have the option to play the game.

[VetteMan]

The University of Utah will furlough every employee in it's athletic department, even athletic director Mark Harlan and it's Head Coaches. The athletic department has also reportedly eliminated some positions and suspended all performance bonuses indefinitely. The drastic steps are the latest sign of the massive financial ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic being felt in the world of college sports.

[VetteMan]

The game between Louisiana Tech and Baylor scheduled for Saturday is being postponed. The game which was supposed to air on Fox, has been cleared from the schedule this coming weekend after a rash of positive Covid-19 cases at Louisiana Tech. LT had 38 players test positive for Covid-19 in the wake of Hurricane Laura, and would have been without many others due to contact-tracing regulations.