Minnesota Regent Stirs it Up on Corona and the NCAA

[j66kicker]

Minnesota regent Michael Hsu told Paul Feinbaum:

1) He doubts there will be in-person school or sports this fall, and

2) He thinks the NCAA's "current leadership is now struggling to keep the organization going", "The NCAA is about money, power and control" and the he "wouldn't be surprised to see the Power 5 schools move away from the NCAA."

Board of regents chairman Ken Powell quickly distanced himself, the board and the school from Hsu's remarks:

"While the board and university are planning for a variety of scenarios for fall classes, athletics and other events in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, absolutely no decisions have been made about these issues," Powell said.

"I want to be very clear," Powell said. "There have been zero conversations among regents, the university or Gopher Athletics with respect to the University of Minnesota -- much less any Power 5 institution -- changing its relationship with the NCAA."

Minnesota disputes regent's fall sports remarks

Minnesota's Board of Regents Chair said the school has made no decision on the future of in-person classes or fall sports, despite comments made by Regent Michael Hsu.

www.espn.com

 

[Alydar]

Me thinks that Powell doth protest too much.

 

[Alydar]

I know the NCAA makes a bundle from the mbb tournament. What do they get from NCAA football in $$$?

 

[uconnfan68]

I know the NCAA makes a bundle from the mbb tournament. What do they get from NCAA football in $$$?

I think they get D-2/3 revenue.

 

[TheFarmFan]

Meanwhile Tennessee has volunteered to lead the charge in acting like everything will go back to normal:

University of Tennessee says all schools returning in the fall

All University of Tennessee schools will resume on-campus classes in the fall, the system announced Wednesday.In the announcement, university Chancellor Donde Plowman said residential campus life “…

thehill.com

Clearly they want that football and tuition money, come hell or high death toll.

ETA: FWIW, the past week I've been on two zoom conference calls that were led by deans of two Ivy league professional schools updating alums on their schools' statuses in light of the pandemic, and both said it was way too early to make the call about how the fall would operate. (Admittedly, both are in states that have been slammed by COVID-19 so far.) Interesting that UT is already all in when others in higher ed feel like there's way too little known right now to make the call either way.

 

[CL82]

A lot of people thought that they'd come for MBB revenue eventually. I do think that it is tough to break off without the Big East given how successful that league has been.

This guy is talking out his butt, but it will happen eventually. The question is whether the Corona shut down money crunch accelerates it.

 

[MSGRET]

I believe that the SEC will play football this fall. All of the schools are in the South where most of the states are starting to reopen their economy and want to move ahead so that they can get their citizens back to normalcy. Not saying that it's right or wrong, but many Southern states have fewer problems then those that are in the North. I also believe that even though they may have football, the crowds will be severely limited, but the TV networks would gladly pay for the honor of live sports vs reruns. The NFL is also considering to play on Saturdays as well as Sunday, if the colleges do not play this fall.

 

[dogged1]

Minnesota regent Michael Hsu told Paul Feinbaum:

1) He doubts there will be in-person school or sports this fall, and

2) He thinks the NCAA's "current leadership is now struggling to keep the organization going", "The NCAA is about money, power and control" and the he "wouldn't be surprised to see the Power 5 schools move away from the NCAA."

Board of regents chairman Ken Powell quickly distanced himself, the board and the school from Hsu's remarks:

"While the board and university are planning for a variety of scenarios for fall classes, athletics and other events in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, absolutely no decisions have been made about these issues," Powell said.

"I want to be very clear," Powell said. "There have been zero conversations among regents, the university or Gopher Athletics with respect to the University of Minnesota -- much less any Power 5 institution -- changing its relationship with the NCAA."

Minnesota disputes regent's fall sports remarks

Minnesota's Board of Regents Chair said the school has made no decision on the future of in-person classes or fall sports, despite comments made by Regent Michael Hsu.

www.espn.com

Truer words were never spoke.

 

[Steelerone]

Whenever you have a question about money the answer is always money. As far as the "Power Five" schools breaking away perhaps the people who support this move should be careful what they ask for. Once the house is blown up and ready to be rebuilt the architects are going to make some changes and one of them might be to look at their own conference and decide that it might be time to start cutting costs by getting rid of some of the weaker teams who are dragging them down by not bringing in eighty or ninety thousand people per game.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I just read a letter from President Christina Paxon at Brown. In addition to being the University President and former Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, she has a PhD in Economics from Columbia and is an expert in public health. Unlike many universities which have cancelled 2020 graduation, Brown rescheduled it for September. The University recently decided that it would be unsafe for a large gathering that soon. Instead, they will award degrees at a virtual ceremony in late May 2020 and will conduct a real graduation in May of 2021 for the classes of 2020 and 2021. If a commencement ceremony is unwise, I think classes next fall are likely to be held remotely once again.

 

[TheFarmFan]

What I don't understand about schools like Tennessee and South Carolina announcing this now is that, unless something miraculous happens, those states are almost certainly going to be worse off in late July and early August than they were in mid-March when schools shut down on-campus activities, because at that point case rates in those states were relatively low. They've since picked up steam, and social distancing efforts seem to have been largely abandoned in both states. Now maybe these are efforts to juice enrollment by giving parents and high school seniors confidence to put down an enrollment deposit, but it just seems irresponsible to speak with such certainty right now.

 

[dogged1]

Maybe somebody with direct medical knowledge of how this works can explain it to me or correct my logic.

My thought was that all the social distancing and PPE use was to "flatten the curve". That is slow the spread of the virus down so that medical resources and facilities aren't overwhelmed by an onslaught of cases in a short period of time.

But until there is a vaccine all the distancing and PPE in the world won't prevent most of us, especially those in urban or dense suburban areas from eventually being exposed to the virus.

If that is true, then do we maintain this semi isolation- semi shutdown until there is a vaccine? Or do we ease restrictions knowing that as we do previously unexposed people will be exposed and get the disease, but at a rate that the medical facilities can handle?

Please note; I am asking, not lecturing. I am looking for a medical science based reasoning not left vs right politics.

 

[PAHuskeyFan]

Spoke with friends in Ft. Lauderdale, FL yesterday. They said the Miami Dolphins have announced their "plans" for the upcoming NFL season. These included (1) Limited seating to ensure social distancing (can't remember the percentage of seats/tickets that will be allowed to be sold), (2) Ticket holders MUST enter through a specific gate in a specific time window to minimize the crowd at the gates, (3) electronic device at each seat to order food/drinks from food court...and when the order is ready the person goes to the vendor to pick it up...thus minimizing the crowd at the food court, and (4) orderly exit at the end of the game, by rows when directed...again minimizing crowds and maintaining social distance. These were the things she could remember...might be off a little, but it's clear the NFL is thinking "outside the box" on ways to get games played and people in the stands.

It will be really interesting to see how this all works out...and if they can really control the exit of fans at the end of a blow out game when they just want to get away.

Crazy world we're all in these days.

 

[Plebe]

Meanwhile Tennessee has volunteered to lead the charge in acting like everything will go back to normal:

University of Tennessee says all schools returning in the fall

All University of Tennessee schools will resume on-campus classes in the fall, the system announced Wednesday.In the announcement, university Chancellor Donde Plowman said residential campus life “…

thehill.com

Clearly they want that football and tuition money, come hell or high death toll.

It's not just the Tennessee schools. The major Texas university systems said last week that they're on for the fall classes.

Texas A&M and University of Texas systems expect to reopen in the fall, and A&M says it will play football

Texas Tech University also says it's planning for a return to campus for the upcoming school year.

www.texastribune.org

 

[Steelerone]

I believe that the SEC will play football this fall. All of the schools are in the South where most of the states are starting to reopen their economy and want to move ahead so that they can get their citizens back to normalcy. Not saying that it's right or wrong, but many Southern states have fewer problems then those that are in the North. I also believe that even though they may have football, the crowds will be severely limited, but the TV networks would gladly pay for the honor of live sports vs reruns. The NFL is also considering to play on Saturdays as well as Sunday, if the colleges do not play this fall.

I agree with you about the Southern mindset as regards football. Unless you have lived down South you don't really have any idea of it's importance in the culture. If they don't play football in the South this fall they won't be playing it anywhere. As far as attendance is concerned it's one thing to tell fifty people in a grocery store to maintain "social distancing". How are you going to do it with 80,000 people. And to make the nightmare worse, if you decide to limit the number of people good luck to those who have to put that puzzle together.