Contagion: No Michigan Football 😒

 

The Big 10 has postponed the football season for this fall.  They hope is to have the season in the Spring assuming that the pandemic sufficiently subsides.  The announcement was made on Tuesday, August 11.  The Big Ten was the first of the Power Five Conferences to make the announcement.  The Pac-12 conference followed later the same day.  The other three conferences in the Power Five, ACC, SEC, and Big 12, have yet to make such an announcement.  As of this writing, they still plan on proceeding with the season. 

It is saddest for the players who are in the prime of their football careers.  Giving up a season in any circumstances is unprecedented.  It is not clear how it will influence their development future earning potential.  There is certainly real money involved for those that have a chance to go pro.  Luckily, for these student athletes, their education will still be on track and perhaps even accelerate .

The coaches who have put a lot of effort into training, strategy, and developing and implementing protocols to make practices and games as safe as possible for everyone involved.  I imagine their pay is guaranteed to some degree.  But, they are fierce competitors and would much rather play than be relegated to months more of training. 

At this level, football is a huge money maker and funding most of the athletic departments budgets and provided the lion share of the departments's profits.  All these factors, I am certain, contributed to the decision to play vs postpone for the ACC, SEC, and Big 12.

Apart from putting health and safety over financial considerations, two things contributed to the suspension of the season for the .  First and foremost, football is an up close and personal game.  Players are in each other’s faces on the line of scrimmage and in both blocking and tackling while breathing heavy at the same time.  One contagious player could infect ten others easily.  Secondly, and this is anecdotal to be sure, college football players have better social lives than most other students.  It is hard to stop young people of that age and popularity from having fun as shown by other teams and even general student bodies around the country.  Witness the outbreaks in the student populations at Notre Dame, Chapel Hill, and others this week that had these schools pivoting to online in the opening days of the semester.

All the Big 10 schools voted for the postponement except Nebraska and Iowa.  Almost immediately, Nebraska hinted they might join another conference for this year.  The sports “fans” on social media all jumped all over Nebraska for this demanding that Nebraska be thrown out of the Big Ten.  There was speculation on the Michigan Facebook fan pages that Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan might join the SEC for this season.  There was another proposal floating around that Michigan and Ohio State should just play each other in a one game season.  I have no clue how valid or far out some of these theories.  I think they are all pure speculation.

Where do I stand on this? 

Well I am a pretty dyed in the wool Michigan fan.  I have been since the 1968 upset of Ohio State in Bo Schembechler’s first year as coach.  I have been a season ticket holder since 1971.  When we lived in Michigan, I attended every game except when there was a family wedding or funeral.  When we moved to Connecticut in 1990, I still bought season tickets but used them less frequently.  When I cannot attend, I watch the games on TV. 

It will be a very odd year to say the least.  I have looked forward to the start of the Michigan season for fifty-two years.  I look forward to the games and plan my Saturdays and weekends around them.  Sure, I will watch other games, but the main course has always been Michigan game.  The “bye” weekends felt empty… now I am facing season full of byes.  At least, we won't lose to Ohio State this year.

I suppose I could watch and cheer for Notre Dame.  My wife, daughter, and grandson are big fans.  Yeah, I could do that but, dang, it was painful to even type this notion.  I have an Oklahoma shirt but that is only because it was on deep discount at TJ Maxx.  Texas is a possibility… but not compelling.  I could watch Michigan replays but I have been doing that all summer and even though Michigan is 36-0, I have grown tired of watching games that I have already seen and definitely know the outcomes.

No Michigan Football.  I am really sorry there is no season, but I get it.  I think they made the correct decision for health and well-being of all involved.  These are crazy times and doing without football is the least of the things we have to be worried about.