No BB this fall

[NGPittCali]

Hello BB fans. I'm a huge fan of what JC has done to turn the program around, and this next season looks to be stronger than ever. Solid recruiting considering the debacle Pitt basketball has become.

However, I can't help but to notice many of you are carrying on like there is going to be a season this fall. There will not be.

There is absolutely no way the institutions of higher (no pun intended) learning will be able to play given the uncertain nature of Covid and the expected reactionary procedures associated with a "case".

Your team is healthy, great! So sorry the next 3 teams on your schedule are in isolation and will not be able to play. Damn. Ok, now we're sick. Sorry we can't play the for at least 3 weeks. On and on. I suppose if you are stubborn you could manage to get some games in, but the reality is who wants that kind of liability?

The only exception would be if we somehow see a miracle flu shot that is mass produced and trusted before this fall. Unlikely.

 

[wbrpanther]

Hello BB fans. I'm a huge fan of what JC has done to turn the program around, and this next season looks to be stronger than ever. Solid recruiting considering the debacle Pitt basketball has become.

However, I can't help but to notice many of you are carrying on like there is going to be a season this fall. There will not be.

There is absolutely no way the institutions of higher (no pun intended) learning will be able to play given the uncertain nature of Covid and the expected reactionary procedures associated with a "case".

Your team is healthy, great! So sorry the next 3 teams on your schedule are in isolation and will not be able to play. Damn. Ok, now we're sick. Sorry we can't play the for at least 3 weeks. On and on. I suppose if you are stubborn you could manage to get some games in, but the reality is who wants that kind of liability?

The only exception would be if we somehow see a miracle flu shot that is mass produced and trusted before this fall. Unlikely.

Everything you say is a possibility. But not a certainty. Things change daily and players testing positive at the outset of reporting to campuses could be a positive instead of a negative in that it gives programs a chance to clear the problem up early. I take the wait and see attitude because June isn't November.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Hello BB fans. I'm a huge fan of what JC has done to turn the program around, and this next season looks to be stronger than ever. Solid recruiting considering the debacle Pitt basketball has become.

However, I can't help but to notice many of you are carrying on like there is going to be a season this fall. There will not be.

There is absolutely no way the institutions of higher (no pun intended) learning will be able to play given the uncertain nature of Covid and the expected reactionary procedures associated with a "case".

Your team is healthy, great! So sorry the next 3 teams on your schedule are in isolation and will not be able to play. Damn. Ok, now we're sick. Sorry we can't play the for at least 3 weeks. On and on. I suppose if you are stubborn you could manage to get some games in, but the reality is who wants that kind of liability?

The only exception would be if we somehow see a miracle flu shot that is mass produced and trusted before this fall. Unlikely.

I suppose if any college sports get played it will be without fans

 

[DT_PITT]

I suppose if any college sports get played it will be without fans

I suspect this will be the case.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

If they can play Fb then they can play bb ! I can’t see fans though .

 

[PittPoker]

Hello BB fans. I'm a huge fan of what JC has done to turn the program around, and this next season looks to be stronger than ever. Solid recruiting considering the debacle Pitt basketball has become.

However, I can't help but to notice many of you are carrying on like there is going to be a season this fall. There will not be.

There is absolutely no way the institutions of higher (no pun intended) learning will be able to play given the uncertain nature of Covid and the expected reactionary procedures associated with a "case".

Your team is healthy, great! So sorry the next 3 teams on your schedule are in isolation and will not be able to play. Damn. Ok, now we're sick. Sorry we can't play the for at least 3 weeks. On and on. I suppose if you are stubborn you could manage to get some games in, but the reality is who wants that kind of liability?

The only exception would be if we somehow see a miracle flu shot that is mass produced and trusted before this fall. Unlikely.

I think college football won't happen this season. I just can't see it. Especially with a spike now in new covid cases in a lot of states. Too dangerous imo to risk playing. But basketball is still a question mark. However it wouldn't surprise me either at this point if we don't have a season either.

 

[Drew1208]

Im not feeling good about any sports being played.

 

[4Mark_Marty]

Hello BB fans. I'm a huge fan of what JC has done to turn the program around, and this next season looks to be stronger than ever. Solid recruiting considering the debacle Pitt basketball has become.

However, I can't help but to notice many of you are carrying on like there is going to be a season this fall. There will not be.

There is absolutely no way the institutions of higher (no pun intended) learning will be able to play given the uncertain nature of Covid and the expected reactionary procedures associated with a "case".

Your team is healthy, great! So sorry the next 3 teams on your schedule are in isolation and will not be able to play. Damn. Ok, now we're sick. Sorry we can't play the for at least 3 weeks. On and on. I suppose if you are stubborn you could manage to get some games in, but the reality is who wants that kind of liability?

The only exception would be if we somehow see a miracle flu shot that is mass produced and trusted before this fall. Unlikely.

There is no liability. Cannot be proven to be linked to anywhere, per an ACLU/ Antitrust lawyer, and one of the most liberal lawyers I know. Can workers sue the company if they CHOOSE to work and happen to contract Covid? Go ahead and try. You’ll lose everyday and twice on Sunday.

WILL they play? You’re guess is as good as mine.

 

[Voice of Danno]

College football will be played even if they have to begin in April. The revenue lost will destroy college sports for years to come. I can see without a significant number of fans though.

 

[wbrpanther]

I think college football won't happen this season. I just can't see it. Especially with a spike now in new covid cases in a lot of states. Too dangerous imo to risk playing. But basketball is still a question mark. However it wouldn't surprise me either at this point if we don't have a season either.

I think there will be football because the virus can be monitored within the respective groups. Fans is a totally separate question.

 

[PittPanther44]

Everything you say is a possibility. But not a certainty. Things change daily and players testing positive at the outset of reporting to campuses could be a positive instead of a negative in that it gives programs a chance to clear the problem up early. I take the wait and see attitude because June isn't November.

I hear u...but man time is passing. With Football I remember saying, well it’s just April.

 

[TheLogicalTake]

This whole thing is so incredibly unpredictable and frustrating, so any guess is really just that but I think Basketball will be much easier to facilitate under these circumstances than football.

The total number of people within a CBB team “bubble” is about 30 with players/coaches/medical/managers. Not ideal but not totally unmanageable. With football you could be talking upwards of 150+ given how bloated the staffs of some of the major programs are. They’re going to try to play because the money is just too great but a lot of college towns are going to take a big hit without fans.

With basketball, they can get creative with the schedule and move dates around as needed depending on the medical climate. To pull it off, the kids are going to have to be in a bubble which is tough for them (although no college kid, athlete or otherwise, is going to have a great experience this year I think). To do it right, they need to do classes virtually and limit interaction to only team activities. Again, it’s not ideal but it’s definitely feasible for basketball

 

[Cavalier Panther]

No college athletics events will be open to fans. Not one game; not one fan; not even once this season.

Whether they're played at all is looking less and less likely. Cases are spiking all across the country. While things are especially bad in the South, Allegheny County's worst day was Friday. It's spiking pretty much anywhere that isn't NYC or other areas that had hard lockdowns to start. Even the countries that handled it well (Singapore, Japan, France) or took draconian measures (China) are seeing spikes.

Billion dollar institutions pressuring unpaid teenagers to play shooty hoops is a bad look, and when someone finally get sick and spends time in the hospital, that school is going to be excoriated (rightly so). I'm not sure what the legal liability is, if any, but it's just a shitty thing to do.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

Yeah I'm on the fence about if the season will be delayed/canceled or simply played without fans. The new studies about a lifetime of lung scarring for people who had the virus makes it sound much scarier for young survivors than we thought before.

 

[Thee Jackie Treehorn]

With basketball, they can get creative with the schedule and move dates around as needed depending on the medical climate. To pull it off, the kids are going to have to be in a bubble which is tough for them (although no college kid, athlete or otherwise, is going to have a great experience this year I think). To do it right, they need to do classes virtually and limit interaction to only team activities. Again, it’s not ideal but it’s definitely feasible for basketball

From what we know about how Covid spreads, basketball as a sport seems like a pretty efficient activity (indoors, close physical contact, hard to play wearing a mask) to transmit a successful viral load from player to player. I wonder about how long a season will last if they attempt it this year.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

The problem isn’t with the major college teams which obviously have the resources to travel privately, social distances, stay in fancy hotels etc. it will be with the lower level schools that can’t afford to do all these things. How is a Robert Morris team going to remain healthy if they have to fly on commercial flights to their games? Maybe more bus trips? What if the bus driver has it?

The other problem is 5 of the 15 coaches in the ACC are old as dirt. What if the first person to die of COVID in major college sports is coach K? Obviously all 5 guys are healthy enough they would likely fight off the virus, but you never know.

 

[wbrpanther]

The problem isn’t with the major college teams which obviously have the resources to travel privately, social distances, stay in fancy hotels etc. it will be with the lower level schools that can’t afford to do all these things. How is a Robert Morris team going to remain healthy if they have to fly on commercial flights to their games? Maybe more bus trips? What if the bus driver has it?

The other problem is 5 of the 15 coaches in the ACC are old as dirt. What if the first person to die of COVID in major college sports is coach K? Obviously all 5 guys are healthy enough they would likely fight off the virus, but you never know.

I assume they have access to testing. From the head coach down to the bus driver.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Test everyone daily. Make sure players have strong immune systems by suplementing as needed with Vitamin D.

Daily testing will allow catching the first infected individual as early as possible and reduce the possibility of spread on teams.

 

[Drew1208]

Test everyone daily. Make sure players have strong immune systems by suplementing as needed with Vitamin D.

Daily testing will allow catching the first infected individual as early as possible and reduce the possibility of spread on teams.

Ain't nobody gonna want to really take that test daily.
I think we are screwed.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Ain't nobody gonna want to really take that test daily.
I think we are screwed.

It only takes 5-15 minutes for results and players, IMHO, may have no choice about it if they want to play.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

Ain't nobody gonna want to really take that test daily.
I think we are screwed.

Louisville has been testing weekly. Louisville has more money than the entire NEC to be able to combat it. What if they catch it in providence while playing Bryant but show no symptoms and don’t have their tester with them? By the time they come back would’ve spread it to the whole team. Basketball seems impossible to play this year.

If there is no football there’s zero percent chance of basketball. Ppl in Allegheny county can’t even be trusted to go to bars correctly

 

[Drew1208]

It only takes 5-15 minutes for results and players, IMHO, may have no choice about it if they want to play.

Yeah i get it. But im just telling u, they ain't gonna want to get tested daily.
That test isn't fun.
Im just pessimistic.....i see no path towards a season.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

Yeah i get it. But im just telling u, they ain't gonna want to get tested daily.
That test isn't fun.
Im just pessimistic.....i see no path towards a season.

The people who think the tv $ can keep the season’s afloat. This is true, would help ACC Big East and other major conferences. But the small conferences DEPEND on the 90k payouts were paying for their budgets. We’re not gonna pay Maryland Eastern Shore to play Us if we can’t offset that cost with ticket sales. There is basically no path forward to a season in 20-21.

 

[Drew1208]

The people who think the tv $ can keep the season’s afloat. This is true, would help ACC Big East and other major conferences. But the small conferences DEPEND on the 90k payouts were paying for their budgets. We’re not gonna pay Maryland Eastern Shore to play Us if we can’t offset that cost with ticket sales. There is basically no path forward to a season in 20-21.

Im staying 100% pessimistic. It's the only way to be.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

Im staying 100% pessimistic. It's the only way to be.

In reality, they should be planning to move college basketball anyways. With the NBA moving a permanent shift to the calendar, making players make decisions on their futures in May, June for an October draft is suicide.

 

[Drew1208]

In reality, they should be planning to move college basketball anyways. With the NBA moving a permanent shift to the calendar, making players make decisions on their futures in May, June for an October draft is suicide.

Im a lil confused.
How would u change the season? Im open to change

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

Im a lil confused.
How would u change the season? Im open to change

The same way the NBA is... start official practice in December so they only miss one official holiday with their families instead of two. Play January - April, May madness! Then June-July August u could have an actual summer and figure out who wants to come back who will declare for the October draft.

Would take your entire product out of competition of football and make you even bigger in May. The lag between March and an October draft could be devastating for the NCAA

 

[Ski11585]

Im staying 100% pessimistic. It's the only way to be.

 

[Drew1208]

The same way the NBA is... start official practice in December so they only miss one official holiday with their families instead of two. Play January - April, May madness! Then June-July August u could have an actual summer and figure out who wants to come back who will declare for the October draft.

Would take your entire product out of competition of football and make you even bigger in May. The lag between March and an October draft could be devastating for the NCAA

Sounds cool to me

 

[Fsgolfdr]

I think both sports can be played minus the fans . Spreading out the schedules and eliminating meaningless games makes sense to me . Why play SWNE technology school of NJ , only play conference opponents and allow flexible scheduling so if a team is hit hard by the virus the game can be rescheduled. No more than 2 games per week . The real money is in TV and they can prolong the season if necessary and televise more games .

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

I think both sports can be played minus the fans . Spreading out the schedules and eliminating meaningless games makes sense to me . Why play SWNE technology school of NJ , only play conference opponents and allow flexible scheduling so if a team is hit hard by the virus the game can be rescheduled. No more than 2 games per week . The real money is in TV and they can prolong the season if necessary and televise more games .

I don't think that economic system works for about 200 D1 programs in less wealthy conferences?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I think basketball is in a much better position than football.

a) they can play without fans since its not the moneymaker football is

b) teams are small. There isnt an army of 200+ players, coaches,and support staff that football has. Less people to come in contact with means less chance of being exposed.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

I think basketball is in a much better position than football.

a) they can play without fans since its not the moneymaker football is

b) teams are small. There isnt an army of 200+ players, coaches,and support staff that football has. Less people to come in contact with means less chance of being exposed.

So Pitt is gonna pay 90K to teams like and eastern shore and just eat that cost with no offset of expenses to put on the game? Tv money outside of the ncaa tournament isn’t enough to see basketball feasible for this year.

that’s not even counting schools like UK/ Louisville that have 20-25k ppl at games and it supports their entire economy outside as well.

 

[levance2]

I think the only way to do it would be like MLB where you really contract the schedule and limit the potential vectors.

• Play only conference games
• Break the 15 teams into groups of 3
• Play 3 games in a weekend at a single site, then wait 1-2 weeks and rotate around to another pod

If you were able to test and clear your players, you isolate them for 3-4 days and play the games. Then you have enough time to retreat back to your school (also isolating players) and prepare for the next round.

Honestly, the biggest issue is the NCAA itself. Look at how the stoppages were handled in March. It was chaos. One game was stopped at halftime for crying out loud. I'm sure the ACC could come up with their own solution if they wanted to spend the money (as mentioned above) but the NCAA as a whole will probably not allow it. There's also some argument whether there's any point to playing an ACC season if there's no NCAA tournament at the end.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

I don't think that economic system works for about 200 D1 programs in less wealthy conferences?

Sometimes you just have to do what’s best for you . Small schools that rely on their OOC games for revenue might just need to take the year off . Imagine Pitt or god forbid an elite school plays a tune up game and their entire squad comes down with COVID-19 . The outcry to cancel the entire season would be
tremendous .
In an altruistic world where everyone cares about the little guy maybe so , but do you think that Pitt and other ACC programs would forfeit 32+ million so the smaller schools play ball this season ? I don’t .

ps .. I’d think the NFL if they were smart would eliminate all preseason games .

 

[Fsgolfdr]

I think the only way to do it would be like MLB where you really contract the schedule and limit the potential vectors.

• Play only conference games
• Break the 15 teams into groups of 3
• Play 3 games in a weekend at a single site, then wait 1-2 weeks and rotate around to another pod

If you were able to test and clear your players, you isolate them for 3-4 days and play the games. Then you have enough time to retreat back to your school (also isolating players) and prepare for the next round.

Honestly, the biggest issue is the NCAA itself. Look at how the stoppages were handled in March. It was chaos. One game was stopped at halftime for crying out loud. I'm sure the ACC could come up with their own solution if they wanted to spend the money (as mentioned above) but the NCAA as a whole will probably not allow it. There's also some argument whether there's any point to playing an ACC season if there's no NCAA tournament at the end.

The ACC network might disagree .