Another Power-5 domino falls: the Pac-12 has joined the Big Ten in canceling fall sports, including football, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Pac-12 Conference announced the move this afternoon, just an hour or so after the Big Ten announcement. The Pac-12 says its CEO group voted unanimously to postpone all sport competitions through the end of the 2020 calendar year. While the Big Ten’s announcement didn’t mention winter sports, the Pac-12 announcement makes clear that no sports – including swimming & diving – will be able to compete until January of 2021 at the earliest.
The Pac-12 says that it will “consider a return to competition for impacted sports after January 1, 2021,” but only when conditions improve. The press release also quotes Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, who says that the conference would be “ready to explore all options to play the impacted sports in the new calendar year.” That, like the Big Ten announcement, leaves open the possibility of running fall sports in the spring if the pandemic improves.
The Pac-12 and Big Ten are the highest-impact conferences to make decisions so far, as members of the Power-5. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 appear prepared to continue with fall sports, for the moment at least.
Including the Mountain West and Mid-American Conferences, four of the ten conferences in the FBS (the highest level of Division I college football) have now canceled their fall football season. Two of the seven independent FBS schools have also canceled.
That leaves the ACC, Big 12, and SEC in the Power-5, along with the AAC, C-USA and Sun Belt in the Group of Five. Notre Dame, BYU, New Mexico State, Liberty and Army West Point are the remaining independents still proceeding with football in the fall for the time being.
Here’s a list of the programs we’ve reported on so far:
- Big Ten Conference – B1G – postponed all fall sports
- Mountain West Conference – MWC – postponed all fall sports (Air Force exempt)
- Mid-American Conference – MAC – canceled fall sports
- Patriot League – canceled fall sports (Army & Navy exempt)
- Ivy League – canceled fall sports, no sports at all until at least January 1
- UConn (FBS independent) – canceled fall football
- UNC-W (CAA) – canceled fall sports
- UMass (FBS independent) – canceled fall football
Hmmm….I suppose Coach Bowman isn’t the selfish, arrogant, SCY hating, looking out for his own best interests Coach afterall!?
A lot of corruption going on out here.
They should just get rid of the whole NCAA and sanction the meets under USA swimming. Give everyone scholarships and let them compete as long as they are taking 12 units. who cares everyone works around the rules anyway
Free college for everyone !!!!
You are joking, but it is free almost everywhere in Europe. If it can be free in Sweden, Germany, Spain, why not in USA?
For all those who talk about heart effects of Covid:
Essentially, the new research establishes a link between COVID-19 and myocarditis, or inflammation in the heart caused by viral infection, but a relatively weak one, Daniel Cantillon, MD, a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic, tells Health.
According to Dr. Cantillon, myocarditis sounds a lot more severe than it usually is. In fact, many viruses have been linked to myocarditis, and most people who develop the condition continue to be fully functioning, Dr. Cantillon says—that includes working full-time and exercising. Myocarditis resulting from causes other than COVID-19 has been linked to arrhythmias (which occur when a patient has an irregular heartbeat) that can be life-threatening; however, “that is extremely rare,” Dr.… Read more »
Too bad he isn’t advising the Pac-12, Big 10, or MAC. He might have more pressing issues at his day job to deal with though so I wouldn’t fault him for that.
delirium has me concerned
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/coronavirus-symptom-delirium
It was to great effect with the eight day 2020 Summer Olympics Fantasy Projections. Every event with a world record and every swimmer with a personal best time, so it seemed.
Liability stakes just went WAY up for the rest of the Power 5. Can just see the lawsuits over COVID-related myocarditis, lengthy illness or worse yet, but unlikely, death: how come you (SEC, ACC. Big12) didn’t take the same precautions for this poor young athlete that the Pac12 and Big10 did?
Footballers can keep their benefits & not play but those that want to could sign a waiver. If there are less footballers out there on the field , their draft chances are higher.
Myocarditis can happen with any virus ,flu, . So why wasn’t anyone concerned in the past. This is rare in healthy individuals and death is very rare. But athletes drop dead every year from genetic cardiac issues.
Does this mean no competition in the fall or no practice, competition, anything?
Those things are still being worked out, but it does seem as though they’re looking for a path forward that includes training.
This is a big thing to clarify. Not sure for many of these sports why competition is more dangerous than practice. Though there are good arguments that practicing under coaches with safety protocols is safer for athletes than releasing them into the Wild.
Maybe Bowman was right?
Define “right.”
I’d give credit to him for being the first to make a decision.
And for giving his swimmers an honest appraisal and look out for them rather than the absurd “it’s gonna go away” stuff. Lou Holtz on TV comparing the college football season risks to the Normandy invasion.
I imagine by “right” he means red shirting anticipating anything related to a normal swim season not happening.
@2faf4speed I imagined that as well but I figured to ask for clarification.
I give Bowman credit for his *Preemptive* Decision-Making.
That’s the word I was thinking to use earlier.
I meant that Bowman realized his swimmers weren’t going to get much of a season (if any) this year, leading to the red shirt declaration.
Time for Katie Ledecky to return to NCAP-MD and Bruce Gemmell.
Of course, so she can regress in her life as an adult. I am sure no matter what, she will end up a successful human being with or without swimming.
Why would she do that? She really has nothing to do with Stanford swimming at this point. Uses their pool and coach. They can still do that if facilities are open, or they can find another pool in the area. Now if all CA pools are closed again, that’s another question.
Apparently she has been. The Chocolate Milk video was filmed at the Soda Aquatics Center in Lafayette, CA, home of Orinda Aquatics . . . .
I’m “chumming the waters”.
Katie is still enrolled at Stanford to finish a degree. She took a gap year during the Olympic year but after the delay reenrolled