The risk is asymmetric: college football players would be bearing the risk of getting covid if they played, but they wouldn’t be getting much of the benefit, because they’re not getting paid.
Oh no. I am not going down that rabbit hole again. LOL
I caught a bit of a news piece the other morning, and I think it was an NCAA rep saying the scholarships must be honored if the student decided not to play due to fear of corona. Obviously, they will require all schools that don’t have football or other fall sports to honor scholarships and most likely with grant a red shirt season like they did in the spring. The catch will be that the players will be treated like all other students, so if the other students aren’t living on campus or getting room and board as part of their FA this fall, players likely won’t be either.
Our state high school athletic association moved all sports except for boys golf, boys tennis, softball, and cross country to the spring. No winter starts either, they’ll all be spring. That means two and three sport athletes are likely to be out of luck. A lot of the top prospect football players like to graduate early so they can be part of spring football with the college. This year I think that will be impossible if both hs and college teams are playing a season in the spring.
Harbaugh and the players want to play:
Will be interesting to see what they do with eligibility. Basketball players did not get another year of eligibility. But they played almost all of the regular season and missed conference tournaments and the Big Dance.
If you give another year of elibigility, what do you do with scholarship limits? Teams already are recruiting 2021 classes with an understanding that certain current seniors will no longer be there. Do you increase scholarship limits for next season? Some recruiting is based on projected needs which may well change if kids staying around another year.
In terms of the NFL, draft eligibility isn’t determined based on number of years you play in college; its determined on how many years you are out of high school. So Lawrence (Clemson) and Fields (Ohio State) – Heismen favs for this season – could leave for the NFL in 2021 draft even if they are given another year of elibility (they would still have another year left in any event).
Joe Burrow would have been a third day pick prior to 2019 season. But with it he earned a national championship and first overall pick. Extreme case no doubt but in some instances, another year to develop is a big benefit.
I’m wondering how the television contracts are structured. Do the conferences get paid even if there are no games? For Big Ten schools and I imagine many others, the big money is in TV rights, not fans in the stands. Big Ten schools each receive in excess of $50 million annually from the Big Ten Conference from television contracts. For many, that television revenue represents the greatest part of their athletic department budget.
That’s why schools like Maryland and Rutgers were so eager to join the Big Ten, to get a slice of that big, fat pie. For its part, the Big Ten was equally eager to have Maryland and Rutgers join so the Big Ten Network, a joint venture between the conference and Fox, could break into the lucrative Baltimore-Washington and New York-New Jersey markets, expanding viewership and advertising revenue.
“The minimum salary for a practice squad player [in the NFL] is $136,000” according to @sushiritto in post #238 above. Although off topic, I wonder how this compares to CFL (Canadian Football League) salaries ?
Is it more lucrative to be a practice squad player in the NFL or a starter in the CFL ?
Only if they didn’t play 4 seasons. Both Lawrence and Fields played as true freshmen.
When they gave spring sports an extra season, the NCAA did not increase number/amount of scholarships or team size (if limited). Dick Tierney, head coach of DU lacrosse, said it was very difficult and they’d have to consider each player on an individual basis. Much of the athletic scholarship money had been promised (signed the NLI) to incoming freshmen last Nov. Many students have academic merit money that is not automatically extended to a 5th year. Students were graduating and may not want to get a masters in any of the subjects DU offers them in. Some players had been on the bench for 2 years waiting for the guy in front of them to move on, and Tierney seemed very concerned with his promises to them.
It wasn’t as simple as just bring back the senior class for another year. My daughter could not have played a 5th year for financial reasons (she’d already graduated). She had a nice athletic scholarship, but most of her money came from school and state merit scholarships, and those were for 8 semesters and used up by the spring of her senior year. She could have started a masters, but she didn’t want to. She was done, had a job lined up, and didn’t want to go back for more schooling. I think those most likely to play the extra year are not the 2020 seniors but the sophomores and juniors. They have more time to schedule out their remaining college time, finances, and play for 2-3 more years. I don’t think any of the seniors from her school are using the extra year granted by the NCAA.
Not sure exactly how the TV contracts work. But it was interesting when DIsney released earnings recently for its third quarter. Media network segment revenues were down 2% but operating income for segment was up 48%. In discussion portion of earnings release:
Sounds like they kept the revenue but didn’t need to incur the costs. Seems go to against my old accounting days of matching revenues and costs. When the seasons continue, programming costs will be incurred but maybe they are not collecting revenues (because they were already paid)? Seems odd.
Lawrence and Fields would be eligible for the NFL draft in 2021. Whether there is a season this year or not. Point is draft eligibility isn’t determined based on the number of years you play college football but how many years your class is out of high school. Redshirt your first year, play two seasons and your are eligible.
Both players would have another year of elibility remaining after 2020 season (even if they were not granted another year of elibility because of a Covid cancelation). Given another year in terms of Covid, they could each play 2021 and 2022 seasons. Don’t think many people expect them to play 2021 much less 2022 seasons (fall – presumably spring 2021 would be counted as 2020 eligibility used).
I would expect lacrosse players and football players may well approach additional year of school/eligibility differently.
ESPN makes a lot of revenue from cable/satellite subscribers. If you have cable, you are still paying the same for it even though they are producIng little new content. Advertising revenues are less sticky and went down due to lower viewership.
The p12 President’s have a meeting scheduled tomorrow, which is likely to approve cancellation of fall. I assume that the P5, or at least the BiG and P12, want to make announcements simultaneously
Scott Frost, the Nebraska HC, says his team is playing no matter what, meaning possibly outside of the B1G, assuming they could find teams to play:
This is starting to get interesting. 
Yeah but who are they playing and who’s going to watch them?
Big 10 is now saying no formal vote.
Not sure if this is an example of floating an idea to get a reaction and then go from there.
Ohio State spring game…
https://buckeyeswire.usatoday.com/2019/04/13/ohio-state-2019-spring-game-5-things-we-learned/
Who needs opponents?
Nebraska with the “power play.”
Heck, if they did play a team outside the B1G, assuming the B1G decides not to play the season, then the B1G could potentially kick Nebraska out of the B1G, if they desired.
Dunno, who they would play. Iowa? Iowa was the other dissenting vote, according to reports. The SEC or Big 12 could add a game, since they’re more likely than any other league to play a season.
Have you watched a Spring game? No live tacking and the coaches are on the field before, during and after plays. So, not a lot of hitting and pushing going on.
It still draws 60,000 to the stadium - lots of kids (especially youth football players) and families. They are only asking for 20,000 capacity at Ohio Stadium. So they’d have more demand than seats, even for that.
I’d be happy with the spring game (multiples even better).
It’s unwatchable for me, no matter the team. There’s no sense of urgency, no real clock, etc.