Many schools will continue their football program, without fans, if necessary, or lose tens of millions of dollars in television rights.
I also am surprised to hear the idea of sports games without fans. Tennis, cross country, golf, baseball…doable. Football and even soccer and basketball? There is so much bodily contact, mouth guards in and out, sweat, the ball…I can’t even imagine playing any of these in a mask and can’t imagine it would work. Maybe they are thinking/hoping that they could test the entire team every day? (for some schools, it would be worth the cost). For the big football schools, there is financial motivation (and means) to make it happen, for television. But for everyone else, I just can’t see it.
EDIT: Just read in another thread that the NCAA has laid out a 6 week return to play plan. (!!)
I think many of the D1 recruits at the largest football programs,are not particularly concerned about getting the virus, and given their demographic, perhaps they do not need to be.
This article was in one of our papers. I found this in particularly interesting:
and
@AlmostThere2018 If students stay on campus for Thanksgiving it’s only one trip home in December after classes end and one return in January so it’s basically 2 trips in the span of a month. If they go home for Thanksgiving break and come back for finals it’s 4 trips in a span of a month and a half. Big difference. Only works if staff and faculty do the same. I’d rather my kid stay over Thanksgiving and come home a little early.
@roycroftmom As for football I’m sure $ talks but it would be hypocritical to allow football to occur and ask students and faculty to keep social distancing in-place. I’m pretty sure $ will win out.
As for testing…good luck. Still a shortage. Do you take away tests for college students over healthcare workers, first responders, military, or nursing home workers? Plus, we still don’t know how relevant antibodies are or aren’t…how long do they last?
Intercollegiate sports would be a good way to bring outbreaks from one campus to another. It seems foolish to consider having them.
Here is the football/sports thread. There is very little chance that football doesn’t get played at least in the Power 5 this upcoming year…but there are many options for making that happen.
Here’s the link to the NCAA plan: https://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/core-principles-resocialization-collegiate-sport
Rice has about 10% international kids and maybe 50% OOS. It’s not uncommon for kids to not go home for breaks such as Thanksgiving. I suspect if nothing changes before then some families will choose to have their kids come home for Thanksgiving and just stay home and others will have them stay on campus and come home after finals. My D was analyzing options last night and we finally said it was too early to decide and we still don’t have enough information from the school. We’ll probably hold off making any decisions until much closer to then.
I just think this situation is going to be very fluid depending on what happens with the virus and local governments. Texas is starting to reopen so I assume most Texas schools will go ahead with plans for school to resume in the fall. But I think we all need to be prepared for things to change.
I am going to be very interested to see what their plans are for distancing and isolation. There is a brand new dorm being built that was originally scheduled to be completed in November. If that could get finished early fall, that might mean there is a whole extra dorm for isolating students. Otherwise, it might be tough.
@chmcnm – I think you missed what Rice is considering – they don’t come back after Thanksgiving until January. So it’s not 4 trips, it’s 2, but instead of having Thanksgiving on campus, they go home for turkey, take their finals at home, and stay home until Spring semester. @PrdMomto1 – correct me if I’m wrong about this!
Oh I know. I have a D at Ohio State. Just think it’s a bad idea.
@Mwfan1921 Thanks for the link.
I thought you were talking “in-general” and not about Rice specifically. No worries. I read the Rice article earlier. It could work but if I were a college I’d avoid any mix of in-person and online classes if possible. To many moving parts.
Are schools canceling Parents’ Weekends? It seems like a good idea to limit travel. I think a lot of this will come down to how well states reopening goes (and how high the death count goes). The newest predictions are not looking great.
I am currently on a “town hall” Zoom conference call with the President of my son’s college, a NESCAC. Basically, they’re not saying much because they just don’t know much at this time. They are just giving vague scenarios for the Fall. Obviously just a wait and see.
If schools were still online my student would not be living off campus in a leased apartment and then returning home and going back and forth potentially bringing the virus back and forth…absolutely not. We have 3 other children and 2 adults here. If schools are not online all of us will presumably assuming more of an outside risk.
If there’s no outbreak on campus and the students are going to make one trip and one trip only, I’d prefer them to finish as much of a semester as possible on campus. If Houston is still relatively virus free and there’re outbreaks elsewhere in December, they should consider keeping their students on campus and start the spring semester right after the holidays.
I think all colleges should be flexible in this environment and make the best decisions based on their own situations.
@GKUnion the cruise industry will literally plan a grand reopening on a ship that still has dead Covid passengers on it if you let them. Are you kidding me? Taking a cruise right now is akin to licking the inside of someone’s face mask. You can’t even compare that to opening a college campus in the fall lol.
@123France Are they saying when they will make a decision about fall?
@homerdog , nope. Wait and see. They are over target for Fall admits by 10 students in addition to 50 January admits. most likely will experience a housing crunch due to the fact that most of the 100 students who study abroad will be on campus.
I think what has yet to be seen is what summer melt will look like once schools announce their plans.