Archives for 2020

Is this for real (this time)?

I think I’m confused. First, I posted on August 5 that PSU would be playing a ten game all Big Ten Schedule, starting on September 5. On August 6 I added that Pennsy Governor Tom Wolfe had limited outdoor gatherings to 250 people, hence there would be no fans in the stands for that season that, oh by the way, did not start on September 5. (Since that time, a court has found Wolfe’s order to be unconstitutional, which is good because two collegiate teams plus all the coaches, trainers, and other putzes they bring along to a game total more than 250, but I digress). Then on August 10 I wrote that the presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten had voted 12-2 to shitcan the football season completely. Are you following along here? I know it’s getting complicated.

The following day, I confirmed that the football season “now appears to be irrevocably cancelled”. We all believed at that point and through the end of August that there would be no football season for the Big Ten, at least not before winter. However, at that point desperate people were making noise about a spring season, or even a snowy January start. Not wanting to believe the crap I was reading after having been through all the gyrations of August, I mused on August 29, “Everything is so up in the air that today’s speculation is tomorrow’s toilet paper…”

Typically, my cynicism knows no bounds. However, the Big Ten was making my former, cynical self look like Rebecca of Sunnibrook Farm.

Are you ready for this?

Wait! Not so fast! Now, the big news today, rumored since Sunday because you can’t keep a lid on anything in the Big Ten, is that there will be a season starting on October 23. Just how it came about is anybody’s guess. Lots of shit was taking place behind the scenes, to wit:

• Players wanted to play
• Parents wanted players to play
• Coaches wanted to play
• Fans wanted to play, or at least get season ticket refunds
• Donald Trump wanted to play
• Presidents and chancellors feared Covid-19 lawsuits
• Kevin Warren was brand new and didn’t know what to think

Our girl Sandy Barbour belongs to committee of Big Ten bigwigs who were tasked with the notion of returning to competition.

So, without further ado, the Big Ten speaks.

Enter the Chief Infection Officer

This will be a data driven thing, apparently. They’re going to monitor infections closely and take stringent medical precautions, including daily antigen screening. So called student-athletes, trainers, coaches, and other putzes who hang out on the sidelines who test positive through the point of contact test would require further testing to confirm the result.

Comprehensive cardiac testing and data collection will be a significant part of the testing protocol. If anyone tests positive, they’ll have to run the gantlet through Cardiac Canyon.

Each school will need to appoint — I cracked up at this — a “Chief Infection Officer.” The abbreviated acronym used in the story was CInO, pronounced (I guess) “see-in-oh”. If you have the sniffles, you must consult with the CInO.

The official announcement goes on to describe medical criteria for halting practice and competition: when and for how long.

The daily testing will begin by September 30, 2020.

What about the damn schedule, already?

Thus far, we haven’t seen a formal presentation of individual team schedules. Conceptually, though, Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez stated that the Fablungeta Committee had come up with four different models, and what was chosen was an eight game schedule starting the last week in October, with a ninth, so-called champions week where teams in each division play their equally ranked counterpart in the other division. Called a “Plus One” week, this means there is a nine-game schedule. (What a wonderful Week Nine game we’ll see with Rutgers squaring off against Illinois).

Read the whole article here.

I know, I know. Everything is so up in the air that today’s speculation is tomorrow’s toilet paper, and it ain’t even on paper.

The most recent possibilities I’ve seen about the football season is that the Big Ten could play an eight-game schedule starting around Thanksgiving. The next most recent conjecture was that a January start was a possibility. That one came with a preemptive argument nullifying wintry weather by stating that games could be played only in domed, climate-controlled stadiums. Hell, if we deferred it to spring, we could play in the southern hemisphere, so it would be like fall, only not here.

So, what’s going on? From a Penn State perspective, we know James Franklin isn’t happy with the cancellation of the season. Neither are players’ parents, who rationalize that if it is safe to go to class, it is also safe to play football. Finally, the players themselves are unhappy. No explanation is needed there.

Who is right?

So who’s right? Obviously, we do not have a crystal ball, so we do not know what effect a football season would have whether it starts in September, November, or January. It’s all guesswork at this point — uncharted territory. We know we have a pandemic that is making lots of people sick and a partial shutdown that is causing economic woes, but we don’t know how football will affect either.

I’ll avoid taking political sides, as typically obtuse and dogmatic false dichotomies exist on both sides, much to the collective chagrin of logicians everywhere. Politicizing the Covid-19 pandemic has led to bad decisions, false promises, outright lies, and dubious progress toward the goal of eradicating the scourge. Far be it from a half-assed football columnist to propose “perfect” solutions like the PhDs over at the University of Facebook. I will, however, opine that there are no complete and foolproof solutions coming from the political sector, no matter who we vote for. In fact, much of what either party might do will make matters worse.

Is football worth all this?

What I ask, though, is whether playing football is worth all this turmoil. We’re being denied a significant form of entertainment, but that is what it is — entertainment. As such, it is not a necessity. It is a luxury. Luxuries are rewards for a healthy society, but this society is not healthy, either with respect to disease pathology or economic pathology. We can pretend that we are, but we have the pandemic and the YOLO “live for now” philosophy, which collectively cry, “BULLSHIT!”

Oh yeah, you argue that our economic health depends on getting back to “business as usual.” Right. That means spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need — overpaying NBA players and corporate executives, for example. Generally living beyond our individual means, for another. Not having savings to tide us over when things get rough, while letting our government print money willy-nilly to anesthetize us into thinking they can make everything OK — that’s the reality of our predicament at the moment.

The government cannot invent money to buy us out of this dilemma. Printed bucks lose real value. All we’re doing with them is deferring the big bill and attempting to soften the landing, while at the same time sowing the seeds for runaway inflation and devaluation of the dollar. Kidding ourselves into believing those politicians who make vacuous promises leaves us dumbed down and vulnerable.

We need to play football.

So, will football help? Yeah, it’s more anesthesia we could use to take our minds off the larger problems looming before all of us. Furthermore, if we act like everything is all right, who is to say that things are not all right. We should spend the remaining money we don’t have on more things we don’t need. We don’t need football; we just want it — just like the rest of the lifestyle we are kidding ourselves into thinking we can afford with complicity from our friendly public servants in Washington.

Both sides of the aisle agree on this! They all drink from that same fountain! The charade goes on, but they know their dirty secret: Keep those printing presses running at warp speed and pumping out greenbacks. Both sides will claim to be responsible for putting more of the increasingly worthless paper in your pocket and will attempt to cajole you into voting for them, so you can have more of the same. At what cost? Our future. Live for now, and to hell with the forthcoming train wreck!

Until we can start producing more than we consume, restoring the balance of trade in our favor and righting our economic ship, printing more baseless dollars to fund our profligate personal and government excesses will only send us careening in the other direction . We kick the can down the road, hoping we can do so forever and ever. We cannot. Politicians know better, but they’re concerned only about the next election. Eventually the bills must be paid. Foreign governments will cease to be interested in funding our profligate spending and artificially elevated lifestyle. Then what will we do?

Play football.

Football Season Now Appears to be Irrevocably Cancelled

The Tuesday meeting is over. Looks like our worst fears were founded, possibly, maybe. Big Ten presidents decided it was unsafe to go forward with the football season.

The Big Ten released the following statements:

“Our primary responsibility is to make the best possible decisions in the interest of our students, faculty and staff,” said Morton Schapiro, Chair of the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors and Northwestern University President.

“The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward,” said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. “As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall.

“We know how significant the student-athlete experience can be in shaping the future of the talented young women and men who compete in the Big Ten Conference. Although that knowledge made this a painstaking decision, it did not make it difficult.

“While I know our decision today will be disappointing in many ways for our thousands of student-athletes and their families, I am heartened and inspired by their resilience, their insightful and discerning thoughts, and their participation through our conversations to this point. Everyone associated with the Big Ten Conference and its member institutions is committed to getting everyone back to competition as soon as it is safe to do so.”

Is Spring football a possibility?

Who knows? Certainly, the coaches and the players will be pressing for it.

I wouldn’t be surprised at anything right now, as they appear to be making stuff up as we move along.