Thoughts
I've seen a lot of posts on here from the past few days. Some are thinking the MAC is doing this solely for financial reasons. Some are thinking the MAC will never recover. There are a group of players and coaches that still want to play, across the entire country.
The MAC's decision was not solely based on financial reasons. Sure, it plays a part, but the Presidents were in a bad spot. Many colleges across the country are planning solely, or mostly online classes this fall. How can they defend a decision to play fall sports when they are saying it is not safe to have students in the classroom? Also, if they let fall sports go on and cases spike, a small percentage of young student-athletes die (even 1 is too many) because of COVID-19.........they will be blamed for letting sports continue.
This was a decision they had to make, and like I've been saying for a couple of months now, there will not be a college football fall season. The Power 5 conferences will follow suit. We already know that the Big Ten will announce either today or tomorrow that they voted to cancel fall sports. The Big Ten's decision is not based on financial anymore than the MAC's decision.
Some people think it's safe for them to play. Some people don't think it is safe for them to play. The President's of the various University's have to make the ultimate decision, and they have to live with the consequences if student-athletes, trainers, coaches, officials die from COVID-19 because of moving forward with a seaaon.
Whether we like it or not, this was inevitable and it will be all conferences that will cancel fall sports.
Could this hurt the MAC more than the Big Ten or SEC? Sure. Could it hurt the sport of football altogether? Sure could. At the youth level there are a lot of concerns about the sport surviving. The sport was already under attack because of CTE/concussions, etc. and now many youth leagues are cancelling the season. Meanwhile, baseball leagues are conducting fall baseball seasons and trying to turn kids into baseball players instead. This will further hurt the number of kids playing youth football when the sport returns.....and the numbers have already dropped significantly over the last 5-7 years.
We have no idea when things will get back to normal. Right now they are saying the vaccines being worked on might only be 60-70% effective and only about 50% of the population want to take a vaccine. That is around a 30-35% rate of protection across communities. That's not enough for herd immunity. They will still need to require face masks and social distancing until a more effective vaccine can be ready and/or more than 50% of the population are willing to take the vaccine.
I know some people don't think this virus is as serious as the media makes it out to be. Some even think it is just a ploy to win an election. But I'm telling you this virus is real. There is no rhyme or reason to 100% detail of who gets hit harder with it. I've seen very healthy people that thought they had strong immune systems get his with this virus and two months later they still can't workout, etc. because they get so tired so quickly. I know people that have died from this virus. And one more thing to remember about college football, I think it is safe to say that more than 50% of the college football athletes are African-American, and for whatever reason African-American's are more susceptible to this disease, especially worse effects from this disease. I know someone that was very fit and healthy, African-American in their 20's, and they were on a ventilator it was so bad. They are doing better now, but still have a lot of issues that are dragging on.
This virus is real and it doesn't care who you are or how healthy you are, or what political party you like.
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