The Pac-12 has officially announced that the 2020 fall football season has been cancelled. According to Stadium’s Brett McMurphy, he was informed that official announcement was scheduled for Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott’s 1:30 PM PT press conference.
That means no Stanford Cardinal football in 2020.
The growing safety concerns and rising knowledge of the long-term impact of the coronavirus are ultimately what led to the cancellation of the Pac-12 football season this fall. It has been only hours since the Pac-12 had ‘an eye-opening experience’ after speaking with doctors who informed them of the link between myocarditis and COVID-19. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle often associated with viral infections and been linked closely to COVID-19. It is quoted to “come on suddenly and often with significant severity, resulting in an exceptionally high risk of death caused by cardiogenic shock (the heart’s inability to pump enough blood), fatal arrhythmias (abnormal heartbeats) and multiorgan failure,” according to the American Heart Association.
Stanford wasn’t alone in voting against a season this fall as reportedly the vote to shut down all athletic competition this fall was a unanimous vote from all 12 Pac-12 schools. No more athletic competition until January 1, 2021, at the earliest.
We all know why this has been done, it’s due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. It also came to a head this past Monday when Pac-12 presidents and chancellors had an ‘eye-opening’ experience when Pac-12 doctors informed them of the condition myocarditis. According to the doctors, Pac-12 officials were told of the linkage between the condition and COVID-19, especially in younger individuals.
Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle often associated with viral infections and been linked closely to COVID-19. It is quoted to “come on suddenly and often with significant severity, resulting in an exceptionally high risk of death caused by cardiogenic shock (the heart’s inability to pump enough blood), fatal arrhythmias (abnormal heartbeats) and multiorgan failure,” according to the American Heart Association.
The Big Ten became the first of the Power-5 Conferences to postpone the 2020 fall sports season, doing so at 2:45 PM ET, citing that their “primary responsibility is to make the best possible decisions in the interest of our students, faculty and staff,” according to a statement from Morton Schapiro, Chair of the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors.
Their decision included football as well as men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.
Their goal at the Big Ten was to play those seasons in the spring.
Say what you will about the Pac-12, but the Big Ten showed their own troubles during this process. It was stated on Monday that they were cancelling their season, but due to public outrage, they backed off their word and then let us wonder for 24 hours before making the same decision ‘official’ and public.
Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel also stated that the conference had began to discuss what would happen if the season wasn’t played as late as Sunday night, but not any sooner.
With the Pac-12 and Big Ten officially done for in 2020, that’s now nearly the majority of the nation’s universities at the major college football level that have cancelled or postponed their seasons. The Pac-12, Big Ten, MAC and Mountain West as well as Independent Schools UConn and UMass and Conference-USA’s Old Dominion account for 52 of the 130 FBS teams.
The fate of the college football season happening in 2020 now relies on the Big 12’s decision as reportedly, the SEC is favoring a continuation of playing this fall, but will need the Big 12 to come with them.
The Pac-12’s cancellation, of course, comes just a few short weeks after they announced a conference-only schedule, consisting of 10 games for each of the 12 member universities.
During a press conference with Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, Stanford’s cut of 11 varsity sports was brought up, as cancelling the season certainly will put all 12 member universities in a financial strain.
Oregon State athletic Director Ray Anderson led the answers, stating each university will be on their own in that regard.
“Every institution is going to have to determine for themselves what the way forward is,” Anderson said. “We’re certainly intending and adamant about continuing the athletic experience for our student-athletes. Finances and expenses will certainly be tested and each school will have to get creative with revenue-generating experiences going forward.”
Still more to come.
Comments
Undefeated, baby!
Seriously, football is really hard to pull off in COVID-19 times so this is the expected result of this season.
By worldblee on 08.11.20 1:36pm
Tale of two nations
in NCAA football, too?
By holdthemayo! on 08.11.20 3:19pm
Tough way for the seniors to leave
Definitely will miss watching the young ballers in fall, hopefully we come out stronger and focused next fall (spring and fall back to back will be tough).
Will miss watching walker little and adebo suiting up for the Cardinal. Don’t know if the bleeding stops given the recruitment woes too. Again Shaw has to re-evaluate his staffings soon.
By layman on 08.11.20 11:29pm
A New Era of Stanford Coaching
Let’s face it, Stanford’s play the last two years has been disappointing. Injuries to presumptive starters were certainly a reason. But, more significantly, it was the inability of the coaching staff to prepare their replacements. Just about anyone can coach a five star player, but it takes talent to nurture three stars. Evaluate their strengths and weaknesses coming in, establish a rigorous, personally-tailored training regime, and drill them on all aspects of the college game. This is simply not being done effectively at Stanford. Now, with no fall season, it’s time for coaches to earn their inflated salaries. Here are some suggestions (and I’d enjoy seeing others’ ideas):
1. Inside linebacker. Seven undergrad players are on the roster. Give them each virtual headsets to learn how to captain a defense. Then test them all every month to see who’s getting it and who’s not.
2. Safety. Three non-seniors. Give them all CD’s of each team on Stanford’s schedule, so they can prepare for each well in advance. And test them as well over the next four to six months.
3. Defensive Line. Five undergrads on the roster. GET THEM STRONGER.
4. Get commitments now on what seniors plan to return in 2021. Adebo, Little, Mills, and Sarell are likely gone. Same for Heimuli and Reid as they are already two years older. But that leaves ten others. Don’t go through that absurd transfer portal again.
5. Before the NCAA limits "off-season" coaching, meet individually with every player on the roster and give them detailed strength and fitness plans, as well as instructional videos on their position. Then follow up to insure they are improving at both tasks.
6. Stop worrying about who you’re losing and work with those who are returning. The roster of undergraduates includes extremely talented players at QB, Kicker, CB, RB, WR, OL, LB. There is no reason for Stanford to continue it’s downward slide.
By SU74 on 08.12.20 12:10pm
A New Era of No College Football?
We have no way to assure that spring and fall 2021 will allow feasible sports returns. If anything, more daunting knowledge of the epidemiology of the novel coronvirus will emerge. As Australia and Brazil showed with their early COVID-19 surges during their summer seasons, we’ll also await COVID continuation until it merges with the arrival of the next flu season. Will enough COVID19 scofflaws also avoid available flu shots, to compound the previous antivaxer movement? Is the NCAA going dormant for a couple of years until maybe 2023, as vaccinations are too slowly attained for earlier herd immunities. Lots of uncertainty persists as brinksmanship attempts to sustain hope, futilely? Knock on Formica!
By Candid One on 08.12.20 5:37pm
You Have Truly Earned Your Name With This Comment!
All of us cling to positive expectations that personal travel and sports will be possible by early to mid 2021. I have visions of skiing and overseas travel. I have an Epic Pass deadline in a couple of weeks. Can I? Should I? But then it all washes away when looking at the current realities and trends. And those trends may well get worse given schools re-opening and the arrival of the flu season. Any change at the national level to influence direction cannot occur until January 2021. And any plan, even if formulated well in advance, will take time. My baseline rational view is that we may not see college sports and true international travel until the beginning of 2022. And that assumes robust vaccines are developed, distributed and actually taken. There is a lot of happy talk out there. Remaining positive is good. I think the upside might be 3 months earlier than January 2022, while the downside may be 9 months later – late 2022 or early 2023.
This virus is like a candle that gets snuffed out, then spontaneously re-ignites. With the jury out on longer term effects, even for asymptomatic cases, we can’t get very far ahead of total elimination of this threat. And currently, instead of snuffing out candles, we are having veritable birthday celebrations all around our country lighting more and more candles.
I fear that Covid-19 will never be "under control" enough for full reopening of our society until it is essentially wiped out. And that is not an early to mid 2021 scenario IMHO.
So yeah………….we may have a new era of no college football (and no alot of other things) for a while.
By hoyaparanoia on 08.13.20 11:08am