Could be worse, BYU edition.

[Duhwayne]

So, in the last few days BYU lost:

Utah, Arizona State, Stanford

Michigan State, Minnesota

Granted, they likely lose all of those, but they need to think about replacements. Their former AD has suggested they will look at schools who were scheduled to play conference mates on those days–body bags playing body bags. 

Right now, they still have 

Utah State Missouri, Houston, @ Boise, @ Northern Illinois (we know what a treat eaxh of those is), SDSU and Northern Alabama.

SEC may move slower on cancelation but I don’t see the Tigers coming to play in Provo. Houston is one of the biggest Hotspot right now. What if MWC cancels?

In short, they could end up either playing up to nine home games against middling teams, or they could see all but their bag games disappear. I think it’s time to admit they made a mistake when they left the MWC, especially with TCU still in it when they did. All they needed to do was add Boise and the conference would have become a Powwe Six member.

Truth is I don’t see college sports this fall because I don’t see students on campus. 

I am not sure that all of this will affect Tom Holmoe’s employment as much as losing eight or nine games or more on that schedule could have.

Have a nice day. 

[belli1976]

Can’t wait for Zoobs saying we deserve to be in the CFP with a 4-0 record in November.

[Utesbyfive]

I actually feel bad for their fans. The school royally screwed the pooch going Indy. We’ve seem that for years, and this is just the cherry on top of the s**t sundae they’ve been served.

[Tony (admin)]

I feel bad for us, having to deal with their fans. 

[RiseasUtes]

I feel bad for their players.  I hope their fans are realizing that BYU isnt as important to the CFB landscape as they think they are.  I have 0 empathy for those arrogant humans called byu fans.

[Duhwayne]

Given how mismanaged the pandemic has been, it’s cutting into school years already. This is going to screw up work lives for families everywhere. I don’t see conferences able to bring people on campus, and at some point professors are going to draw the line. I don’t know how you keep 100 20 year-olds in a highly tested quarantine for four months. And then we ask them to line up, block and tackle seven to ten other groups of 20 year olds also expected to stay in a highly tested quarantine. Add to that risks associated with travel?

It’s a month away and positive cases are still going up especially in football country. At some point the liability is going to outweigh the public outcry. You can’t force people to risk getting sick for your entertainment. Unfortunately I suspect the conference games will get cut too in the next few weeks. The Ivy already canceled. My guess is B1G and PAC will take the lead again.

Hopefully spring football is possible. Reality is this pandemic is probably going to go into Spring too given the way people are behaving. I’d love to watch some games this fall but a Champioms League game was a major source of spread early in Italy. Meanwhile a vocal group of fans think regard basics like mask wearing is oppression. Wishful thinking is not a strategy to contain spread.

[Central Coast Ute]

The pandemic will be going for the next three years. Asking people to play football is the spring and then start it back up 6 months is ridiculous and would compromise player safety worse than this virus. If they don’t play it in the fall, they’ll have to wait for next year. There’s no way they’re going to just give up billions of dollars.

[Duhwayne]

You may be right that they’ll just cancel. I don’t agree that the university will simply go forward knowing it can’t control risk of spread when the season starts. The potential liability is enormous. Largely because of the refusal to deal with it early, five months later the first wave in many places is still growing exponentially. Because of the response nationally, you may also be right that the US will deal with this years longer than other countries. It may be easiest to plan for fall 2021. A lot of companies already are planning for worker return in spring 2021 in part because of not being able to plan on school reopening in a month.

[Central Coast Ute]

Yeah I just don’t see spring ball as a possibility. I heard someone say the other day they think it’ll be a very condensed season in the fall. You’ll play everyone in your division then the champ of each division plays in the CCG. In this scenario, everyone plays 5 games and 6 if you make it to the CCG. They could start a season like this in October or November. This virus doesnt seem to go dormant so until there’s a vaccine or until everyone gets it, we’ll be dealing with it.

[Duhwayne]

Would love for that to happen. I think playing without class blows open the argument that the athletes are merely students, not pros. Late fall ball would be a really welcome diversion from the sh1tshow unfolding on TV each day. Fingers crossed.

[Central Coast Ute]

Agreed. I just hope especially for the seniors sake they get to play. I mean without a senior season, Terrell Burgess would not have been drafted, at least not as high as he was.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

You seem to have the timeline wrong…

1.  Boise St had accepted the MWC’s invitation back on Jun. 11, 2010.

2.  Utah accepted the Pac-10’s invitation on Jun. 17th — 6 days later.

3.  ybU-p announced their knee-jerk reaction into indy-irrelevance on Sept. 1st — 11 wks after Utah had accepted our invitation, and 12 wks after Boise St had accepted theirs.

4.  TCU accepted their invitation to join the Big East on Nov. 29th — 13 wks after ybU-p announced their defection, 24 wks after Utah had done so likewise, and 25 wks after Boise St had pledged to join the MWC.

5.  The BCS revolved around a 5-yr grading period to determine who would be in it.  For the period of 2008-12,  the MWC was poised to overtake the Big East as the nation’s 6th best conference.  When Utah left to join the Pac-10, we took our “2008 Sugar Bowl” season with us.  But once Boise St. joined, they brought their “2009 Fiesta Bowl” season with them.  So it was a push.  TCU then tacked on both their “2009 Fiesta Bowl” season and their subsequent “2010 Rose Bowl” season, but then joined the Big XII in 2012, thus taking both of those BCS records with them.  The MWC never had a chance, because the big boys poached the top teams in the MWC before it could happen.  Even IF the tdS had opted to stay in the MWC, Boise St wouldn’t have been enough to carry the league.  The cougars added nothing.

That said, you are correct that becoming independent was a bad idea back then, and a potential program killer right now.  Especially after the MWC became a 12-team league, thus barring the tdS from ever returning, and C-USA — their next best option to join a conference — became a 14-team league.  The Big East proved that the Y was too high maintenance, and the Big XII proved them to be a program that does NOT add value.  All they have left are the Sun Belt and the MAC.  I LOVE IT!

[Duhwayne]

Thanks for the reply. Usually the confusion over timing is Y fans claiming TCU left with Utah and left them no choice but to burn down the WAC in an effort to leave MWC. Even more reinforcing about that mistake if Boise was already headed into MWC before.

Also, a note from the University VP for Magical Thinking:

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-message-from-your-universitys-vice-president-for-magical-thinking

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Yes, I too had heard the zoobs consistently blaming TCU’s pending defection as the reason they’d opted for indy-irrelevance, but that excuse was just a smokescreen.  I’d pointed it out to them M-A-N-Y times on both the SLTrib and DNews articles where they like to drop that bogus claim, what the actual timeline was, yet they still cling to their goofy myths.

There’s a REASON why mendenmidmajor once dubbed his former fan base “uneducated” ya know…