College Football in 2020 in danger?

[Zeus 6018]

3 hours ago, phdhorn said:

So what's the status on key players being able to opt out this "season" to pursue the draft?  This is gonna be great.  Yeah, screw this, I'm getting ready for the combines.  But I'll be in the stands cheering for you guys!

Whatever happens, this season will basically be an asterisk if not an abortion.  I'm still betting on good odds from Vegas on % that someone(s) will have it and it'll be covered up until the big game is over.

Shut it down until January at the latest.  Whatever this is, it's barely football.  I still think it doesn't make it through anyway.

Been saying this. The "this year right now" money grab at all costs doesn't make any sense. Play early next year, have fans, play all the games.

[utee94 15811]

7 minutes ago, Zeus said:

Been saying this. The "this year right now" money grab at all costs doesn't make any sense. Play early next year, have fans, play all the games.

I suspect they're worried that next year isn't going to look any better than this year, so they want to get in ANYthing they can, as soon as they can.

I suspect they're right, too.

But it won't matter because they're not going to beat the clock in Fall of 2020, and the shit will still be hitting the fan in Spring of 2021, especially on college campuses.

 

[Valmy77 13226]

2 hours ago, kopp0e said:

Well, that was a fun thought:

 

This is why you take anything Ketchum says with a huge grain of salt.

[notre dame joe 187]

On 7/30/2020 at 4:57 PM, bigcigar said:

What are the odds every sec school finishes the regular season ranked? I’d imagine pretty high.

No this is a dream scenario.  The SEC has never played a full round robin in it's history.  Their rankings will demonstrate how much they gamed the system through the years by adding a 3-0 to all of their records.

[bigcigar 1164]

5 hours ago, notre dame joe said:

No this is a dream scenario.  The SEC has never played a full round robin in it's history.  Their rankings will demonstrate how much they gamed the system through the years by adding a 3-0 to all of their records.

I bet they figure out scheduling to avoid that. Vandy to play 50 game schedule

Edited August 1, 2020 by bigcigar

[Enchubben 5510]

6 hours ago, notre dame joe said:

No this is a dream scenario.  The SEC has never played a full round robin in it's history.  Their rankings will demonstrate how much they gamed the system through the years by adding a 3-0 to all of their records.

Not so fast my friend. A loss to an SEC team is barely a loss. Beating an SEC team is a major accomplishment. Move the loser  down 1 spot, move the winner up 8. Voila, half the top 10 is SEC.

[CooterBrown 18006]

No this is a dream scenario.  The SEC has never played a full round robin in it's history.  Their rankings will demonstrate how much they gamed the system through the years by adding a 3-0 to all of their records.

If they all finished 4-4, ESPN would tout they they all tied for the NC.

[Hurtlocker 2212]

On a call with SEC leaders, worried football players pushed back: ‘It’s not good enough’

Quote

By Robert Klemko and Emily Giambalvo

August 1, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. EDT

College football’s most powerful conference, the SEC, announced Thursday that it plans to forge ahead with a season this fall. But a day earlier, in a private meeting with conference leaders and medical advisers, several football players raised concerns about their safety, only to be told that positive cases on their teams were a “given,” according to an audio recording obtained by The Washington Post.

The meeting, which took place Wednesday, included more than a dozen SEC football players, members of the conference’s medical advisory board and SEC officials, including Commissioner Greg Sankey. It was designed as a “confidential free exchange,” an SEC spokesman said in an email, where the league’s medical advisers could “hear questions and our student-athletes were able to hear answers."

But the recording offers a window into how conference officials — keen on keeping a multibillion dollar industry afloat amid the novel coronavirus pandemic — are, and aren’t, reassuring the athletes they need to make the season a reality.

“There are going to be outbreaks,” one official told players on the call. (The official didn’t identify himself, and the SEC spokesman declined to identify him to The Post.) “We’re going to have cases on every single team in the SEC. That’s a given. And we can’t prevent it.”

As the 2020 season barrels closer, several high-profile programs have already grappled with outbreaks. Some have had to temporarily suspend workouts, including Michigan State and Rutgers, which are both in isolation after several players tested positive.

SEC narrows football season to 10 games per team, eliminates nonconference schedule

Players in the SEC and other conferences have the option to opt out of this season and retain their scholarships. But so far just a handful of players at top schools have done so, preferring to skip the season and preserve a year of NCAA eligibility rather than risk infection.

Caleb Farley, an NFL-bound cornerback from Virginia Tech, said this week that he lost his mother to breast cancer and couldn’t stomach the idea of losing another family member. Ra’Von Bonner, a reserve running back at the University of Illinois, told The Post the risks of playing outweighed the reward.

Players on the SEC call, who were part of a “student-athlete leadership council,” raised similar concerns, with one player asking: “For so much unknown in the air right now, is it worth having a football season without certainty?”

Sankey, who earned a $2.5 million salary in 2018, responded: “Part of our work is to bring as much certainty in the midst of this really strange time as we can so you can play football in the most healthy way possible, with the understanding there aren’t any guarantees in life."

The players were especially concerned with what happens once their universities reopen. When they returned for workouts this summer, their campuses were largely empty. Most of the people they interacted with were those inside their cloistered and regimented football programs, where regular testing and the potential ire of their powerful coaches made adherence to public health guidelines a must for many athletes.

MoMo Sanogo, a linebacker at the University of Mississippi, asked the officials on the call why his school planned to bring thousands of students to campus for fall classes. Sanogo said he has four classes per week, and he fears some of those classmates will go to bars and parties at night, then unknowingly infect football players during class.

The answer Sanogo received shed light on the pressure that university presidents, who rely on college football for prestige and revenue, face to reopen their campuses this fall, even as the pandemic surges. “It’s one of those things where if students don’t come back to campus, then the chances of having a football season are almost zero,” an official who did not identify himself said.

The official told Sanogo that class sizes would be smaller so students can sit six feet apart from one another, and that face coverings should help keep students safe. But he admitted the arrangement was “not fair” to athletes, who might take every precaution but still be infected by the students who don’t.

He suggested that Sanogo, 21, remind the people around him to behave responsibly. “As un-fun as it sounds,” the official said, “the best thing that you can do is just try to encourage others to act more responsibly and not put yourself in those kinds of situations. I’m very comfortable with what we’ve done on campus. I’m concerned about what happens from 5 p.m. until 5 a.m.”

Sanogo kept pushing. “How can y’all help us?” he asked. He referenced the concept of a “bubble,” the insular playing environments employed by pro basketball and ice hockey, and compared it with his bustling college campus. Another member of the task force told him that his mask would offer protection, and he could be a role model for others to wear one. She told him to sit at the back of classrooms and not engage in close conversations.

The officials’ uncertainty was not lost on Keeath Magee II, a Texas A&M linebacker, who wondered aloud whether starting the season with so many unanswered questions would be something the officials would come to regret.

“You guys have answered a lot of questions the best way you could, and we really appreciate it. But as much as you guys don’t know … it’s not good enough,” he said. “We want to play. We want to see football. We want to return to normal as much as possible. But it’s just that with all this uncertainty, all this stuff that’s still circulating in the air, y’all know it kind of leaves some of us still scratching my head. ... I feel like the college campus is the one thing that you can’t control.”

Sankey highlighted how much decision-makers in sports have learned in the past four months, and how they will continue to adapt. He said the SEC and member schools are committed to creating the “best environment possible in this new reality.”

Another athlete, who did not identify himself, sought more information about the effects of the virus itself: “What information do you have about the lasting effects on players who may contract covid?”

The moderator promptly directed the question to Shawn Gibbs, dean of Texas A&M’s School of Public Health. Gibbs promptly punted. “Remember,” he said. “I’m an industrial hygienist, so I’m not the medical person here.”

Marshall Crowther, a sports medicine physician at the University of Mississippi, stepped in. “The problem is a lot of this we don’t know,” Crowther said. Most people, he said, seem to not have lasting effects. He acknowledged the growing concerns among medical experts about how the virus affects people’s hearts but said there has not been enough time to conduct long-term studies.

Catherine O’Neal, a professor of medicine who specializes in infectious diseases, chimed in then, describing how young medical residents at her hospital who have contracted the virus have complained of being exhausted for four-to-six weeks. If that happened to college football players, she pointed out, it could affect their performance.

“Even though we’re saying you’re great because you’re not hospitalized,” O’Neal said, “it’s going to take something out of you.”

O’Neal did not return a request for comment Friday. Nor did Crowther or Gibbs.

Another player, who was not identified on the call, asked the medical experts plainly: “If we were your kids, would y’all let us play in this same football season with the same protocols and uncertainty?”

“One of my sons has played baseball for the last five, six weeks,” said one official, who didn’t identify himself. “And I can tell you, I have a couple of kids that have played soccer over the last four weeks. I don’t have great concerns about them contracting it during play.

“We can’t be 100 percent,” he went on. “We’re never going to be 100 percent.”

Several players who participated did not respond to requests for comment or could not be reached. The SEC spokesman, Herb Vincent, said the players found the meeting “productive” and asked for another, which Vincent said the conference will schedule.

During the call, Sankey, the commissioner, also relayed a conversation he had with his two daughters about how they should continue their lives during this pandemic by taking personal responsibility and encouraging others to do the same.

“My advice is you’re going to have to go live your life in this environment,” the commissioner said. “I think that’s the challenge that we’re trying to meet.”

 

[Js1 85311]

“We’re going to have cases on every single team in the SEC. That’s a given. And we can’t prevent it.”

[Incredulity 11665]

Ra’Von Bonner, a reserve running back at the University of Illinois, told The Post the risks ofplaying outweighed the reward.

 

[Bartles 769]

Interesting nugget from the Athletic article on Big 12 schedule options:

Quote

There’s also some concern that, by opting for a reduced schedule, the Big 12 could run into issues with its TV deals, which sources say require 57 games, if cancellations end up forcing teams to play fewer than 10 games each. A 9+1 model would give the conference a 55-game schedule.

Coaches/ADs are saying they should schedule more than 10 games in case they need to cancel any, which in itself isn't a great look as they're suggesting we'll just step over the bodies during an outbreak and try again next week. But the real motivation might be, as usual, making sure they can cash the checks.

[Chopper 17230]

2 hours ago, Hurtlocker said:

On a call with SEC leaders, worried football players pushed back: ‘It’s not good enough’

 

Posted this in the atm thread but one fascinating detail about this call is that the SEC's 'medical expert' is the dean of atm's school of public health, who, when asked a question about the virus, punted and said, "Remember, I’m an industrial hygienist, so I’m not the medical person here." SEC SEC

[mdmost 43001]

1 hour ago, Incredulity said:

Ra’Von Bonner, a reserve running back at the University of Illinois, told The Post the risks ofplaying outweighed the reward.

 

You think this guy never gets in the game? He's played in 23 games in his career so far. 

[Incredulity 11665]

3 minutes ago, mdmost said:

You think this guy never gets in the game? He's played in 23 games in his career so far. 

Shame on me for not knowing the back ups on a third rate Big Ten team.

 

[mdmost 43001]

Yeah, I know. Google is hard. 

[Incredulity 11665]

4 minutes ago, mdmost said:

Yeah, I know. Google is hard. 

Bizarre white knighting for a back up Illinois running back is bizarre.

[mdmost 43001]

Bizarre retort when you should just take the L and move on. 

[clapclapclap 9000]

It was funny reading media members freak out about how there was almost a brawl at a baseball game.  There will be more risk and exposure in a single football drive than such brawl.  Unless they play in space helmets, college football isn't happening this year.  (At least not more than a few weeks.)  No way does an entire team of college kids have the discipline to effectively bubble.

 

Edit:  The B12 isn't going to be blackmailed by TV contracts into non-conference games, that's just an excuse if some want to play more.  The conference can easily publicly shame any network that tries to enforce such a clause.  WokeSPN ain't taking that heat.  And 55 games this season would draw more viewers than 57 in a normal one, there's less competition, more overall idle time for viewers, and more work at homers.  (Though I guess viewership depends on how many the China Flu kills by then...)  But again, I doubt college football actually happens this year.  And the NFL is the league at the next greatest risk.

Edited August 1, 2020 by clapclapclap

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

Ra’Von Bonner, a reserve running back at the University of Illinois, told The Post the risks ofplaying outweighed the reward.
 

What’s the reward for playing at Illinois? To say you were on the same field as Chase Young and Justin fields?

[Extra Anejo 99]

Big12 teams need 10 P5 games in order to be equivalent to the other conference's scheduling when it comes to playoff talks. Since all the P5 conferences are playing conference only, who do we schedule besides BYU to get 10 P5 regular season games.

[Message Board User 12395]

MLB season going about how football will go, if it even starts.

 

Edited August 1, 2020 by Message Board User

[mdmost 43001]

1 hour ago, Extra Anejo said:

Big12 teams need 10 P5 games in order to be equivalent to the other conference's scheduling when it comes to playoff talks. Since all the P5 conferences are playing conference only, who do we schedule besides BYU to get 10 P5 regular season games.

I'd imagine we'll contact the in-state cupcakes on our schedule. So we'll see if UTEP wants to keep their game with us. If not, we see if UCF wants to travel. I'd imagine the other Big 12 teams all have a similar game they could try to schedule. The amusing part is it puts the Big 12 behind in the playoff, assuming they happen, given the other teams will all have 10 Power 5 games to the Big 12's 9. 

[6th Street 6392]

There may not even be a playoff this year. Bowl games getting cancelled already 

[Continental Op 3934]

17 hours ago, kopp0e said:

Well, that was a fun thought:

 

Good. Fuck the Mormons. 

[mdmost 43001]

[Guest Lobo]

Lotta cancelled games for a hoax.  I suppose catering services for UT home games being told to stand down and not place their F&B orders earlier this week must mean we're gonna have record crowds this season, right?  It's impossible we handled the last 6 months this moronically, but here we are.  Nothing but a hoax, right?  

Edited August 1, 2020 by Lobo

[Dewey 3286]

Look how greedy they are, not just entertaining the idea, but working logistics even though its clear as day all that can come of it is everyone getting sick, possibly deathly sick. But hey, at the end of the day, theres a deal with espn. 

[Doc Reeves 6434]

1 hour ago, Dewey said:

Look how greedy they are, not just entertaining the idea, but working logistics even though its clear as day all that can come of it is everyone getting sick, possibly deathly sick. But hey, at the end of the day, theres a deal with espn. 

Man, you should have heard the motherfuckers with oil holdings talking when oil went negative a few months ago. Those guys would have shot little newborn babies like clay pigeons if they thought for one second that would get people driving around.

[Dewey 3286]

1 hour ago, Doc Reeves said:

Man, you should have heard the motherfuckers with oil holdings talking when oil went negative a few months ago. Those guys would have shot little newborn babies like clay pigeons if they thought for one second that would get people driving around.

They get paid to drive around 

[Ignatius 4017]

4 hours ago, mdmost said:

Should be on Dumb Question Amnesty, but what is that from? 

[Goodman 3273]

4 hours ago, Lobo said:

Lotta cancelled games for a hoax.  I suppose catering services for UT home games being told to stand down and not place their F&B orders earlier this week must mean we're gonna have record crowds this season, right?  It's impossible we handled the last 6 months this moronically, but here we are.  Nothing but a hoax, right?  

Are people saying it's a hoax? I've read only two sides, those who want everything shut down and those who want life to continue with caution. People will get sick, people live and die, life goes on.

[ChiTownDoc 21152]

9 minutes ago, Goodman said:

Are people saying it's a hoax? I've read only two sides, those who want everything shut down and those who want life to continue with caution. People will get sick, people live and die, life goes on.

Lol.  You don’t think anyone thinks it’s a hoax?  Some dipshit congressman in your own state thought he got it from actually wearing a mask or the process of putting it on.  Moron.  I mean that may not, technically, be hoax territory but it sure as shit isn’t ‘life continuing with caution’ bucket either.  

Edited August 2, 2020 by ChiTownDoc

[Goodman 3273]

5 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Lol.  You don’t think anyone thinks it’s a hoax?  Some dipshit congressman in your own state thought he got it from actually wearing a mask or the process of putting it on.  Moron.  I mean that may not, technically, be hoax territory but it sure as shit isn’t ‘life continuing with caution’ bucket either.  

Dunno but I sure as hell don't know anyone who thinks it's a hoax. I also don't know anyone who is caged scared of it. I've not polled or asked anyone directly because that would be insane. 

Edited August 2, 2020 by Goodman

[mdmost 43001]

50 minutes ago, Ignatius said:

Should be on Dumb Question Amnesty, but what is that from? 

It's a golden oldie from the Surly Realignment thread back when BYU wanted to join the Big 12 but got the Heisman. 

[Sandman 3403]

Fuck the NCAA?

 

https://www.si.com/college/2020/08/01/power-5-exploring-staging-own-fall-sports-championships-2020

Quote

In anticipation of the NCAA Board of Governors potentially canceling or postponing fall sports championships, Power 5 conference leaders have begun exploring the possibility of staging their own championships in those affected sports, multiple sources have told Sports Illustrated. This could be seen as a first step toward a long-theorized breakaway from the NCAA by the 65 schools that play college sports at the highest level.

The Board of Governors, comprised primarily of university presidents and chancellors from all levels of the NCAA, has a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. At that time it is expected to make a decision on the fate of fall sports championships other than FBS football, which has a championship outside the NCAA structure. However, the board also could delay action until later in August.

In recent days, Power 5 conference officials began seeking feedback from their members about the feasibility of staging their own championships during the fall, sources told SI. When asked if such a move away from the NCAA championship structure could be seen as a precedent-setting rift between the national governing body of college sports and the Power 5, one athletic director said, "If I were (NCAA president Mark) Emmert, I'd be really worried about it. He's got to keep the Power 5 together."

Another Power 5 athletic director said he thinks the chances of breakaway fall championships are remote, but added, "I think this is representative of the poor relationship between the (NCAA) national office and our conferences."

Multiple sources said part of the motivation for the Power 5 considering hosting its own fall Olympic sports seasons is to justify playing football, the revenue-driving sport for all athletic departments at that level. If all the other sports are canceled but football perseveres on its own, the optics would open up the schools to severe criticism. Thus, playing all fall sports would allow those schools to say that they are not uniquely subjecting football players to any risk.

Sources described the discussions about breakaway championships as preliminary in nature, the first steps in gauging both interest and feasibility. An Atlantic Coast Conference administrator said the concept is "hypothetical" in nature and not mature yet, but "if the NCAA does something, it could shift it from neutral to first gear." 

Given the P5 incentive to justify football, the Board of Governors' decision—and rationale—will be critical. If it decides to cancel fall sports championships for COVID-19 health and safety reasons, it would be difficult for the Power 5 to justify going its own way without a plan that they can definitively protect their athletes. But if the board says that the cost of safely conducting championships is prohibitive, the Power 5 could have an avenue to play all its fall sports—football included.

"We're all trying to think, hey, what can we do for our kids, so they have a season and a chance to compete for a championship," one Power 5 athletic director said. "And, quite frankly, how can we justify playing football?"

 

The cost of trying to create a bubble of sorts at NCAA championship events like the volleyball tournament, with regionals and a Final Four would be significant. With rapid testing for all participants, secure lodging and transportation, sterilizing the event and practice venues, the bills would add up. Multiply that across eight sports and three different levels of NCAA participation, and this would easily be the most expensive series of fall championships the association has funded—and it comes after the NCAA just took a huge financial hit with the cancelation of the 2020 basketball tournaments.

That is where the Power 5 could step in and collectively foot the bill for its own fall championships, which would be one-third or less of the total cost outlay to the NCAA. A source within the Olympic sports community said it would be "very easy" for the P5 conferences to contract out to established event management companies to hold their own championships.

The Board of Governors could make separate rulings for Divisions II and III, where a number of leagues already have postponed or canceled fall sports. Several Division I schools from FCS conferences, such as the Ivy League and Patriot League, have postponed fall sports as well. Sources told SI they are expecting a cancellation or postponement at the DII and DIII levels, but are unsure what will happen at the DI level.

If the NCAA board again delays action, it might further inflame a membership that has an increasing urgency for certainty about the upcoming seasons. One athletic director described the limbo as "mentally unhealthy" for his fall-sports athletes. The NCAA's non-football fall sports are men's and women's cross country, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, field hockey and men's water polo.

For decades, the Power 5 conferences—the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pacific-12 and Southeastern—have continued to amass power and revenue at a rate that has separated them from the rest of college athletics. That separation led those leagues to gain their own autonomy at the NCAA legislative level, crafting rules that fit their specific needs.

Football has been the driving force behind that, as media-rights deals for those leagues have skyrocketed over the last decade. The FBS Group of 5 conferences—the American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt—have struggled to keep up as the revenue gap has widened.

The schools in those conferences, plus independent institutions, may want to try to join the proposed Power 5 fall championships, a source theorized. If the NCAA sees more than one-third of its 350-plus Division I members basically ignore a postponement or cancelation, the undermining of the association's power would be immense.

Already, the NCAA's lack of influence at the Power 5 level has never been more glaring than in 2020. Since canceling winter and spring championships last March, the NCAA has largely been on the sidelines watching the individual conferences grapple with the pandemic. It issued return-to-sport guidelines in the spring and updated them recently, but behind the scenes, college administrators have grown increasingly critical of Emmert and the entire NCAA for a perceived lack of leadership.

"It's almost like they're frozen," one athletic director said.

One veteran college administrator described the NCAA and Power 5 as having long been embroiled in an "existential crisis," and wondered whether this fall sports gambit could be "the crack in the armor" that leads to an eventual split.

"Is this the final break?" The source asked. "You could have two championships: one from the (Power 5) and potentially some Group of 5s joining them, and a second one for everybody else in the spring. ... It's going to be real strange."

 

 

[bullet 1596]

9 hours ago, Chopper said:

Posted this in the atm thread but one fascinating detail about this call is that the SEC's 'medical expert' is the dean of atm's school of public health, who, when asked a question about the virus, punted and said, "Remember, I’m an industrial hygienist, so I’m not the medical person here." SEC SEC

What got me was how focused these guys were on football.  They didn't want the rest of the students on campus.

Kind of the cart pulling the horse.

[bullet 1596]

2 hours ago, Ignatius said:

Should be on Dumb Question Amnesty, but what is that from? 

Popular meme from Shaggy Conference Realignment board.   Blue Cougar on the outside of the P5 looking in.

Don't remember who came up with it.

[Hurtlocker 2212]

1 hour ago, bullet said:

Popular meme from Shaggy Conference Realignment board.   Blue Cougar on the outside of the P5 looking in.

Don't remember who came up with it.

Don't remember either, but it started with this...

[GreenspointTexas 9600]

Man, all this posturing and talk by the ncaa and conferences is getting pretty hilarious.

 

Either there wont be a season, or student athletes WILL die and lawsuits are gonna go through the roof over the next 6 months

[Knighthawk 284]

2 hours ago, Goodman said:

Dunno but I sure as hell don't know anyone who thinks it's a hoax. I also don't know anyone who is caged scared of it. I've not polled or asked anyone directly because that would be insane. 

It’s not a hoax.  Just another way for at-risk people to cash their chips.  At the end of the day, 2.9M - 3.0M people are going to die in the US this year.   Corona or not, that’s what is going to happen.  
 

 

[Chopper 17230]

3 hours ago, Goodman said:

Dunno but I sure as hell don't know anyone who thinks it's a hoax. 

What exactly do you think all the, "The US tests so many people therefore we have many more cases" idiocy is about? (On a per capita basis we don't test the most people but that's another story.)

[LTbear 4168]

1 hour ago, Hurtlocker said:

Don't remember either, but it started with this...

There was also the cardinal iteration, before Louisville got invited to the party. 

[6th Street 6392]

2 hours ago, bullet said:

Popular meme from Shaggy Conference Realignment board.   Blue Cougar on the outside of the P5 looking in.

Don't remember who came up with it.

Apparently during the vetting process the Big 12 they realized that BYU had a bunch of weird shit like not playing on Sundays and strange beliefs against black people. 

[Beau Vine 54211]

15 hours ago, Hurtlocker said:

On a call with SEC leaders, worried football players pushed back: ‘It’s not good enough’

 

[Eskimohorn 5633]

What exactly do you think all the, "The US tests so many people therefore we have many more cases" idiocy is about? (On a per capita basis we don't test the most people but that's another story.)

 

What you want is proactive testing along with the ability to track isolated outbreaks. We’re not in that spectrum. We’re in the reactive testing because members of a household or co-workers tested positive and so on and so on. Therefore, comps at this point are useless.

[Sejjr 3246]

1 hour ago, Chopper said:

What exactly do you think all the, "The US tests so many people therefore we have many more cases" idiocy is about? (On a per capita basis we don't test the most people but that's another story.)

This fucking thread is a perfect microcosm of how divisive the thinking is on this virus. Idiotically, there are two "sides" and both sides think they are smarter and more well-informed than the other. 

We have a widespread virus among our society and we better fucking get used to living with it. What kind of life that means, pre-vaccine or 'magic bullet', is the biggest cause for debate. We are well past the "the virus is just a hoax" period of this shit. 

[kopp0e 1135]

Had not noticed this video on Paul until last night:

 

[nnm 36360]

5 hours ago, Sejjr said:

This fucking thread is a perfect microcosm of how divisive the thinking is on this virus. Idiotically, there are two "sides" and both sides think they are smarter and more well-informed than the other. 

We have a widespread virus among our society and we better fucking get used to living with it. What kind of life that means, pre-vaccine or 'magic bullet', is the biggest cause for debate. We are well past the "the virus is just a hoax" period of this shit. 

The hoaxers are still quite real and quite vocal. Their main talking points are that the virus is not dangerous, that the death counts are vastly overstated because every death is treated as C19, that masks don’t work and are an overreach of big government, that the media is creating the fear porn in order to shut down our economy and get the president out, and that all the restrictions are not only unnecessary, but the first step in having big government control every aspect of all of our lives. They fervently believe that all C19 talk will be off the airwaves after the November election. 
The other main board I’m on is filled with these folks. I can’t read a thread once it gets co-opted by them. And it’s a sports board. I don’t have FB or other social media. I can’t imagine how bad that stuff is. 

[Dnaguy 11943]

22 hours ago, Hurtlocker said:

On a call with SEC leaders, worried football players pushed back: ‘It’s not good enough’

 

 

Dumpster Fires in Courage: An SEC story.

I think the most shocking part of the whole story is that no one used the phrase, “It is what it is.”

 

 

[ChiTownDoc 21152]

31 minutes ago, nnm said:

The hoaxers are still quite real and quite vocal. Their main talking points are that the virus is not dangerous, that the death counts are vastly overstated because every death is treated as C19, that masks don’t work and are an overreach of big government, that the media is creating the fear porn in order to shut down our economy and get the president out, and that all the restrictions are not only unnecessary, but the first step in having big government control every aspect of all of our lives. They fervently believe that all C19 talk will be off the airwaves after the November election. 
The other main board I’m on is filled with these folks. I can’t read a thread once it gets co-opted by them. And it’s a sports board. I don’t have FB or other social media. I can’t imagine how bad that stuff is. 

Man, foooooball fans being dumbasses, especially in the SE, is the only damn thing that’s been on point the last 5 months.