The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1279712
SEPTEMBER 2020 THE WOLVERINE 23 "For the Big Ten, however, that is the best alternative. It's a way to replace the feelings of disappointment and devastation that come with knowing this fall will be devoid of the traditions and pageantry that define the Rust Belt and Heartland every fall. "[Ryan] Day — the coach of the three-time defending Big Ten champions — seems intent on making that happen. "'We got some work to do. I'm going to fight like heck for these guys to push forward on what we think is right,' Day said. 'I feel pretty strongly about what I've said, and I am going to work hard to get it done.'" Bill Connelly, ESPN: How can you say you care about player safety and then ask players to play two seasons in one calendar year? "This has been a talking point from the moment spring foot- ball was first mentioned. How in the world do you play a season from February(ish) to April(ish), then turn around and start the 2021 season in September? Two responses to this: "• Playing in the spring could absolutely affect the 2021 fall schedule. (This assumes that things have returned to normal by the fall, which is not guaranteed.) You might have to delay the start of the season by a certain number of weeks. Again, any solution to a wicked problem is a one-off and will have a unique set of effects. "• As strange as this sounds, even with a spring season, play- ers will end up taking fewer hits over the course of a year or so (in this case, March 2020 through April 2021) than ever before. Under normal circumstances, they would have had a full set of 2020 spring practices, a 12-to-15-game season in the fall and another 15-practice spring session in 2021. Granted, they'll be taking more hits in the spring of 2021, but in terms of short- term vs. long-term effects, there's nothing guaranteeing that the traditional structure would be any safer. (There's nothing guaranteeing that it's less safe, either. All of this is new territory.) "The biggest issue with the tight timetable could end up being eligibility. Any decent-sized injury in the spring of 2021 could result in a medical redshirt in the fall, and the NCAA is already going to have to address if and how teams get to carry extra scholarships during this strange time, as it did with spring sports a few months ago." Former Michigan All-American and emergency room doc- tor Chris Hutchinson, father of junior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, on 97.1 The Ticket Aug. 13 "You could've moved games back and not start for a few more weeks. The decision just seemed premature, and there was no reason to make it [Aug. 11]. They announced the sched- ule, we're moving forward — why did you pull the plug? "I believe that risk tolerance was the issue — not risk for get- ting student-athletes sick, but the risk of being sued — let's be honest here. There was no additional medical information out. They just got together and realized that they might get sued because somebody might have some long-term complica- tions, and they shied away from it. "That's my personal belief. From a medical standpoint, that decision was not ready to be made yet." Pat Forde, Sports Illustrated: After a difficult decision, Kevin Warren left to confront growing Big Ten discord "Lingering anger is one thing — you can live with some short-term dissent after a bitterly disappointing decision. On Big Ten Network [Aug. 11], [Big Ten commissioner Kevin] War- ren didn't even attempt to spin the membership's response to the cancellation of fall sports as a unanimous decision — it would have been useless, given how public the lobbying had been. "Threatened mutiny (however unlikely) is something else. Especially when it involves coaches of what were supposed to be the top two teams in the conference this fall, and perhaps for the foreseeable future. And after a night to sleep off the disappointment and anger. "That's something in need of being addressed behind the scenes." Christine Brennan, USA Today: No joy in canceling Big Ten, Pac-12 seasons, despite what opportunists will say "Contrary to what the football-loving, mask-hating Twit- terverse believes, there is no joy for anyone in this decision. When the Big Ten postpones football, volleyball, field hockey and the like, it's a horrible day. I'm a Big Ten alum, a proud Northwestern grad, and my sadness reaches far and wide: from the student-athletes and coaches to the administrators who must now try to keep everything together — psychologically, emotionally and financially — as millions and millions of dol- lars that would have come in during a football season now will not, surely leading some schools to have to eliminate sports and jobs. "It's brutal. But also necessary, and historic. The Ivy League, the smartest people in the room, knew exactly how to handle playing sports during coronavirus: you can't. The Big Ten, the conscience of the Power Five, knew too. With so much more on the line, it took the conference a few more weeks to get there." — Clayton Sayfie and Austin Fox "We've seen examples of that over the summer, and yes, cases have spread. But then we're never told what the complications, if any, are for these young people. I would expect that's going to happen." At The Big House, nobody will con- gregate. "The six, seven, eight game days a year in Ann Arbor and the financial positive impact to the community is all gone," Skene continued. "That won't be felt for a lot of people that are in and out of town, but if you're a mer- chant or someone that depends on that revenue, that's vanished. When does that ever come back? I don't know if the winter sports schedule looks any better for basketball at the rate things are going. "So what's going to happen is, me and you and everybody that's been a consumer and a lover of Michigan football and Big Ten football, we're go- ing to find other things to do. Then a percentage of us are going to fall in love with and really enjoy these other things that we're going to do, and a percentage of people — me not in- cluded — are just going to say, 'You know what? I can live without this.' "The consumers will find other things. Yes, someday when Michigan football does come back — God knows what it's going to look like or who is going to be able to go watch it — there is going to be a percentage of people that are going to move on and find something else to do." ❏