The Southeastern Conference won't get more than two weekends into their season.

[Jeebo]

Think about it. Each game will consist of 22 guys in intimate contact for two or three hours, swapping several different kinds of bodily fluids -- sweat, spit, blood -- as well as breathing heavily and inhaling and exhaling each other's exhalations. In red states where the virus is out of control.

What is wrong with this picture?

There is no way that virus is not going to run rampant through every Southeastern Conference football team.

I will be surprised -- no, beyond surprised, I will be positively STUNNED -- if they get through two full weekends of play before they are forced to call off the entire season.

I love college football. I am a lifelong Alabama Crimson Tide fan. Also a Mizzou Tigers fan.

But I have already resigned myself to the unalterable certainty that there will be no football this year.

-- Ron

[Afromania]

1. I've come to that conclusion as well.

There is just too much contact and far too many vectors for covid to be introduced.

[BamaRefugee]

2. Lifelong Crimson Tide fan here couldn't agree more. And it's way more than just 22 guys. In the

second week , I predict at least one death, some game where it's 104 degrees on the field, and a player just beginning to become symptomatic begins to have trouble breathing. he's told, as always, to "suck it up".
In the 4th quarter his sucking turns to wheezing and choking as his oxygen levels drop...then the inevitable.

I saw a chyron on tv last night that SEC players were voicing concerns about the season, haven't looked it up yet.

[VMA131Marine]

3. It's not 22 players, it's more like 200 players and staff

when you consider the full size of college squads and all the coaches and trainers.

[ArizonaLib]

7. Yes throughout the week they all get close

This of course isn't for you, but you brought it up well:

It's the only way to prepare for games. Special teams, everyone on the depth chart. Not to mention coaches on sidelines with key players. Things move alot quicker than baseball when someone can run up to the mound with a couple of towels. Huddles between most plays require close proximity. Also, toward the end of long drives and those linemen get gassed (hands on hips, etc) the goal line formations get really intimate. Anyhow, I am already Jonesing for any college football. I love the blimp shots and seeing the full formations on tv. The NFL camerawork gets too tight.

I would to see more classic games from the 70's etc.

[exboyfil]

4. The only way it continues is if they ignore

positive tests and proceed ahead. I really doubt they will withstand the first tragedy.

You have to wonder if African Americans weren't up to 60% of SEC teams whether you would still have the same rush to play.

Dollars rule. We saw what happened at Mizzou after the players threatened to not play until the administration changed. The administration changed.

[FreddyWhite]

15. really good point about majority black athletes!

I had not consider that. It just doesn't make since that they seriously schedule a full season. But looking at it as majority Rich White Male Owners, then it does make sense. Makes me ill.

[CottonBear]

5. A large of Clemson players and staff have tested positive. N/T

[roamer65]

12. I can see Swinney just letting it happen.

A national championship at all costs for him.

$$$$$$$$$$$$

[sop]

6. MLB's only been back a couple of weeks and they're already talking about shutting it down after

numerous outbreaks. They'll try to play college football, but as soon as players start testing positive, the rest of the schedule will probably have to be cancelled.

[GeorgeGist]

8. Are they signing waivers?

I hope not.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

9. It's a bad idea to send those kids out there.

I want football as much as the next guy. The NHL tourney has only reminded me how much I missed live sports. But, they're not professionals, and they're not playing in a bubble. This will not end well.

[roamer65]

13. Gary Bettman is doing a great job with the NHL.

It almost unnoticeable that there is no crowd and the bubble is very good. Just Toronto and Edmonton, both sites in a country that took the pandemic seriously.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

14. Agreed, but I've always thought

Bettman's gotten a rotten deal from the fans. All the booing and nonsense. He's more competent than Goodell any day of the week.

Fingers are crossed, but so far, so good in the NHL bubbles. And, who knew hockey on an August afternoon would be just what the doctor ordered?

[rurallib]

10. One thing for sure - those making the decision to play will not

be the ones to suffer the consequences.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Two weeks tops for all of college football.

And I give MLB another week at best.

The NFL probably won't have any games at all.

Just my take on things.

[FreddyWhite]

17. I'm thinking two weeks for NFL too

maybe more like three or four when people start testing positive. this is just plain sick.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. I am wrong so far about MLB.

The NBA is still happening. We've only had the first week of NFL so it's too early to know about that.

College football is something else entirely, although given the rise of Covid-19 on college campuses, that may be the first to go.

I suppose the determining thing will be if a few big names in any of the professional sports gets sick. Not merely tested positive, but sick, and at least one of them dies. I am not wishing for that to happen. But I honestly think that among the reasons so many people don't take this seriously is that not only do they not know anyone personally who has gotten in, but Herman Cain is the nearest thing to a high profile person who has died from it, and I expect most people didn't know who he was anyway.

Because so much of our culture is founded on Celebrity, until celebrities start getting and and dying, it won't matter much.

Keep in mind that even though nearly 7,000,000 Americans have tested positive for the virus and/or gotten sick, that's only a bit more than 2% of the population. And even rounding up those who have died from it so far to 200,000, that number is approximately .0006% of the population. that's six ten thousandths. So most people probably don't know anyone who has died so far, and the majority of people probably don't know anyone who has gotten sick. Especially since so many who get the virus are asymptomatic or have few, relatively mild symptoms. So essentially, the awareness of the disease simply hasn't had a chance to penetrate very far into the population.

[FreddyWhite]

16. I feel like watching means I collude with the Orange GasLit Cloud

Broncos play tomorrow night. I want to watch, I want the escape, but it is completely in-congruent with the current reality. And it feels like gas lighting, pretending like this is a perfectly normal thing to do in the middle of a pandemic.

It's like watching a train wreck.