Michigan Football, the 2020 Abbreviated COVID Season

[lineygoblue]

Well, at least I'm still your pal ...

and Scott Frost wears spanx under his Daisy Dukes ...

[WingsFan]

Bo Schembechler, the legendary University of Michigan football coach, knew about the alleged sexual abuse of the late Dr. Robert E. Anderson, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.

A former UM student told Schembechler about Anderson's alleged abuse in 1982 and 1983 after seeing the late doctor for migraines, according to the suit that was among 52 othersfiled against UM and the Board of Regents in U.S. District Court in Detroit.Schembechler allegedly sent the student to former UM Athletic Director Donald Canham.


Live presser right now, was Bo another JoePa?

[WingsFan]

Student said today that when he told Schembechler about Anderson, Schembechler's response was: "Get you (blank) into Canham's office and tell him what happened right now." Says Schembechler was visibly angry, student believes this was the first Schembechler had been told of this.
Quote Tweet

Nick Baumgardner
@nickbaumgardner
· 29m
Student asked in presser if he believes Schembechler could have done more -- says it was Don Canham's job to speak on/deal with these issues. Student quoted as saying "Bo was powerless" in this situation.

[lineygoblue]

This has the potential to be as bad as the Paterno matter at PSU, although there is no evidence (yet) that Schembechler was protecting a friend, like Paterno did. It appears that Canham may have known more than Schembechler did, and could be more culpable for Anderson's actions.

If Schembechler knew about Anderson's actions, and did nothing like Paterno did, then I guess its time to start wiping Schembechler's name and records from Michigan's history. I guess we have to wait and see how many more come forward to implicate Schembechler and/or Canham.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Schembechler = Paterno aside because that comparison is just wrong, this is a portion of the press release yesterday from M's Athletic Department:

........... Scheduling for fall sports remains fluid and the Big Ten Conference will create a Conference-only schedule for the sports of men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball. Administrators, coaches, and Conference staff have been working daily to create schedules that provide the appropriate levels of flexibility to respond in real-time to necessary changes. Many options are under consideration within each sport, and we expect these updated schedules to be released in August 2020. While we remain hopeful for a start in September 2020, flexibility has been created within our scheduling models to accommodate necessary adjustments. Consistent with our collective need to be adaptable to changes in circumstances and evolving medical knowledge, even issuing a schedule does not guarantee that competition will occur.

It's consistent with the rest of the power-5 conference's positions and, of course, subject to interpretation with regard to the question: will there be CFB in 2020/21 or not?

The NBA is proving bubbles appear to work. MLB is proving that if you break the bubble, disobey the bubble rules, they don't work. Can something short of a complete bubble work? Man, I'm doubtful. I think it would take a complete bubble to reduce the risk of catching SARS-CoV-2 to as close to zero as it seems the deciders think it needs to be.

OTH, if your position on this thing is that you can't reduce the risk to zero and the virus has to be managed, not controlled, playing CFB with practical and appropriate mitigation measures in place is doable. I think fans are doable if community spread is held below 1:1 by R(t) or by any other measures you'd like to manage it with and spacing is afforded and enforced in the stadium. Emphasis on community spread has to be at an acceptable level. Emphasis on enforcement = hard.

Do I think CFB live with fans in attendance will happen in AA? No. About a non-zero chance of that with politics, public opinion and logistics being hard playing major roles. Do I think CFB in a modified format can be played with players, coaches, named staff and refs being managed with various mitigation measures? Yes. I'd give it a 45/55 chance of happening. Also, the BT will not be influenced by what the SEC or ACC does. I'd give both of those conferences a 60/40 chance of playing some kind of CFB this season.

[WingsFan]

Been hearing this for a few weeks.


Bill Rabinowitz

@brdispatch
·
11m
Big Ten source tells me the Ohio State-Michigan game is likely to be moved from last game of schedule. Not set in stone but looks like September or October. Not since 1942 has The Game not been the regular-season finale.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Wait, wut?

[WingsFan]

IMO Distance first, so Sparty should be are first game. Only 60 miles apart.

[lineygoblue]

Re: Scheduling.

The talk has been that they want to get division games played first, because those include the least amount of travel. Its also thought that the Covid prevention measures of each team will be easier to control within the division, with less travel. Then as long as things are proceeding well, they'll play the 2nd half of the season against non-division opponents.

So, that would put M v OSU earlier in the schedule. I don't think that idea is set in stone yet. I think there will be a lot of pressure from Fox Sports or whomever has the TV rights, to put that game at the end 'for traditional purposes'. I can see Fox throwing a "cash incentive" into the mix to make it happen. So, I wouldn't give up on the idea of M v OSU late in the schedule, if not at the end.

Problem is, if Covid rears its ugly head during the season, and the season has to be axed before the end, then M v OSU doesn't get played at all. So, they might be thinking to get it played early is better than not playing it at all.

I guess we'll see.

[Jeff Buchanan]

...... and talent will say if that means we can guarantee Harbaugh has to meet Day in 2020, the sooner the coming ass-kicking is served up to preserve that game the better.

[Hannibal]

The sports leagues starting back up successfully has to be a pretty good indicator for football.

[iam416]

If that actually continues then, yes. Baseball is making me a little nervous.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Glad you chimed in with that observation. I don't watch MLB closely enough to know how that is going but from 10K feet, not well. What I don't know is how the management of the infected side of things went after restarting. Of course the press was all over the Marlins infections and that was in the local S. FL news. What hasn't been in the news is how the post infection occurrence management and player outcomes is going - I assume players are not getting hospitalized, are recovering and overall things are going well since the press isn't reporting it.

[lineygoblue]

Latest rumor:

Michigan v OSU as the first game of the season. Thought is get the game played rather than sit it later in the schedule and risk not getting it played at all. Its the conference's marquee game, and ratings would be strong.

Could just be a couple guys making a guess, but we'll see if it has any feet.

[Jeff Buchanan]

It may not have "feet," Yogi, but the rumor might have legs. Heh.