And just like that, it's June 1st.
The events of the past several days have given us as a nation some pause, to say the least. I know our family has had a lot of discussions about over the weekend. Seeing the Los Angeles neighborhood I lived in back in 1999-2006 literally on fire and being destroyed in riots was certainly disappointing, but I also understand why this is happening [an op-ed in today's LA Times by former UCLA and Lakers great Kareem Adbul-Jabbar is worth reading if you haven't seen it]. Unfortunately one of my long-time sayings (which I may have picked up from someone or somewhere else is), "the problem with the news is it's rarely ever good...."
Speaking of good news, however, this is a big month for CFB / D3FB fans as we should begin to hear about potential plans and next steps towards getting back to sports in the fall. Last Friday, the NCAA released some initial guidelines in anticipation of states reopening and athletic teams resuming activities, starting with voluntary workouts, as early as June 8.
D3 took things a step further allowing "the minimum number of contests required for sports sponsorship and championship selection in Division III [to be] reduced by 33% in all sports for the 2020-21 academic year." This does not mean that schedules will be cut, it just allows teams in states that could have more challenging requirements/issues to qualify for the postseason without having to play a complete schedule, in the event that's not possible.
"We hope to resume faculty laboratory research as early as mid-June and to begin bringing some staff back to campus in July, with the remainder of faculty, staff and students arriving in August. We intend to follow a schedule for the fall that tightens the semester without decreasing intellectual contact between faculty and students. The goal is to limit travel to and from campus once students have returned, and to have most students back home by Thanksgiving in case there is a late-fall resurgence of COVID-19. We therefore expect Fall 2020 semester classes to begin as scheduled on Monday Aug. 24 and residential instruction to occur through Tuesday Nov. 24, after which Thanksgiving break will begin."
Things are looking better for the 2020 season.
This is similar, if not identical, to the approach (as I mentioned in my last post) that Syracuse University plans to take as well.
For the Hobart College Football family the obvious question this announcement begs is "does this mean preseason camp starts on time?" There are a number of hurdles to overcome to determine that, including the NYS government, NCAA and Liberty League. With less than 100 days until the 9/4/20 season opener at Alfred, the Statesmen would normally be planning on opening camp in mid-August (checking in around 8/12 or 13 with first practices starting around 8/14).
Obviously with a pandemic underway, we are looking at a "new normal" that will be predicated on CDC and related data. Fortunately Central New York has been barely impacted by the virus, and as luck or circumstance would have it, this year's football schedule is really regional in nature. The Statesmen will play 9 of their 10 games in NYS, basically within about an 180 mile radius of Geneva. The longest road trip will be down to Rowan in Week 3, which is about a 300 mile ride.
While the Profs campus isn't that far away from NYC (a little over 100 miles) - one of the worst areas of virus infections in the nation - only 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been identified in their community as of 5/26/20, so Rowan President Dr. Houshmand has confirmed they also plan to reopen in the fall.
That said, Dr. Jacobsen did couch the above with the following:
"This plan remains just that – a plan – until we submit our full reopening document to the State of New York in mid-June. Once we have State approval, we will share full details on everything from academic and residential life to screening, testing, isolating and tracing protocols."
So while this message is a reason for optimism, we still need to wait and see how things unfold over the coming weeks. At the end of the day, the fact that cases of COVID seem to be stabilizing across most states, and that the fatality rate (as calculated by the CDC) is approximately .05% for individuals under 49 years old (meaning the rate for people in the 18-22 yo range is probably like .01% - and likely better for college athletes), we should be in good shape.
I remain confident that the 2020 season will kick off as planned, but time will tell.
Thanks to all you readers / fans / friends out there for taking the blog over 275,000 views.
Go 'Bart!
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