So Now What?

With the official cancellation of the 2020 fall season by the Liberty League back on July 22nd, the Hobart College Statesmen will have its first break from football since 1945.

While it's possible a spring season could be in the offing, I have a number of concerns which were outlined in our last In the D3FB Huddle show. We have another one coming out today (I think), were we cover off why the American Rivers Conference (ARC) is trying to still have a season and what teams are still holding out hope they can do the same.

Time will tell what colleges and universities are able (or not) to do once everyone returns to campus in the coming weeks. For now we can only wonder "what if" and live with the heartbreak that for now, D3FB will have to wait.

It's Over

The NCAA guidance released this week recommending schools test 72 hours in advance of games, among other protocols, was the tipping point that effectively ended the fall 2020 sports season. Today basically all of New England, conferences and schools alike, cancelled on the 2020 season.

Starting this Monday we'll see a large number of similar announcements in schools outside the East, which will eventually lead to the NCAA effectively saying fall sports championships will not be held, save for the low impact / risk sports listed in their last memo.

For Hobart, this means a possible spring football season, along with the rest of D3FB. The issue there is what does that actually look like? There are numerous risks, even worse and more likely than contracting the virus in my opinion, to playing two full contact football seasons within an 7-8 month time period.

The complications of moving fall sports to spring raises a lot of other questions, not limited to what sports get priority scheduling wise? How are locker rooms going to be shared? Are there enough athletic training and equipment staff?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. We'll have more on In the D3FB Huddle early next week on this topic.

I'm just very disappointed we couldn't do better for our student athletes and coaches.

Go 'Bart....

Non-Conference Games Take a Hit

As we reported last night live on In the D3FB Huddle two more conferences have decided to cancel their fall seasons. The biggest impact to the Hobart College Football season was the 9:30 PM announcement by the Empire 8, which most of us assumed would fill at least one or two of the Statesmen's OOC games this fall.

This morning the MASCAC (primarily made up of state schools) followed suit and cancelled their season as well. With three other eastern conferences - the CCC, NEWMAC and NJAC - still to decide, things are looking more grim.

The one sliver of hope was the fact that Hobart's Week 4 (now basically home and season opener) opponent, Keystone College, does still intend to play this fall.

As of now, the Statesmen's schedule is as follows:

Week 4 - 9/26/20 vs. Keystone
Week 7 - 10/17/20 vs. Ithaca (who hasn't made a formal announcement regarding fall sports)
Week 9 - 10/31/20 @ St. Lawrence
Week 10 - 11/7/20 @ Buff State (who is a SUNY like most of the E8, they haven't made a formal announcement either)
Week 11 - 11/14/20 vs. Rochester

With only 5 confirmed games and two opponents that are TBD, the Statesmen and the LL will have some challenging decisions to make over the coming weeks. The NCAA remains silent regarding any guidance other than blanket eligibility waivers and while some conferences, like the MASCAC, have alluded to spring football, that's far from guaranteed.

I texted with one coach about whether or not schedules could or would be completely rearranged, for example, move a game in November up to October, and he said " everything is on the table at this point."

For now, it'll be up to HWS AD Deb Steward to get on the phone along with Associate AD Brian Miller and Coach DeWall '00 to find some other potential opponents in order to save the 2020 season.

It's not officially over yet - there are still roughly 200 D3FB teams still either having declared they will attempt to play or waiting to, so anything's possible. Good news out of London about a potential vaccine coming by September could assuage what's become a fear-ridden media and public.

Thanks as always for reading. I'll try to provide more updates as they come.

Go 'Bart!

Dutchmen Fire the Cannons on 2020 Fall Season

The 2019 Liberty League champions, the Union College Dutchmen, won't be defending their LL crown this fall according to an announcement released today at noon ET that they are cancelling fall sports competition. What stands out is the fact that Union does plan to reopen their campus to all students, but still won't allow sports.

This unfortunate news shoots another hole into the Hobart College Football schedule, eliminating the Week 5 conference opener that was scheduled to be in Geneva on October 3rd. This was going to be the game of the season in my opinion - a rematch of last year's 23-7 loss where the Statesmen basically gave the game away thanks to three INTs, including a 54-yd pick six. This will be the first time since the 1981 season this rivalry game won't be played. The Statesmen are 49-52-2 all time against Union.

This also drops the LL to having only four conference games. Obviously the Statesmen can get over the five game minimum NCAA playoff qualifier / requirement given the two OOC games the LL said would happen, but this change could, if not should, necessitate them expanding that to three OOC games.

Given the significant  geographic / regional overlap between the LL and Empire 8 conferences, I think that would be feasible. As I've previously discussed, Hobart could fill a few of the cancelled OOC games from Weeks 1-3 in October. With openings now on the 3rd, 10th and 24th, there are a number of possibilities there.

Hartwick has an open date on 10/3, Alfred on 10/10 and the Week 2 SUNY-Morrisville game could be moved to 10/24 when the Mustangs also have an open date.

Unfortunately Union's taking it's ball and staying home this fall....

For now all we can do is continue to speculate on how the 2020 season comes to fruition, or dies on the vine. 

Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!

PS - I'll be doing a live twitter interview tonight with a CFB recruiting consultant named Brandan Cahill at 8 PM ET @D3Huddle for anyone who wants to tune in. 

Liberty League Fall Sports Plan Officially Released

Liberty League Conference Commissioner Tracy King provided an update today on the LL's plans to hold fall sports competitions. The statement reaffirmed news we already knew but it's certainly reassuring in a climate where more and more colleges and universities seem to be giving up rather than pressing on.

So far what this confirms is that the Hobart College Statesmen could still play a seven game regular season. One of the previously scheduled LL games, Week 6 vs. RPI was cancelled, but in theory could be replaced by either a conference reshuffling or an OOC opponent (e.g., Alfred who has an open date on 10/10).

Only time will tell how all this holds or doesn't - the preseason will certainly be very different practice wise with guidance stating players will be split into small groups for two weeks, then larger (up to 50) for two weeks before full team practices can occur.

What makes things a little problematic is if we see one more LL D3FB member, say Union, who hasn't made any official announcements on their back-to-school or athletics plans, end up cancelling fall sports also. I know the Dutchmen and other schools will be holding meetings this week, so hopefully we'll have more information soon.

If Union goes the way of the NESCAC, the "Little Ivies" conference they associate themselves with in certain ways and circles, that would drop the LL football options to only five teams / four conference games. The NCAA indicates teams would need at least five games to qualify for whatever postseason happens (also still very much TBD). In this scenario, I'd hope the Empire 8 and LL could coordinate a possible extra OOC game, given the geographic proximity, but we'll have to wait and see if that even ends up being part of the conversation.

A lot of speculation when there's not a lot of good information is how it goes sometimes.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and go 'Bart!

Some Good News, For A Change

Assuming things progress in a positive direction, the 127th season of Hobart College Football will kickoff on 9/26/20.

HWS released more detailed (Draft) Fall 2020 Opening and Athletics "Return to Practice and Competition" plans that outlines how the Colleges will start attempting to move forward in a new,  pandemic effected, normal.

The guidance, particularly around sports included this statement:

"[T]he final decision on fall semester athletics schedules remains tentative until we finalize plans with our partner schools in the Liberty League and other conferences. At this time, the Liberty League will implement a scheduling format consisting of league competition plus two nonconference contests with competition beginning September 26, 2020. For single-site Liberty League Championship sports, the scheduling format will focus on League competition. We remain optimistic and are moving ahead with the full intention to welcome our student athletes to campus in August"

There are obviously (many) caveats in the above (and we've already had one LL team decide to pull out of the fall season), so much could change between now and August, not to mention September. For now, the first practice of the 2020 season (assuming positive things happen) is set for 8/17/20. HWS has developed a five-phased approach which teams will need to meet in order to be able to compete.

Overall the COVID-19 numbers have been good in Central NYS, so hopefully that trend continues and isn't exacerbated by college kids returning to the area.

While there are a lot of details provided, there are still many to be figured out. From the statement above, it's possible the 2020 football schedule could morph in many ways. There were four OOC opponents on the original slate between Weeks 1-4. Week 4 is supposed to be the Homecoming / Parents and Family Weekend game vs. Keystone (PA), but will that game be changed for a different (i.e., an in-state) opponent? Could one of the OOC games happen in Week 6 given RPI cancelling?

I, and many others, don't really know at the moment and so those questions will be ones we'll have to wait on.

The good news is, for now, we have a season to look forward to experiencing. I'm sure the coaches remain hard at work preparing, as are the Statesmen players themselves.

Thanks as always for reading and go 'Bart!