Big Ten Football cancelled

[Crimson's Ghost]

Nebraska has come out and said it will continue to look for opportunities to play this fall.

Yeah, I read that. But is it that simple?

I cannot imagine the legalities of all of the broken contracts for schools to play each other, TV broadcasts, sold advertising, vendors at the games, etc.

TV contracts would make it very, very difficult to play this season. That and scheduling.

[Crimson's Ghost]

I be willing go bet ACC ends up canceling but SEC pushes through.


One reason why i think the decision to move to spring is smart is potentially less viewership competition. NBA/NHL post seasons will be nearing their most viewed points in sept/oct then baseball after that. Spring football this year would be a much less crowded area to compete with audiences and im sure those numbers are more in the minds of these execs than "health".

Its all about money for power 5 conferences

Spring football won't happen, if it's about player safety (It's not) they can't play two seasons in one calendar year.


And the ACC-SEC-Big 12 are tied together in this it appears, if the Big-12 calls it, then the other two probably won't play.

[OutOfTheLoop]

Since we might have some free time this fall, I would recommend the book "The Opening Kickoff" by Dave Revsine. It covers the rise of college football from 1890-1915. It's remarkable how many of the issues in modern college football are really the same ones from over a century ago. Plus, the fact that college football even survived its incredibly dangerous early days is a miracle. Its a good read for anybody who cares about the history of the game.

[Manfred]

How did they survive that catastrophic Spanish influenza of 1918? Or was there no sports while WW1 was going on? I don't recall my history books mentioning that.

[OutOfTheLoop]

How did they survive that catastrophic Spanish influenza of 1918? Or was there no sports while WW1 was going on? I don't recall my history books mentioning that.

From Wikipedia (not the book) "World War I's impact on colleges in the country, and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 eliminated most of that year's scheduled college football games. However, to boost morale of the troops, many military organizations fielded teams to play against collegiate programs." So, football teams acted as a bootcamp for young men likely to be drafted.

Also, "To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Papers were free to report the epidemic's effects in neutral Spain."

Like I said, so many modern issues are actually old ones repeated.

[Manfred]

Thanks for the lesson. Appreciated.

[konjo78]

How did they survive that catastrophic Spanish influenza of 1918? Or was there no sports while WW1 was going on? I don't recall my history books mentioning that.

https://sports.yahoo.com/coronavirus-he ... 42838.html

There is a good article that shows you what happened back then. Some simularities to today and guess what they wore back then.... Masks