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1) I desperately want to start this by talking about something other than the virus and how it is going to impact sports. But what's the point? That's not just the main story right now. It's the ONLY story. Nothing else really matters. We can talk about new offers and kids who say they like this program or that program or release a top 27 or whatever, but the only thing in sports that really matters is when are we going to have sports again? In terms of college football, as of today, we're looking at three weeks until players are expected to hit campus. That's the word I'm hearing at Missouri and the word people elsewhere in the SEC are hearing. The idea as of today is to have players report to campus on June 1 to begin online classes, offseason conditioning and some sort of a semi-normal summer program. Will that happen? I have absolutely no idea. That's the plan/thought/hope/wish/whatever right now.
2) The question a lot of people are talking about is whether games are going to be able to be played if students aren't on campus. Here is the difference people need to understand when talking about this: Are the campuses closed or are they just not holding classes? The Big East commissioner said they won't have sports if students aren't on campus and Bob Bowlsby, commissioner of the Big 12, made a similar statement, both according to this story. But in talking to some people, there's a distinction here: Online classes does not mean that campus is closed. If buildings on campus are technically open, if students could theoretically be there but they aren't because why be there when you don't have to go to class, or if faculty can go to their offices and people can go places on campus, then campus qualifies as open. If campus is open, the thought is that you could have football players in town to work out and get ready for a season. It's a technicality. I don't think it sits right. I'm not sure it would happen. But it is a distinction that I think, when it comes to nut-cutting time, athletics people are going to try to make.
3) The whole issue really comes down to amateur athletes versus professional employees. The reason it's a terrible look to have college athletes on campus working out when you can't have regular students here taking classes is that they don't get paid. The NCAA and every school in it has gone to great lengths to make it clear these are not employees, they are amateurs. They are student-athletes. School comes first. We're grooming the men and women of the future here and it's about changing lives, not about winning games. You know, 99% of them go pro in something other than their sport. Well, that's all kind of not true and we all know it, but they say it's true and if they want to keep the college sports model, they have to keep saying it's true. But if it's true (or if they want to say it), how can they say "we're telling students to stay home and take their classes online, but we're telling THIS subset of students to come back here and lift weights and get ready to play games in September." If they do it that way, it's admitting to everyone that Cardale Jones was right. They're not here to play school. The schools don't want to admit that. It's why I think ultimately it won't happen. If campuses are open and regular students can be on them, games can be played. If they can't? I really don't see how you can play games. The NFL can because if the Chiefs and Texans are scheduled to open the season on September 10th, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson can say "I'm not coming." And their teams can refuse to pay them. They're employees. What power does the college athlete have here? There's no union. They're not employees. The NCAA has fought for decades to convince us they aren't.
4) I don't think college football would be played with no fans...but I think limited attendance is a very real likelihood. I don't know what that number would be. Let's say it's 25% capacity (that's the limit right now for a lot of places that are being allowed to open up around the country). So for Mizzou, that means you could have about 17,500 people at a game. Let's assume they reserve 1,000 of those for students (maybe it's more, I'm just throwing out a random number). That means you have 16,500 seats. Last year, Mizzou sold about 29,000 season tickets (a number that includes students). Let's use that number for ease. If the number is right there, that means 11,500 season ticket holders would be told they can't come to games (and probably more than that considering you're going to want to keep at least some as general admission or single game sales). Can you imagine being Jim Sterk and calling hundreds of people and saying "I know you have given us money for 15 years and you've been a loyal fan and we appreciate that. The problem is, you haven't given us ENOUGH money. There are 6,000 people who have given us more and they are averaging three tickets each and we're out of tickets for this season. But we sure hope you'll still give us that money you've been giving us and we'd love to see you in September of 2021?" Or "Hey, Joe, we appreciate your donation. We're working on plans to make everyone happy. What we have is a rotation of games. Nobody's going to be able to see all six, but the way we're doing it, everybody's going to get to see a couple. So based on our numbers, we're happy to have you in the stadium when we play Eastern Michigan and Kentucky!" Look, I get it. Calls like that are going to have to be made. And a lot of people are going to be understanding. But some aren't. My sarcastic quotes here aren't meant to disparage the plans or whatever the athletic directors would say. It's a hell of a spot to be in. I'd hate to have to make those calls. But those calls are going to have to be made. Now think about making them at Nebraska, where they've sold out every game for 40 some years, or Clemson or Alabama or a lot of other places. Man there are going to be some tough days ahead for the people in charge.
5) The St. Louis Post Dispatch put out its all decade basketball team this week
I'm not here to debate who should or should not be on it. I don't follow it closely enough to know and it's just a list and an opinion and everyone's is different. But it reminded me of the in-state class of 2011. You know, the one that featured Otto Porter, Ben McLemore, Bradley Beal and BJ Young? Missouri got none of them. I'd argue it was a program changing class in all the wrong ways.
I don't think Mizzou ever really had a shot with Beal. But the Tigers were the first offer for McLemore and then he went national and somehow got into school and played a season at Kansas. BJ Young visited Missouri and the guys on the team were so irritated by the way he acted on the visit that they told Mike Anderson they didn't want him on the team (I've posted this before and heard it from enough people who were there that I believe it to have happened; I don't say this to insult BJ, I don't know him, never met him and as far as I know he didn't have any problems at Arkansas so I'm not saying he's a bad guy, just telling you what happened that weekend). He was already signed when Anderson took the Arkansas job and they reunited and he ended up being a pretty good player for Mike. Ironic for sure. The crusher was Porter, who I've since been told had actually told Missouri he was coming, but didn't want to announce anything until Arkansas had filled its coaching vacancy. Once the Razorbacks did that, it obviously changed Porter's mind and he went to Georgetown.
0/4 in perhaps the best in-state class in the history of the state of Missouri. I was telling some people this weekend the one story I'd love to write is the story of Anderson's last few weeks, why he ended up leaving, whose fault it was and how Missouri ended up hiring Frank Haith. Because that's where this program started to go down the wrong path (I think Haith was better than most will admit, but it wasn't a good hire or a popular hire and there were at least some cracks in the foundation even if the house wasn't yet in the complete disrepair it's been in most of the last six years). I don't think I'll ever really be able to write that story because I don't think Anderson would talk to me and tell me the truth, I don't think Mike Alden would talk to me and tell me the truth and I'm not sure it's a story I can write based on what people outside of those two would tell me (although I know plenty of people who would and have told me things).
Missouri has done a lot of things poorly in hoops over the last 20 years. It has also had a lot of bad luck. Major issues occurred in the year Tyler Hansbrough was being recruited and in the year the best in-state class of that time was being recruited. That's bad luck on top of bad decisions. Because if only Hansbrough and Porter come (and, again, many people have told me that both told Missouri they were coming at one point), it's pretty easy to see this whole thing looking a whole lot different.
1) I desperately want to start this by talking about something other than the virus and how it is going to impact sports. But what's the point? That's not just the main story right now. It's the ONLY story. Nothing else really matters. We can talk about new offers and kids who say they like this program or that program or release a top 27 or whatever, but the only thing in sports that really matters is when are we going to have sports again? In terms of college football, as of today, we're looking at three weeks until players are expected to hit campus. That's the word I'm hearing at Missouri and the word people elsewhere in the SEC are hearing. The idea as of today is to have players report to campus on June 1 to begin online classes, offseason conditioning and some sort of a semi-normal summer program. Will that happen? I have absolutely no idea. That's the plan/thought/hope/wish/whatever right now.
2) The question a lot of people are talking about is whether games are going to be able to be played if students aren't on campus. Here is the difference people need to understand when talking about this: Are the campuses closed or are they just not holding classes? The Big East commissioner said they won't have sports if students aren't on campus and Bob Bowlsby, commissioner of the Big 12, made a similar statement, both according to this story. But in talking to some people, there's a distinction here: Online classes does not mean that campus is closed. If buildings on campus are technically open, if students could theoretically be there but they aren't because why be there when you don't have to go to class, or if faculty can go to their offices and people can go places on campus, then campus qualifies as open. If campus is open, the thought is that you could have football players in town to work out and get ready for a season. It's a technicality. I don't think it sits right. I'm not sure it would happen. But it is a distinction that I think, when it comes to nut-cutting time, athletics people are going to try to make.
3) The whole issue really comes down to amateur athletes versus professional employees. The reason it's a terrible look to have college athletes on campus working out when you can't have regular students here taking classes is that they don't get paid. The NCAA and every school in it has gone to great lengths to make it clear these are not employees, they are amateurs. They are student-athletes. School comes first. We're grooming the men and women of the future here and it's about changing lives, not about winning games. You know, 99% of them go pro in something other than their sport. Well, that's all kind of not true and we all know it, but they say it's true and if they want to keep the college sports model, they have to keep saying it's true. But if it's true (or if they want to say it), how can they say "we're telling students to stay home and take their classes online, but we're telling THIS subset of students to come back here and lift weights and get ready to play games in September." If they do it that way, it's admitting to everyone that Cardale Jones was right. They're not here to play school. The schools don't want to admit that. It's why I think ultimately it won't happen. If campuses are open and regular students can be on them, games can be played. If they can't? I really don't see how you can play games. The NFL can because if the Chiefs and Texans are scheduled to open the season on September 10th, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson can say "I'm not coming." And their teams can refuse to pay them. They're employees. What power does the college athlete have here? There's no union. They're not employees. The NCAA has fought for decades to convince us they aren't.
4) I don't think college football would be played with no fans...but I think limited attendance is a very real likelihood. I don't know what that number would be. Let's say it's 25% capacity (that's the limit right now for a lot of places that are being allowed to open up around the country). So for Mizzou, that means you could have about 17,500 people at a game. Let's assume they reserve 1,000 of those for students (maybe it's more, I'm just throwing out a random number). That means you have 16,500 seats. Last year, Mizzou sold about 29,000 season tickets (a number that includes students). Let's use that number for ease. If the number is right there, that means 11,500 season ticket holders would be told they can't come to games (and probably more than that considering you're going to want to keep at least some as general admission or single game sales). Can you imagine being Jim Sterk and calling hundreds of people and saying "I know you have given us money for 15 years and you've been a loyal fan and we appreciate that. The problem is, you haven't given us ENOUGH money. There are 6,000 people who have given us more and they are averaging three tickets each and we're out of tickets for this season. But we sure hope you'll still give us that money you've been giving us and we'd love to see you in September of 2021?" Or "Hey, Joe, we appreciate your donation. We're working on plans to make everyone happy. What we have is a rotation of games. Nobody's going to be able to see all six, but the way we're doing it, everybody's going to get to see a couple. So based on our numbers, we're happy to have you in the stadium when we play Eastern Michigan and Kentucky!" Look, I get it. Calls like that are going to have to be made. And a lot of people are going to be understanding. But some aren't. My sarcastic quotes here aren't meant to disparage the plans or whatever the athletic directors would say. It's a hell of a spot to be in. I'd hate to have to make those calls. But those calls are going to have to be made. Now think about making them at Nebraska, where they've sold out every game for 40 some years, or Clemson or Alabama or a lot of other places. Man there are going to be some tough days ahead for the people in charge.
5) The St. Louis Post Dispatch put out its all decade basketball team this week
I'm not here to debate who should or should not be on it. I don't follow it closely enough to know and it's just a list and an opinion and everyone's is different. But it reminded me of the in-state class of 2011. You know, the one that featured Otto Porter, Ben McLemore, Bradley Beal and BJ Young? Missouri got none of them. I'd argue it was a program changing class in all the wrong ways.
I don't think Mizzou ever really had a shot with Beal. But the Tigers were the first offer for McLemore and then he went national and somehow got into school and played a season at Kansas. BJ Young visited Missouri and the guys on the team were so irritated by the way he acted on the visit that they told Mike Anderson they didn't want him on the team (I've posted this before and heard it from enough people who were there that I believe it to have happened; I don't say this to insult BJ, I don't know him, never met him and as far as I know he didn't have any problems at Arkansas so I'm not saying he's a bad guy, just telling you what happened that weekend). He was already signed when Anderson took the Arkansas job and they reunited and he ended up being a pretty good player for Mike. Ironic for sure. The crusher was Porter, who I've since been told had actually told Missouri he was coming, but didn't want to announce anything until Arkansas had filled its coaching vacancy. Once the Razorbacks did that, it obviously changed Porter's mind and he went to Georgetown.
0/4 in perhaps the best in-state class in the history of the state of Missouri. I was telling some people this weekend the one story I'd love to write is the story of Anderson's last few weeks, why he ended up leaving, whose fault it was and how Missouri ended up hiring Frank Haith. Because that's where this program started to go down the wrong path (I think Haith was better than most will admit, but it wasn't a good hire or a popular hire and there were at least some cracks in the foundation even if the house wasn't yet in the complete disrepair it's been in most of the last six years). I don't think I'll ever really be able to write that story because I don't think Anderson would talk to me and tell me the truth, I don't think Mike Alden would talk to me and tell me the truth and I'm not sure it's a story I can write based on what people outside of those two would tell me (although I know plenty of people who would and have told me things).
Missouri has done a lot of things poorly in hoops over the last 20 years. It has also had a lot of bad luck. Major issues occurred in the year Tyler Hansbrough was being recruited and in the year the best in-state class of that time was being recruited. That's bad luck on top of bad decisions. Because if only Hansbrough and Porter come (and, again, many people have told me that both told Missouri they were coming at one point), it's pretty easy to see this whole thing looking a whole lot different.
