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1) Let's start here: They're playing football in the SEC this fall. I'm pretty confident they're playing it everywhere, but I'm certain they're playing it in the SEC. That's the first time I've been able to say that in two and a half months. The clearance to bring players back to campus two weeks from today and all the public statements and sentiment we've seen make it clear they're playing. They have to play. College sports legitimately cannot survive if we don't have a season. A truncated (that means shorter for those that need help) season makes it tough, but athletic departments can survive. Without a season, they legitimately can't. You'd be seeing ADs fold left and right, even big ones that you think are immune to that sort of thing. I'll get back to this point in a minute.
2) As for what the season will look like, that's still a question. Ross Dellenger (who along with Pat Forde has done a great job getting actual information throughout this thing as opposed to just throwing out opinions) wrote an article on what camp could look like. The upshot is that everyone is going to need two weeks of NFL style OTA's and at least four weeks of camp. That means you've got to be on campus six weeks before your season can start. There are places that might not be able to get to campus by July 15 (the more or less drop dead date for an on time start to the season). That means you might see some early season games cancelled and some schedules changed. They're going to play, but it just might not be on time and it might not be 12 games for everyone.
3) Honestly, it might not be 12 games for anyone. Here's the one question nobody can answer: What happens when we start seeing people involved with these football programs test positive? That doesn't just mean players. It means coaches, staff, trainers, dining hall employees, everyone that's in contact with the program on a regular basis. Let's say we get into the last week of fall camp and all of a sudden a player, an assistant and a strength coach from Central Arkansas test positive. Can they play the game? Will Missouri play the game? It sounds good to say "Just quarantine the people that test positive." And maybe that's the answer. But maybe it isn't that simple because by the time those three people test positive maybe they've actually been carrying it around for four days and have been around every other member of the program for those four days and maybe then one of them has it and someone from Missouri gets it on game day and, well, you get the idea. I want to be clear here that I don't know the answer. I've said all along if you're going to start shutting everything down the second you get one positive test then you just can't start. Because it's going to happen and it's going to happen multiple places. I understand why the NBA had to shut down when Rudy Gobert tested positive because it was brand new. But by late August we're going to be almost six months into this thing and there has to be some sort of plan and prep for dealing with a handful of positives. I don't know what the threshold is where you do have to start cancelling games and shutting down seasons. I just know it can't be one.
4) This is not a big issue to most people, but it's obviously a big issue to all my colleagues and me and, honestly, it affects you guys: I have no idea how the sport is going to be covered this fall. First of all, I'm 99% certain there is going to be no practice access. They're not going to let us come stand on the sidelines and watch practice, whether that's a safety measure or whether it's a good excuse to keep reporters away from practices (I'm not just talking about Mizzou here, I'm talking nationwide). So August is going to be tough for us because we know nothing about this team and what it's going to look like because we're not going to have seen it. We're going to learn right along with you guys in the season opener.
But beyond camp, I'm wondering about games. There's going to be reduced press box access to allow for social distancing. I think there's a decent chance no outlet is allowed to send more than one person to cover games and I think there's a decent chance you are not allowed to go on the road to cover a team. Even if you can go on the road, the truth is, it's not going to be worth it.
I've already more or less made the decision in my head we won't cover any road games. The reason is simple: The ONLY reason we go to games is for the interviews and interaction after the games. That's going to look significantly different this year. My guess is you'll get the head coach at a podium where he's not within six feet of any reporters and then 2-3 selected players at that same podium. What that means is that there's not one reporter who has a single quote or bit of information that everyone else doesn't have. Those interviews are also probably going to be available via a live stream or emailed quotes from schools themselves. So why am I spending $500-1000 to send a reporter to a game that we can watch on TV and record a zoom call for interviews and get the exact same thing we'd get if we were there? The answer is I'm not. And I'd bet most other places aren't either. If they want to waste their money, by all means, that's their call, but I'm almost certainly not going to waste mine.
So our coverage is going to completely change this fall. I've got some ideas and plans and I'll get into those over the summer after I iron things out. The truth is, the value of a reporter actually being at a game is vastly diminished already. Mostly we do it because we've always done it and we think there's some accountability and importance in showing your face and showing the people you cover that you're dedicated and you're not just a couch jockey firing off hot takes. But the truth is, most people don't care if we're there or not. If I write a story about a game and throw in a couple of canned quotes about it, I'm guessing 95% of the people that read it (maybe more) will have no idea if I've gone to the game or watched it on TV. And of the 5% who do know, 50% of them don't care. The truth is, you guys watched the game and you don't care if we tell you what happened in it or what the players and coaches said. Most people now want analysis, where did it go right or wrong, what does it mean, who gets the credit/blame, how does it change the rest of the season? And we don't have to be there to provide that. For quite a few years we've all covered games in person for ourselves. That's how we were trained and we think it's important. But if the people we're covering the game for don't think it's important, why are we spending money to do it? Again, I know a lot of you won't care about this particular section, but these are my thoughts so I wrote about it.
5) Back to the idea that athletic departments can't survive without a football season, I'm far from the first person to say this, but we're all finding out how screwed up the financial model of college sports really is. You've got one or two sports financing literally everything else. You have to have 16 sports to be a D1 program. Let's say most schools have 18-20. So really, 80-90% of your inventory loses money. Sometimes significant money. Every year. And D1 athletics are designed to spend every dime they bring in. This is supposedly a non-profit organization. So when your football program makes $50 million, rather than saving say $20 million of it (which would also bring up the awkward discussion of having an extra $20 million and not giving any of it to the people that actually made it for you), they're spending it all. On women's basketball and men's soccer and gymnastics. On video games in every locker and waterslides in the locker room and fireplaces in the coaches' offices. Just find a way to spend it. And that's all well and good...until somebody turns off the faucet. Well, the faucet has been slowed to a drip...and nobody has any extra water in the well. Lot of thirsty folks out there. Something's gotta change.
1) Let's start here: They're playing football in the SEC this fall. I'm pretty confident they're playing it everywhere, but I'm certain they're playing it in the SEC. That's the first time I've been able to say that in two and a half months. The clearance to bring players back to campus two weeks from today and all the public statements and sentiment we've seen make it clear they're playing. They have to play. College sports legitimately cannot survive if we don't have a season. A truncated (that means shorter for those that need help) season makes it tough, but athletic departments can survive. Without a season, they legitimately can't. You'd be seeing ADs fold left and right, even big ones that you think are immune to that sort of thing. I'll get back to this point in a minute.
2) As for what the season will look like, that's still a question. Ross Dellenger (who along with Pat Forde has done a great job getting actual information throughout this thing as opposed to just throwing out opinions) wrote an article on what camp could look like. The upshot is that everyone is going to need two weeks of NFL style OTA's and at least four weeks of camp. That means you've got to be on campus six weeks before your season can start. There are places that might not be able to get to campus by July 15 (the more or less drop dead date for an on time start to the season). That means you might see some early season games cancelled and some schedules changed. They're going to play, but it just might not be on time and it might not be 12 games for everyone.
3) Honestly, it might not be 12 games for anyone. Here's the one question nobody can answer: What happens when we start seeing people involved with these football programs test positive? That doesn't just mean players. It means coaches, staff, trainers, dining hall employees, everyone that's in contact with the program on a regular basis. Let's say we get into the last week of fall camp and all of a sudden a player, an assistant and a strength coach from Central Arkansas test positive. Can they play the game? Will Missouri play the game? It sounds good to say "Just quarantine the people that test positive." And maybe that's the answer. But maybe it isn't that simple because by the time those three people test positive maybe they've actually been carrying it around for four days and have been around every other member of the program for those four days and maybe then one of them has it and someone from Missouri gets it on game day and, well, you get the idea. I want to be clear here that I don't know the answer. I've said all along if you're going to start shutting everything down the second you get one positive test then you just can't start. Because it's going to happen and it's going to happen multiple places. I understand why the NBA had to shut down when Rudy Gobert tested positive because it was brand new. But by late August we're going to be almost six months into this thing and there has to be some sort of plan and prep for dealing with a handful of positives. I don't know what the threshold is where you do have to start cancelling games and shutting down seasons. I just know it can't be one.
4) This is not a big issue to most people, but it's obviously a big issue to all my colleagues and me and, honestly, it affects you guys: I have no idea how the sport is going to be covered this fall. First of all, I'm 99% certain there is going to be no practice access. They're not going to let us come stand on the sidelines and watch practice, whether that's a safety measure or whether it's a good excuse to keep reporters away from practices (I'm not just talking about Mizzou here, I'm talking nationwide). So August is going to be tough for us because we know nothing about this team and what it's going to look like because we're not going to have seen it. We're going to learn right along with you guys in the season opener.
But beyond camp, I'm wondering about games. There's going to be reduced press box access to allow for social distancing. I think there's a decent chance no outlet is allowed to send more than one person to cover games and I think there's a decent chance you are not allowed to go on the road to cover a team. Even if you can go on the road, the truth is, it's not going to be worth it.
I've already more or less made the decision in my head we won't cover any road games. The reason is simple: The ONLY reason we go to games is for the interviews and interaction after the games. That's going to look significantly different this year. My guess is you'll get the head coach at a podium where he's not within six feet of any reporters and then 2-3 selected players at that same podium. What that means is that there's not one reporter who has a single quote or bit of information that everyone else doesn't have. Those interviews are also probably going to be available via a live stream or emailed quotes from schools themselves. So why am I spending $500-1000 to send a reporter to a game that we can watch on TV and record a zoom call for interviews and get the exact same thing we'd get if we were there? The answer is I'm not. And I'd bet most other places aren't either. If they want to waste their money, by all means, that's their call, but I'm almost certainly not going to waste mine.
So our coverage is going to completely change this fall. I've got some ideas and plans and I'll get into those over the summer after I iron things out. The truth is, the value of a reporter actually being at a game is vastly diminished already. Mostly we do it because we've always done it and we think there's some accountability and importance in showing your face and showing the people you cover that you're dedicated and you're not just a couch jockey firing off hot takes. But the truth is, most people don't care if we're there or not. If I write a story about a game and throw in a couple of canned quotes about it, I'm guessing 95% of the people that read it (maybe more) will have no idea if I've gone to the game or watched it on TV. And of the 5% who do know, 50% of them don't care. The truth is, you guys watched the game and you don't care if we tell you what happened in it or what the players and coaches said. Most people now want analysis, where did it go right or wrong, what does it mean, who gets the credit/blame, how does it change the rest of the season? And we don't have to be there to provide that. For quite a few years we've all covered games in person for ourselves. That's how we were trained and we think it's important. But if the people we're covering the game for don't think it's important, why are we spending money to do it? Again, I know a lot of you won't care about this particular section, but these are my thoughts so I wrote about it.
5) Back to the idea that athletic departments can't survive without a football season, I'm far from the first person to say this, but we're all finding out how screwed up the financial model of college sports really is. You've got one or two sports financing literally everything else. You have to have 16 sports to be a D1 program. Let's say most schools have 18-20. So really, 80-90% of your inventory loses money. Sometimes significant money. Every year. And D1 athletics are designed to spend every dime they bring in. This is supposedly a non-profit organization. So when your football program makes $50 million, rather than saving say $20 million of it (which would also bring up the awkward discussion of having an extra $20 million and not giving any of it to the people that actually made it for you), they're spending it all. On women's basketball and men's soccer and gymnastics. On video games in every locker and waterslides in the locker room and fireplaces in the coaches' offices. Just find a way to spend it. And that's all well and good...until somebody turns off the faucet. Well, the faucet has been slowed to a drip...and nobody has any extra water in the well. Lot of thirsty folks out there. Something's gotta change.
