Stein & Summers is a rock solid real estate firm with over 46 years of success that can be attributed to our willingness to go the extra mile in service and expertise. With offices in Kansas City and St. Joseph, we provide a full range of services in residential, commercial, multi-family, investment and agricultural real estate. Confidence comes from feeling you’ve been taken care of, so when you see our sign you can rest assured that one of our agents will be ready to provide the best care for any of your real estate needs. Click here for more information.
I know what I'm going to start with isn't going to be very popular here. That's okay. If you like everything I write, I'm doing a bad job. If you want sunshine blown up your ass, this is the wrong site for you. Better or worse, I'm going to tell you what I think. And what I think right now is that we're at a point where it's time to make a decision about what college athletics is and what we want it to be.
1) Football is more important than class. For some people, it's always been that way. But the schools have usually kind of kept up the appearance that it isn't true. That's pretty much over now. North Carolina State went fully online but is continuing football. North Carolina went fully online and is resuming practice today. Then there's this from Alabama
Those rules do not apply to sports. Regular students may not enter a house in which they do not live and basically may not see anyone or do anything other than go to class. Football is practicing.
I love sports. I love college football. I hope they play it. But if we're going to do it like this, knock off the charade. Don't make the players go to class or get certain grades to be eligible. Just let them play football. That's the reason most of them are there. That's the only reason most of us care who they are. That's obviously the main value the schools see in them. So let's just be honest about this thing.
2) Some will see the above as an argument to pay the players. It isn't. I see points on both sides and I don't care that much one way or another. If you pay them, they become employees and they're going to find out there are things about being employees they don't really like. It's not about paying them.
Some will also see this as an argument about COVID and how you can catch it. It isn't. Football is no more dangerous than a million other things you could do which result in you contracting the virus. It's probably actually less dangerous than a fair amount of them. But that's not the point. this isn't about health and safety because the decision whether or not to play games isn't about health and safety.
It's about admitting what these schools and administrators and the NCAA have never admitted before. It is best summed up by one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books, Animal Farm by George Orwell. "All animals are created equal. Some animals are more equal than others."
College athletes aren't regular college students. College football players aren't regular college athletes. They're more equal than all the rest. Just admit it. Your actions now are saying it's true. We know it's true. They know it's true. You know it's true. Just say it out loud and go play your games. I don't have an issue with playing games. I've said many times I would play them. What I have an issue with is hypocrisy. Don't give me this line about student-athletes and the college experience and going to class and then tell regular students not to leave their houses so the football team can make $80 million this season playing games. If they would admit this out loud, I have no issue with going forward with no in person classes and students being locked down while football players can go do their thing. As long as they won't admit it, I have a problem with it.
3) This is off the topic of sports, but I have a big issue with what these schools are doing to the regular students overall. They knew there would be outbreaks on campus. They told the kids to come back. "We're gonna have class and it will be different, but we've taken every precaution to give you as much of the college experience as possible." Then the kids came back. They cashed the checks. The cases spiked. And the schools are all over social media shaming college kids for being college kids. I refuse to do it. They're 20 years old. They're going to go to parties. They're going to hang out with other people. They're not going to follow all the rules. I would have done the same things when I was 20. Now that I'm not 20, I have the option (I know this is crazy) to not go where the college kids go. And I don't (pandemic or not, I have no desire to go to those places). But the point is, the schools told the kids what they had to tell them to get the money, they brought them back, what they knew would happen is happening and now they are blaming the kids who are paying them thousands and thousands of dollars. It's disingenuous at best and borderline criminal at worst. It infuriates me.
4) Anyway, back to sports, there's a college football game this week. Central Arkansas, which was supposed to be at Mizzou next Saturday, plays at Austin Peay this Saturday. I don't know if it's on TV. They should put it on TV. I wouldn't watch it but many people would I think. The first FBS games will happen the following Saturday. I've been thinking quite a bit about the SEC's decision to delay until September 26th. I think it's pretty smart in many regards. You let some other games be played, you let the kids get back to campus, you even let the NFL start. You should have a better idea where things stand by then. But it could also work the other way. What if these games on September 12 are followed by a rash of outbreaks? And then some of those on September 19 either don't get played or see the same thing happen? What if seasons are being delayed or canceled before the SEC even starts? There's a delicate balance here. Last I knew 53 teams had canceled and 77 were still playing. Once the number that have canceled is higher than the number that is playing, I think you could see a mass cancelation where everybody just says "We tried as hard as we could, but if 60% of the sport isn't playing, none of us can play." So I like the idea of the SEC waiting, but in the back of my mind I do wonder if it is costing itself a week or two of games by waiting. In the end, if they don't finish the season, I suppose it doesn't really matter when they started or how many games they played.
5) The question nobody has answered still is "where is the tipping point?" What causes a team to cancel the rest of the season? How many teams have to cancel a season before a conference can't keep playing? How many conferences have to quit before everybody quits? Vanderbilt is currently paused on football practice after a number of positive tests. Let's go worst case scenario and say at some point in the next three weeks, Vandy decides it can't play. Does the SEC go ahead without them? I would assume so, but I don't know for sure. None of us know that. And as long as we don't know that, we've got nothing to do but wonder and speculate and hope.
I know what I'm going to start with isn't going to be very popular here. That's okay. If you like everything I write, I'm doing a bad job. If you want sunshine blown up your ass, this is the wrong site for you. Better or worse, I'm going to tell you what I think. And what I think right now is that we're at a point where it's time to make a decision about what college athletics is and what we want it to be.
1) Football is more important than class. For some people, it's always been that way. But the schools have usually kind of kept up the appearance that it isn't true. That's pretty much over now. North Carolina State went fully online but is continuing football. North Carolina went fully online and is resuming practice today. Then there's this from Alabama
Those rules do not apply to sports. Regular students may not enter a house in which they do not live and basically may not see anyone or do anything other than go to class. Football is practicing.
I love sports. I love college football. I hope they play it. But if we're going to do it like this, knock off the charade. Don't make the players go to class or get certain grades to be eligible. Just let them play football. That's the reason most of them are there. That's the only reason most of us care who they are. That's obviously the main value the schools see in them. So let's just be honest about this thing.
2) Some will see the above as an argument to pay the players. It isn't. I see points on both sides and I don't care that much one way or another. If you pay them, they become employees and they're going to find out there are things about being employees they don't really like. It's not about paying them.
Some will also see this as an argument about COVID and how you can catch it. It isn't. Football is no more dangerous than a million other things you could do which result in you contracting the virus. It's probably actually less dangerous than a fair amount of them. But that's not the point. this isn't about health and safety because the decision whether or not to play games isn't about health and safety.
It's about admitting what these schools and administrators and the NCAA have never admitted before. It is best summed up by one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books, Animal Farm by George Orwell. "All animals are created equal. Some animals are more equal than others."
College athletes aren't regular college students. College football players aren't regular college athletes. They're more equal than all the rest. Just admit it. Your actions now are saying it's true. We know it's true. They know it's true. You know it's true. Just say it out loud and go play your games. I don't have an issue with playing games. I've said many times I would play them. What I have an issue with is hypocrisy. Don't give me this line about student-athletes and the college experience and going to class and then tell regular students not to leave their houses so the football team can make $80 million this season playing games. If they would admit this out loud, I have no issue with going forward with no in person classes and students being locked down while football players can go do their thing. As long as they won't admit it, I have a problem with it.
3) This is off the topic of sports, but I have a big issue with what these schools are doing to the regular students overall. They knew there would be outbreaks on campus. They told the kids to come back. "We're gonna have class and it will be different, but we've taken every precaution to give you as much of the college experience as possible." Then the kids came back. They cashed the checks. The cases spiked. And the schools are all over social media shaming college kids for being college kids. I refuse to do it. They're 20 years old. They're going to go to parties. They're going to hang out with other people. They're not going to follow all the rules. I would have done the same things when I was 20. Now that I'm not 20, I have the option (I know this is crazy) to not go where the college kids go. And I don't (pandemic or not, I have no desire to go to those places). But the point is, the schools told the kids what they had to tell them to get the money, they brought them back, what they knew would happen is happening and now they are blaming the kids who are paying them thousands and thousands of dollars. It's disingenuous at best and borderline criminal at worst. It infuriates me.
4) Anyway, back to sports, there's a college football game this week. Central Arkansas, which was supposed to be at Mizzou next Saturday, plays at Austin Peay this Saturday. I don't know if it's on TV. They should put it on TV. I wouldn't watch it but many people would I think. The first FBS games will happen the following Saturday. I've been thinking quite a bit about the SEC's decision to delay until September 26th. I think it's pretty smart in many regards. You let some other games be played, you let the kids get back to campus, you even let the NFL start. You should have a better idea where things stand by then. But it could also work the other way. What if these games on September 12 are followed by a rash of outbreaks? And then some of those on September 19 either don't get played or see the same thing happen? What if seasons are being delayed or canceled before the SEC even starts? There's a delicate balance here. Last I knew 53 teams had canceled and 77 were still playing. Once the number that have canceled is higher than the number that is playing, I think you could see a mass cancelation where everybody just says "We tried as hard as we could, but if 60% of the sport isn't playing, none of us can play." So I like the idea of the SEC waiting, but in the back of my mind I do wonder if it is costing itself a week or two of games by waiting. In the end, if they don't finish the season, I suppose it doesn't really matter when they started or how many games they played.
5) The question nobody has answered still is "where is the tipping point?" What causes a team to cancel the rest of the season? How many teams have to cancel a season before a conference can't keep playing? How many conferences have to quit before everybody quits? Vanderbilt is currently paused on football practice after a number of positive tests. Let's go worst case scenario and say at some point in the next three weeks, Vandy decides it can't play. Does the SEC go ahead without them? I would assume so, but I don't know for sure. None of us know that. And as long as we don't know that, we've got nothing to do but wonder and speculate and hope.
