Hi everybody.
Apart from a global pandemic, no sports, questions about whether we're going to have any season at all, Great Depression unemployment, and an election coming up, what's new?
Here's a few things I've been thinking about, and I'd welcome any comments and discussion.
1. Two weeks ago, I thought we'd get a season in, somehow. Now I'm not so sure. I thought the key was whether we'd be able to have in-person classes. It's looking much worse now that the Southern and Western states that bragged about being so well-managed are having surges in COVID-19 infections that are worse than Northern states.
2. Right about this time, I'd normally be clamoring for a men's basketball schedule. Keeping my mouth shut. I would be grateful for any kind of tea leaves at all. Hoping everyone is OK.
3. Watched the 2018 NCAA game against Miami, and noticed that Horizon League Commissioner Jon LeCrone was in the second row of the press area watching the game.
4. Speaking of the Horizon League, they added Robert Morris University from the NEC to give their conference 11 teams. It's the Robert Morris from Pittsburgh that became a Division I team in 1982, not the Robert Morris from Chicago that's an NAIA team. UIC has a new coach (there's something about it in another thread), and UWGB has a new coach. Wright State just recently dropped a bunch of non-revenue sports because of their expenditures for their coach and COVID budget problems.
5. I'm thinking high endowments, larger enrollments, and large market size have to be more attractive assets in college sports these days. State budgets are going to be clobbered, but the essentials of state schools (e.g. classroom instruction) are going to cut into athletic budgets. Maybe is makes all schools **a little** more equal, but let's see how long it lasts.
6. I'm kind of surprised how well I've done without baseball. I've only had five or six times this spring/summer where I've really thought, "I should be watching a baseball game right now, and it would be awesome!!" But I don't think I could deal with no college basketball.
7. Also recently watched the 2002 Horizon League Tournament Final game. The full game is on YouTube now. We should have won, we deserved to win, and we were the better team. And it didn't look so horrible on TV that the HL had to change the tournament format. They did that to punish Loyola, make no mistake.
Would love to hear everyone's thoughts in an open, free-form thread about sports/college sports/Covid concerns/MVC big picture stuff/Etc.
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