24 Comments

It's over. The golden year is ruined. :(

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WTF? They're going to play? In bubble wrap?

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An incredibly half-assed decision. Playing three fewer games doesn't really help reduce the chances of spreading the virus between teams or players all that much. Especially not when there are already a number of outbreaks both on certain football teams and on campuses in general.

The only real benefit of this is that it makes it easier to flex to a spring schedule when the fall season is inevitably canceled.

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Jul 11, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

Conference only games also gives flexibility to pause/restart mid season, etc.

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Jul 10, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

Let's play 11 games, blow up the divisions and have a real league champion!

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I'd be happy if we just played one game!!

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Jul 10, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

I had a feeling this would happen. It's too bad that we won't play TCU to get revenge from that very ugly loss from the Cheez-Int bowl.

I wonder if we will stick with the 9 game conference schedule or bump it to 11 conference games. Such a bummer.

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According to a Pac-12 press event for media in May, the conference has modeled everything from a normal 12-game season to a (eight or nine-game) conference-only slate or a football season that starts after Jan. 1.

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This is a garbage decision.

Been planning for the game in Vegas for 2 years, including buying season tix to UNLV to get good seats. This has a 99.7% survival rate and those under 40 are not at risk. End the hysteria.

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3.23 million cases in the US and 137,000 deaths = ~4% death rate

Math is hard.

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My wife works in a covid unit, so I take it very seriously as I get daily updates in a state where it's going badly (AZ).. but to be fair you're going off confirmed cases, the actual number of people who have/had it is significantly higher than that. So math is REALLY hard when the actual number of cases can be off by hundreds of thousands to millions, which would lower the death rate... ;)

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It might be even more complicated since the death toll might also be under counted. The New York Times today still refers to an article in April: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/28/us/coronavirus-death-toll-total.html

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I dont doubt the number of deaths is also off, but when theres going to be people who are asymptomatic or symptoms only manifest as cold to flu like for a day or two...you're going to miss a lot more cases than those who have died and not been recorded

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Jul 11, 2020Liked by Rick Chen, Avinash Kunnath, Berkelium97, SGBear

Hope you are joking but if you are not... I am a physician taking care of patients in the hospital and I have had a 38 year old on the brink of death (anecdotal but truly sick) leaving the hospital after 30+ days of being in the icu on the ventilator and weaning down his oxygen to 2-3 liters of oxygen via nasal cannula. We were at capacity in the hospital during the initial spike, If we had 10 more similar cases, then he probably would had a tougher time surviving due to potential staffing and equipment issues.

I can go on and on about more cases. But people tend to make their own decisions based on what they see on media, social media, and underlying beliefs in religion and government. The allegory of the cave Plato/Socrates comes to mind. While in their own caves/shelter-in-place, people rely on images or shadows cast for information. I get it. This pandemic sucks regardless of what information you are fed. The elephant is still an elephant.

Anyways, reducing spread across conferences/regions is a start (Vegas is a hot bed now, though it seems that a lot of people in SoCal are not exactly understanding science). It’s not a political issue guys. It should have never been. It’s about common welfare but in a pandemic the paradigm model for healthcare should’ve shifted towards common acceptance/trust in a modern world. Except people have chosen to take this pandemic like the flu season plagued by political and differing belief systems. Even in our health care community I’ve seen huge disagreements, dissent, misinformation, mistrust, skepticism.

I too hoped that the season would start as planned- having booked suites at the Wynn and planning out a road trip to Zion and Grand Canyon with the family. However, we’ve missed birthday parties, births, funerals, weddings...things I have missed when attending med school and residency/fellowship.

Innovators out there should develop better technology for VR (Occulus is heavy and burdensome) to give a more immersive fan experience (Think glasses and gloves in the minority report). Make a fan feel like they are at memorial stadium or allegiant while in the comfort of their own homes. Moors law hasn’t hit this technology as it for the iPhone. This may be the new normal for another year or so. So if you’re an engineer/cs/etc go at it. Help the human race adapt and thrive. Instead of complaining, do something positive for the passion of sports while scientists/healthcare professionals work on finding a cure or a vaccine while taking care of you and your loved ones should you need it.

If and when this all this ends, I’ll buy you some drinks.

Go bears!

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Thanks for sharing your experience and for your hard work.

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How many of the coaching staff are over 40?

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Good point - All but a small handful are over 40 years old!

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Is that you Donald?

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If the rest of the football schedule doesn't change, today's decision means our first game will be on Sept. 26 against Utah.

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I assume they'd want to move it up, as most assume the virus only gets worse as winter approaches.

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Jul 11, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

Let's hope we can get the game in at Memorial. Will Cal let fans buy cardboard cutouts like the Giants and A's?

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Jul 10, 2020Liked by Rick Chen

The writing was on the wall for this when Pac 12 mentioned this possibility months ago.

I still doubt they play this season but I suppose this kicks the can down the road a little further.

I do wonder what happens with Notre Dame. Notre Dame has now lost 3 potential games (2 Pac 12 and 1 Big 10 opponents) but I suppose they could try to fill in with more games against the ACC. I hope this makes ND finally join a conference.

I do feel bad for the lower tiered schools and conferences that need the revenue from these games.

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If the Rose Bowl gets cancelled then you better believe we're winning the conference title this year. Because Cal.

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On a media call in May, all of the coaches raised a lack of coordination among conferences as their top concern because it may affect the College Football Playoff standings and bowl games.

Everyone is playing follow the leader, so we might not know about the post-season until September. The SEC is meeting on Monday to decide whether they will move to a non-conference schedule, and the ACC and Big 12 are waiting until the SEC decides.

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