Bobref

No problem. I’m all for it. More direct path to the playoff.

Whatever it takes.

Heard Paul Finebaum this morning say CFB this year is “dying the death of a thousand cuts,” with the announcements that the ACC and B1G will play only conference games this year. The record should show I made that very same reference yesterday before those announcements, after hearing what the Ivy League and Stanford have done.g At some point a movement in any direction reaches a “tipping point.” If you’ve read the Malcolm Gladwell book, you know what I mean. It’s the point where momentum becomes irreversible, and there’s no longer any possibility of changing direction. The rest of the Power 5 conferences will announce something similar today or tomorrow. Other conferences will follow suit. Smaller schools will cancel their seasons ... because without the big payday a non-con game against a Power 5 school provides, they can’t make it financially. Then, when training camps start, you’re going to see a bunch of positive tests. Programs will “suspend” activity for a week as a band-aid. Then, some programs will cancel, or states will restrict fan attendance sharply. Other programs will “copycat,” because they don’t want to appear insensitive to the health concerns. The slide has started, and I don’t see any way to arrest it. I really, really hope I’m wrong

Things are starting to head south. In my experience, we’ll reach a “tipping point” where decisions will be driven primarily by the need to avoid looking like you’re lagging behind. After that, there’s no stopping it. https://247sports.com/college/notre-dame/Article/Jack-Swarbrick-Notre-Dame-Season-Less-Likely-To-Start-On-Time-148984015/ Jack Swarbrick: Notre Dame Season ‘Less Likely’ To Start On Time ESPN senior writer Heather Dinich spoke with Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick on Thursday about the 2020 football season, the likelihood of starting on time against Navy in September around Labor Day, and a few other topics. According to the story from Dinich, while nothing is set either way, Swarbrick believes it’s “less likely” that the 2020 football season starts on time. "It has grown more pessimistic over the past two weeks, but I'm not to a point to say we shouldn't continue to plan for the potential to open on time," said Swarbrick in an interview with ESPN. "I just think it's less likely. We have to shift our allocations a little bit -- a little more time on planning the alternatives, and a little less time on planning routine go forward." Recent COVID-19 testing results came back from Notre Dame and the numbers were great. There weren’t any positive tests based on the recent results and there was only one early last month, but that student-athlete has since had a full recovery. That is a positive sign. "It's so much about the guys and talking with [them], making sure there's an understanding, appealing to them to do all they can to protect their season," said Swarbrick to Dinich. "... They understand there's only two to an elevator in the hotel. They understand they're not to congregate in rooms. And they're just doing it." Notre Dame already moved its season-opener from Aug. 29 against Navy in Ireland to taking on the Midshipmen in Maryland during the first week of September. It’s possibly that things move back even further depending on how things play out moving forward. Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk recently shared a comment on where things stand on his end. "We still plan on playing them, and whether there are fans or not, that's the X factor," said Gladchuk. “But in communicating with Notre Dame this week, they're all ... they're getting ready to go. At least we can hope we can create some entertainment for television and see what happens."

As I recall, one of the end zones was shortened. They ended up basically playing a “half court” game.

Ivy League cancels the season. The Buckeyes “pause” voluntary workouts. Wrigley Field has opted out of hosting the Northwestern - Wisconsin game this November. I fear the football season is going to suffer a slow “death of a thousand cuts.”

It’s not blood-borne, like HIV or Hep B. But the tattooing environment is one that appears conducive to transmission. Pretty hard to social distance in that setting.

Dead on the money. Also, Munster has 2 Hall of Famers- John Friend and Leroy Marsh - and since there have only been 3 coaches in program history, the Mustangs hold the distinction of having the highest percentage of head coaches in the HOF.

Gee, if someone wrote a book on it, it must be true.

Nor is science a popularity contest. And the idea that Dr. Fauci is a spokesperson for the vaccine industry is, of course, ludicrous. Of course, he is pro-vaccine. Show me a highly regarded immunologist who isn’t. But he’s been the Director of NIAID since Reagan was President. None of us knew his name until 6 months ago. That’s a pretty lousy industry spokesperson. As far as a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, Dr. Fauci has been frequently misquoted and misrepresented on that subject by those with a political agenda. See, e.g., https://www.factcheck.org/2020/06/meme-misrepresents-faucis-position-on-vaccine-trials/.

True science is neither “Left” nor “Right.” The fact that you think it is tells anyone all they need to know.

Your characterization of Dr. Fauci’s role reflects your bias. Everything that you’ve talked about happened during the last 6 months. The man has been the director of NIAID for 36 yrs., and has devoted his entire professional life to Public Health Service. He’s been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He’s one of the greatest scientists in the history of the field. You and the rest of the clueless character assassins should be ashamed of yourselves. Nobody is happy about what has gone on for the last several months. I guess some people just have to have a scapegoat.

One of the frequent battle cries of the folks who apparently believe that the coronavirus emergency was a liberal plot to wreck the economy for political reasons is the “fact” that all of the protesters and rioters gathering unmasked did not cause a spike in COVID-19 cases. Turns out it’s not so much a “fact” as it is one of those politically-driven assertions that, if repeated enough, becomes unquestioned. https://www.foxnews.com/us/la-protests-linked-to-covid-spike-garcetti LA Mayor Garcetti admits 'connection' between coronavirus outbreak and protests, after downplaying link "We are certain that there is going to be spread" By Nick Givas | Fox News Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday that public protests are likely causing the number of citywide coronavirus cases to spike, just two days after claiming there wasn't "any conclusive evidence" showing a connection between the two. Garcetti, a Democrat, was speaking at a press conference concerning the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Los Angeles when he was asked if the demonstrations were contributing to the spread of COVID-19. He claimed he'd consulted with Dr. Barbara Ferrer, LA County's director of public health, and determined the protests were in fact contributing to the spread of the virus. “I talked again with Dr. Ferrer about that this morning. She does think some of the spread did come from our protests," he said. "It’s not the act of protesting – that’s a great and American thing to do no matter what your opinion is… but protesting without maintaining physical distancing, without wearing your mask, without having sanitizer – we just have to be smart. Whether you’re at a protest or at your home, whether in your workplace or whether you’re out shopping, these rules don’t change.” He added, “We do believe there is a connection, we don’t believe that everybody has been doing this safely and wherever you can, please stay at home.” Fox News reached out to the County Health Department for comment and received a video of a Wednesday interview with Dr. Ferrer, where she affirmed the statement. "In situations where people are close together for longer periods of time and it’s very crowded, we are certain that there is going to be spread. So, we’ve never said that there’s no spread from people who were protesting," she explained. After being asked earlier in the video if government officials were downplaying the protests' effect on coronavirus stats, she said, "We’ve been really honest and said from the beginning that for any people that are in crowded situations for long periods of time – which long for us means more than 15 minutes – where you’re in close contact with people, less than six feet apart and people aren’t wearing a cloth face covering you have a heightened risk of either transmitting the virus if you are an asymptomatic spreader, or getting the virus from someone else who is spreading because they also are an asymptomatic spreader." This clashed with statements made by Garcetti during the Tuesday press conference, however, where he called the idea a hypothesis and minimized the potential impact mass public demonstrations were having on the number of COVID-19 cases in the city. "We follow the data closely," he said, according to Fox 11. "There's no evidence yet that the protests led to much spread though it's something that Doctor Ferrer has hypothesized, but we haven't seen any conclusive evidence there."

Umm.... no. Dr. Fauci is the Director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, one of the institutes operating under the umbrella of the National Institutes of Health. He is easily one of the most accomplished scientists in the history of his field, having contributed groundbreaking research for over 30 years. You and the other folks who constantly paint him as a buffoon because, as a spokesperson for an entire research discipline, there are times when new research findings conflict with others, are only displaying your own ignorance about the scientific process in general, and the massive effort ongoing with respect to SARS-CoV-2 in particular. Or, perhaps, you are letting your political desires get the better of logical judgment. https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/anthony-s-fauci-md-bio