The World of Sports

New on Sports Illustrated: Power 5 Leaders Must Articulate Motive Behind Push to Play 2020 College Football Season

<a href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/08/01/ncaa-power-5-college-football-2020-season-coronavirus">
Several NCAA college football programs announced their plans for preseason camps Friday signaling Power 5 leaders are pushing for a 2020 season despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest whipsaw development in the tortured path toward a college football season is this: They’re going to try to play.
We have collectively lurched between pessimism and optimism four or five times now. There were moments when a season seemed like an impossibility, and others when it seemed like an inevitability. But after the latest dip in confidence earlier this month, as virus numbers soared across America, we somewhat surprisingly have arrived at the doorstep of August with a plan. It may not be built on much more than hope and hubris, but there is a plan.
That plan does not involve spring 2021. Not yet, and seemingly not ever beyond a last option. The voices calling for that have gone quiet.
The push for fall ball continues and the resolve seems to have intensified as the plans have come into focus. The presidents and chancellors of several conferences could have thrown the brakes on this week, and they collectively did not.
So we press on. The Atlantic Coast Conference
</a><a href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/07/29/acc-shrewd-schedule-announcement-conference-only-football">intends to start preseason camp</a> next week and begin games the second week of September. The Southeastern Conference intends to start camp next week and begin games Sept. 26th. The Pacific-12 <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/07/31/pac-12-football-schedule-2020-games">announced Friday that it intends to start camp Aug. 17th and begin games Sept. 26th</a>, and even released a full schedule of opponents and dates. Some Big 12 teams started camp Friday and intend to begin games Aug. 29th. The only Power-5 conference that has not yet started the countdown to launch is the Big Ten, which sent a memo to league schools Thursday saying that it hopes to make a call on whether to start preseason camp within the next five days.
The Group of Five conferences (American Athletic, Mountain West, Conference USA, Sun Belt and Mid-American) have all watched the P5 cabal cut them off at the knees by eliminating many non-league games that would pay them big sums. But they’re still trying to cobble together schedules and play this fall.
Some of these schools are moving ahead despite government restrictions that currently don’t allow for football, or that prohibit interstate travel (it would be hard to play games with a two-week quarantine upon arrival in a certain state). They’re playing the long game, hoping things clear up at some point.
So here’s the thing: if the commitment to play is there, the oligarchs of college football need to articulate the motive. And one of the prime motives is this: they really need the money.
Say the quiet part out loud. The money matters. A lot.
That’s not necessarily something to be ashamed of. But saying so runs counter to the instincts of many college presidents, athletic directors and conference commissioners, who prefer to bloviate about high-minded ideals and pretend tens of millions of dollars in revenue are just an incidental byproduct of football.
What everyone involved in this enterprise needs to do is not just admit that the football money matters, but explain why it matters. I believe that a blast of honesty and transparency would be well received.
It matters because, without it, athletic directors are telling dozens of Olympic sport athletes that they no longer have a team. They’re telling coaches they no longer have jobs. They are laying off support staff. If football season doesn’t happen, the ramifications will be that severe—even at the big-budget schools.
We already saw Stanford, the most successful all-sports athletic department in America, <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/07/08/stanford-discontinues-11-sports-mens-volleyball-wrestling">eliminate 11 varsity programs.</a> Many other schools operating on smaller budgets have also cut sports. Without the TV revenue that would come with football, this will be a recurring nightmare rolling across the country.
Now, is it true that athletic departments have shamelessly bloated themselves on obscene revenues and spent without restraint or regard for common sense? Absolutely. The schools that have doubled their athletic department staff and built every conceivable facility—waterfalls and miniature golf courses included—don’t engender great sympathy.
Trimming fat can absolutely be done, and should be done. The conspicuous consumption is obnoxious. Private jets are not a birthright, and an armada of analysts hired to break down third-down tendencies of every opponent are a disposable luxury. But this football-dependent economy is what college sports has created, and trying to tame that beast and turn it into a house pet is unrealistic.
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If money didn’t matter— a lot —we wouldn’t have the current delineation between No Fall Football and Yes Let’s At Least Try Fall Football. The Ivy League, the Patriot League and other FCS-level conferences <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/07/08/ivy-league-postpone-fall-sports-hopeful-football-spring">have all punted on the season, at least as a fall sport</a>, because they don’t like the virus situation and don’t have a financial reason telling them otherwise. The big-money leagues are, for now, going ahead.
Will they eventually reach a point where outbreaks and optics force a halt? Maybe so. Maybe early, during preseason practice, or maybe later, once games begin. It could happen. The logistics remain daunting.
Major League Baseball, which is not being played in a bubble environment, <a href="https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/07/31/mlb-coronavirus-outbreak-shutdown">has had some opening-week debacles.</a> A college football program operating with an unpaid labor force would have a hard time powering through a <a href="https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/07/27/miami-marlins-covid-outbreak-testing">Miami Marlins situation without shutting down the season.</a>
To that point, something else college football needs to say outlet: what are the limits of an acceptable outbreak?
There has been a mountain of planning for how to test athletes for the COVID-19 virus, how to contact trace, how to quarantine, and how to safeguard. But nobody in any of the conferences has stepped up and said, “These are the thresholds that will signal a mandatory stoppage in practice or competition.” Not publicly.
Dr. Doug Aukerman, Oregon State athletic director for sports medicine, has been a great communicator on behalf of the Pac-12 when it comes to discussing playing sports during the coronavirus. He was on the Pac-12 Zoom call Friday for that very purpose. He said the league is “trying to come up with very specific criteria and benchmarks” that would halt a team’s season. “We want to have a decision tree made,” Aukerman said.
But nobody, anywhere, is talking specifics or articulating a league-wide threshold. Which indicates that they don’t want to be boxed into anything.
Maybe that’s smart, but it also feels a bit like leaving room to move the goalposts as needed. Already, we have seen some of that where college football is concerned. There was a time when a campus that wasn’t fully functioning would not be a campus that could play football—that time quickly and quietly passed.
For now, the swinging pendulum of college football has moved back toward the Play Ball side. The colleges are going to try. Let’s just be honest about the motivation.

New on Sports Illustrated: Power 5 Leaders Must Articulate Motive Behind Push to Play 2020 College Football Season

Several NCAA college football programs announced their plans for preseason camps Friday signaling Power 5 leaders are pushing for a 2020 se...

New on Sports Illustrated: Sabrina Ionescu Exits Game After Rolling Ankle

<a href="https://www.si.com/wnba/2020/08/01/sabrina-ionescu-rolls-ankle-leave-game-wnba">
Ionescu rolled her left ankle and had to be helped off the court in her third career WNBA game.
Two days after scoring 33 points with seven rebounds and seven assists in 
</a><a href="https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2020/07/30/sabrina-ionescu-dominating-wnba-second-game">her second WNBA game</a>, New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu left Friday's game against the Atlanta Dream with a left ankle injury.
Ionescu appeared to roll her ankle near mid-court while trying to avoid defensive pressure.
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Ionescu needed to be helped off the court and could not put enough weight on her ankle to walk.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft, Ionescu won nearly every individual honor in college basketball during her career at Oregon. She recorded the most career triple-doubles in college basketball history, won the John R. Wooden Award twice and is the only NCAA Division I basketball player to record 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds in a career.

New on Sports Illustrated: Sabrina Ionescu Exits Game After Rolling Ankle

Ionescu rolled her left ankle and had to be helped off the court in her third career WNBA game. Two days after scoring 33 points with seve...

New on Sports Illustrated: Thunder, Jazz finally get to play 20 weeks after shutdown

<a href="https://www.si.com/nba/game/2244921">
Things were a lot different the last time the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz were preparing to play.
On March 11 in Oklahoma City, the sports landscape shifted suddenly when Utah center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
A bit after the scheduled tip-off time, the game was announced as postponed "due to unforeseen circumstances," and that night, the NBA announced an indefinite shutdown due to the pandemic.
Within days, most other sports had followed suit.
Saturday afternoon, the NBA's restart continues with the Thunder and Jazz meeting.
Oklahoma City, playing its first game of the restart, will be the home team but instead of playing at a packed Chesapeake Energy Arena, the teams will be meeting at The Arena at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando.
"It's a helluva coincidence that that's who our first game is against," Thunder point guard Chris Paul said.
The game will be Utah's second of the restart, with the Jazz beating New Orleans 106-104 on Thursday night.
Gobert scored the first and last points of that game.
"Life works in mysterious ways," Gobert said. "I'm just happy. Blessed to be able to get back on the court, do what I love to do, get back out there with my teammates and try to win a game."
While there's plenty of symbolism in Saturday's matchup, there's also plenty of intrigue from a standings perspective.
The Jazz and the Thunder are part of a five-team group separated by just four games in the Western Conference playoff race from third to seventh place.
Utah (42-23) comes into the matchup a game-and-a-half up on the Thunder (40-24).
"Utah will give us a really good indication over a 48-minute game of where we're at," Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan said, "and how much more work needs to be done."
The Jazz look a bit different from when the league was shutdown after forward Bojan Bogdanovic, Utah's second-leading scorer, underwent season-ending wrist surgery during the hiatus.
In the win over the Pelicans on Thursday, the Jazz made up for the loss with chemistry between Donovan Mitchell and Gobert as well as veteran point guard Mike Conley's contributions.
A rift between Gobert and Mitchell formed after Mitchell tested positive for COVID-19 not long after Gobert's positive test, but Mitchell's feed to Gobert in the closing seconds helped put Gobert on the free-throw line to lift Utah to the win.
"Hopefully that kinda stops y'all from talking about it," Mitchell said jokingly. "At the end of the day, we're basketball players trying to go out there and make the right plays."
The Thunder don't figure to be dramatically different than they were when the season paused, though they'll get a lift from one new addition.
Small forward Andre Roberson could see his first regular-season game action since Jan. 27, 2018. Roberson suffered a ruptured left patellar tendon that night and has had several setbacks along the way, but returned to the team when it left for Florida and participated in scrimmages leading up to the restart.
It's a much different team than the one Roberson left.
Then, Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony starred for Oklahoma City. Now, only Steven Adams and Terrance Ferguson remain from the last time Roberson suited up.
--Field Level Media
</a>

New on Sports Illustrated: Thunder, Jazz finally get to play 20 weeks after shutdown

Things were a lot different the last time the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz were preparing to play. On March 11 in Oklahoma City, th...

New on Sports Illustrated: Surprising Padres visit hot Rockies in Coors opener

<a href="https://www.si.com/mlb/game/2246070">
The Colorado Rockies struggled in their season opener at Texas last week, but after that 1-0 shutout they have been unbeatable. The Rockies took the last two games against the Rangers and then swept the A's at Oakland in a quick two-game series.
Now Colorado (4-1) returns to Denver for its home opener against the San Diego Padres on Friday night.
Rockies starter Jon Gray has plenty of experience against the division rivals while San Diego starter Garrett Richards will face Colorado for the first time.
The Rockies had an off day Thursday while the Padres beat the San Francisco Giants 12-7 in 10 innings to improve to 5-2. San Diego has also won its first two series of the season.
Richards is making his second start of the season. He had a no-decision in his first outing Sunday when the Padres 4-3 lost to Arizona, though he was stellar: five scoreless innings, one hit, three walks, six strikeouts.
Richards spent his first eight seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. San Diego signed him to a two-year deal before the 2019 season, a risk for the Padres after Richards' 2018 season was cut short due to Tommy John surgery. He didn't pitch until late in 2019, making three starts.
"It's just fun. I'm having fun playing baseball again," Richards told Fox Sports San Diego. "It's not rehab anymore. It feels good to be back out there and pitching pain-free. After having Tommy John and being able to start over with my mechanics ... it's really become very comfortable to pitch for me."
Comfortable isn't the how most pitchers would describe working at Coors Field, but Gray is one of the few who thrives in the thin air of Colorado. He was 6-2 with a 3.46 ERA in 13 home games (12 starts) last season.
"I'm ready for that real competition there, and I feel like I always have an edge (at Coors Field), so I'm excited," he said this week. "(At home I pitch) knowing that I'm going to out-do the other guy and knowing that our lineup is going to hit the ball. It's a good combination, and it makes you feel confident."
Gray has faced the Padres 20 times (19 starts) in his career and has fared well against them. He is 10-4 with a 2.97 ERA with an average of 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings. Gray had one of his most memorable games against them in 2016 when he fanned a career-high 16 batters in a four-hit shutout.
Gray got a no-decision in Colorado's first win of the season on Saturday, when he gave up one run in 4 2/3 innings against the Rangers. Manager Bud Black said Gray tired in the fifth inning of that 3-2 victory but thinks he can throw 90-plus pitches on Friday night.
"We saw in spring training the continued growth of Jon, and more than anything, from a couple years ago, now there's a poise and a confidence there that's showing pretty consistently," Black said. "He's to the point now where he's getting confidence in all his pitches, and not just the fastball/slider combination."
--Field Level Media
</a>

New on Sports Illustrated: Surprising Padres visit hot Rockies in Coors opener

The Colorado Rockies struggled in their season opener at Texas last week, but after that 1-0 shutout they have been unbeatable. The Rockies...

New on Sports Illustrated: Giants, Rangers square off; both eye return to .500

<a href="https://www.si.com/mlb/game/2246548">
Left-hander Mike Minor will be searching for his first win of the season when the Texas Rangers visit the San Francisco Giants in the opener of a three-game interleague series Friday night.
Both teams are attempting to get back to .500. The Rangers improved to 2-3 with a 7-4 win over Arizona to close out a season-opening homestand on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Giants fell to 3-4 after losing two of three at home to the San Diego Padres, including a 12-7, 10-inning decision Thursday night.
Minor (0-1, 1.80 ERA), a 14-game winner last season, pitched well enough to deserve a better fate in his season debut, but was the victim of an unearned run in a 3-2 loss to Colorado on Saturday. He limited the Rockies to two runs (one earned) and three hits in five innings.
The 32-year-old has never lost in San Francisco, where he's compiled a 2-0 lifetime mark in three appearances, including two starts. He's fashioned a fine 1.88 ERA in those games.
Overall, Minor is 3-1 with a 2.35 ERA against the Giants in seven head-to-heads, six of which have been starts.
One problem the Rangers hope they don't encounter in the series is what to do late in the game against a Giants team that rallied from big deficits in each of their last two games against the Padres. San Francisco beat San Diego 7-6 with eighth- and ninth-inning rallies on Wednesday before dropping the extra-inning game Thursday.
The Rangers lost closer Jose Leclerc to a strained teres major muscle during the season-opening homestand.
"You can't just replace guys like that who have that kind of ability," said Texas general manager Jon Daniels.
Pitching has been the least of the Rangers' problems early on. They've hit a cumulative .181, with just four home runs in five games.
The worst of the slumps belong to Shin-Soo Choo and Danny Santana, who have gone a combined 2-for-30 (.067) with one extra-base hit -- a double by Santana.
The Rangers are unlikely to find out which starting pitcher they'll be facing until they arrive at the ballpark. Such has been the tactic, more often than not, by new Giants manager Gabe Kapler.
The likely candidates are left-hander Drew Smyly (0-0, 2.08) and righty Logan Webb (0-0, 2.25).
The Giants got a decent performance under similar circumstances from right-hander Kevin Gausman on Thursday. He limited the Padres to three runs in 4 1/3 innings, striking out eight.
However, the oft-used Giants bullpen allowed the Padres to build a 6-1 lead in the middle innings before, for the second night in a row, San Francisco came roaring back.
With Mike Yastrzemski and Donovan Solano again playing leading roles, the Giants drew even 6-6 in the eighth inning -- just as they did on Wednesday -- only this time to fall in extra innings.
The Giants' offense figures to be even more potent in the Texas series, with Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria both having returned from injuries to make season debuts in Thursday's loss. They combined to go just 1-for-6, but Longoria drove in a run and Belt walked three times.
"Our excitement about Brandon getting back in the lineup is two-fold," Kapler explained to the media before the game. "One, it's nice to have somebody in the middle of our lineup in the four-hole who can walk and do damage. No. 2, it's nice to have somebody at first base who can play great defense."
--Field Level Media
</a>

New on Sports Illustrated: Giants, Rangers square off; both eye return to .500

Left-hander Mike Minor will be searching for his first win of the season when the Texas Rangers visit the San Francisco Giants in the opene...

The World of Sports

New on Sports Illustrated: Power 5 Leaders Must Articulate Motive Behind Push to Play 2020 College Football Season

New on Sports Illustrated: Sabrina Ionescu Exits Game After Rolling Ankle

New on Sports Illustrated: Thunder, Jazz finally get to play 20 weeks after shutdown

New on Sports Illustrated: Surprising Padres visit hot Rockies in Coors opener

New on Sports Illustrated: Giants, Rangers square off; both eye return to .500

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