The men’s US Open golf tournament will begin Thursday at one of the most difficult golf courses in America. 

Winged Foot Golf Club, which opened 97 years ago (1923) just north of New York City, has hosted other four US Opens during the modern era.   At a rather pedestrian (by 2020 standards) length of 7,264 yards, the West course plays to a course rating of 75.7.  That means it is 3.7 shots harder for a golfer who traditionally plays 18 holes in even par.    

In three of the four previous US Opens at Winged Foot, the winning score has been over par. 

In 1959, Billy Casper won at +2.  In 1974, Hale Irwin survived a test of nerves after posting a 7-over par winning score. 

Just 14 years ago in 2006, Geoff Ogilvie took home the trophy with a less than stellar +5 final score.   That was the year which Phil Mickelson had his best chance to grab the US Open for the first time in his career as he led by two shots standing on the 18th tee in the final round. 

It was only in 1984 did Fuzzy Zoeller post a winning score with a (gasp) -4 total.  I remember that the golfers were so scared of Winged Foot (Hale Irwin’s +7 winning score in 1974 was dubbed “The Massacre at Winged Foot”) that some players refused to play in 1984 if the course set-up wasn’t modified.  The USGA reluctantly relented.

If you like seeing golfers who miss the fairway be penalized in thick, deep, gnarly rough, get your popcorn ready for a weekend of viewing enjoyment!    

So, which version of Winged Foot Golf Club should we expect to see this week?

The weather is expected to be refreshingly fall-like.  High temperatures should be quite comfortable in the middle 60’s to middle 70’s.   That sounds great to me!

The USGA’s CEO, Mike Davis, is hinting that the course might play a little easier than a few of the past tournaments held at Winged Foot, too. 

“We kept looking at ways [to] make the golf course a little bit easier, because this is such a great test.  It puts the premium on everything.“

Translated – If the winning score turns out to be one under par, that would be AOK with the USGA.

Me, too!

I am tired of seeing modern golfers banging 350 yard drives and hitting short irons into par-5 holes.  Technological advances in modern golf equipment have made a mockery of some of the country’s finest golf courses in recent years. 

Get ready for Winged Foot to strike back this weekend!    

Since the golf course demands accuracy off the tee and around the greens, this event should bring some of the more accurate and shorter golfers back into contention for a possible championship run this week. 

With this being 2020, I believe that this US Open is going to have a storybook ending with surprises aplenty.  Let’s take a look at a few possible finishes which I would love to see come true.

* Phil Mickelson finally gets his first US Open win!  Fan favorite Phil is the poster boy for heartbreaking finishes in this major golf tournament.  Now 50 years of age, Mickelson has finished in 2nd place a record six times (!) in the US Open.  That includes his infamous final hole collapse at Winged Foot in 2006.  Phil has won the other three golf “majors”, so a win this weekend at Winged Foot would complete his career grand slam....

The Big 12 Conference began the 2020 college football season with a big thud. 

Sure, Oklahoma trounced little Missouri State 49-0 while Texas clobbered perennial patsy UTEP 59-3. 

It was three other games (all on national television) which brought the spotlight onto the Big 12 Conference last weekend.  All three games were at home against Sunbelt Conference teams.

In the early game last Saturday, the upstart Ragin’ Cajuns from Louisiana-Lafayette knocked-off #23 Iowa State at the Cyclones home field.  The final score of 31-14 was legit.  ULaLa won 11 games in 2019 and has one of the best young coaches in the country in Billy Napier.   With the win, the Cajuns grabbed their first road victory over a top 25 team in program history. 

Next, it was time for recent Big 12 power Kansas State to play Arkansas State Saturday afternoon in Manhattan (Kansas, that is).  The Red Wolves of Arkansas State are another Sunbelt Conference team. 

In the alphabet battle of K-State vs. A-State, Kansas State bolted to a 21-7 lead at home.  Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the second half was played.   Arkansas State raced from behind and grabbed a 35-31 victory.  It was just the second win over a so-called “Power 5” conference team by A-State since they moved to the upper division 28 years ago in 1992. 

In the midnight football finale Saturday, FS1 featured former LSU head coach Les Miles and his Kansas Jayhawk football team hosting another Sunbelt program, Coastal Carolina.  The Big 12 was already 0-2 against the Sunbelt on Saturday, and the Chanticleers (a rooster, by the way) had defeated KU last season, too.  You would think that Les Miles would have his team ready to play.

You would be wrong. 

Coastal Carolina obliterated Kansas 38-23.  The Jayhawks trailed 28-3 at the half as a last-second KU field goal doinked through the uprights on the final play of the half.  It was ugly.  Really ugly. 

So, the Big 12 went 0-3 against the mighty Sunbelt Conference last weekend.  Lest we forget, Big 12 football power Texas Tech barely escaped an upset bid by Houston Baptist of the Southland Conference (FBS) with a 35-33 win Saturday night. 

Since the 1998 start of the Bowl Championship Series, the Big 12 Conference has produced just two national championship teams.  The University of Oklahoma won the national championship in 2000 while the Texas Longhorns grabbed the trophy in 2005.  That makes a 2-22 (9%) winning percentage for the Big 12 Conference.

During that same period, the Southeastern Conference has won 12 BCS football championships (12-22 or 54.5%).  The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is next with five, Big Ten has two, and the Pac 12 comes in last with just one national championship in the BCS era. 

Within the so-called “Power 5” conferences, the SEC and the ACC possess 17 of the 22 (77.3%) of the national championships in football since the advent of the BCS system. 

Down south, it just seems like the football expectations should be higher for the Big 12.

If you step back and take an honest assessment, the Big problem lies with the Big 12 itself.

The Big 12 Conference (which is now comprised of only 10 teams – seriously) began competing back in 1996.  It resulted from the merger of the former Big Eight Conference (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State,

It’s hard to break lifetime addictions.  With so many protests being planned for the National Football League’s opening week, I figured it was time to try my own.

I did not watch one minute of NFL football during week #1.  Not Thursday.  Not Sunday.  And, as I write this, I certainly won’t watch ESPN’s Monday night football doubleheader tonight.

That says a lot as I have been a New Orleans Saints fan since year one (1967).  Tonight, this may be the first nationally televised Pittsburgh Steelers game which I will purposely miss since Shreveport’s own Terry Bradshaw joined the team back in 1970.    

I have watched NFL football on television every week since the days of black and white television.  When you can remember watching the NFL in years even before the first Super Bowl was played (January, 1967 – 53 years ago), it’s safe to say that I am a long-time fan.  And, yes, I’m getting pretty old. 

This wacky year of 2020 has been one that most of us would like to forget.  There was (and still is) a lot of concern that the professional or college football season would even be played.  If your favorite college football team plays in the Pac-12 or Big 10 conference, they have already bailed-out on the fall of 2020.

For professional football, the players, owners, and all concerned depend on revenue generated by national television contracts, in-stadium revenues, regional radio networks, merchandise, parking, and assorted other revenue streams. 

It is a business which depends on customers to buy their products.  If you watch games on television, the league is promising their advertisers that a certain number of customers will be watching the game and, perhaps, willing to purchase the products being pitched during the numerous time-outs and extended halftimes.

As lingering concerns remain about ways to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL decided to forget about the pre-season (a smart move which would be a customer-friendly move going forward).  Week one games were played in mostly empty football stadiums.  Local medical edicts allowed a few cities (Kansas City and Jacksonville) to seat about 15,000 fans ordered to spread out if they wanted to attend the games in person.  Some NFL teams will consider allowing some fans after the first weeks of play end. 

The lack of fans in the stands due to the pandemic is one thing. 

The players of the National Football League wanted to start each game with a protest to bring more attention to social issues in America.  Their employer supported the protests.  The media (especially those who have long-term contracts with the football league) showed solidarity, too. 

Some fans were fine with this week’s protests.  Others were not and didn’t watch this week’s games. 

As a long-time football fan, I watch football for entertainment.  I do not watch sports for political and social commentary.  If I wanted to watch that, there are plenty of choices available during the week.

For many fans, sports are an oasis to get away from the pressures of daily life.  A sporting competition conducted by talented players serves as a temporary distraction from life’s problems. 

Sports are quite similar to watching a good movie for a few hours.  If you like a certain type of movie (such as Star Wars or The Avengers movies), you wouldn’t think about missing an episode. 

In this wonderful free market, the NFL can run their league any way they wish.

After ESPN Radio ended its “Golic and Wingo” national morning show last month and replaced it with three rookies (and, wow, do they sound like it), long-time ESPN television and radio host Trey Wingo has been tossed overboard by the network.

Trey Wingo, age 56, has been with ESPN for over 22 years.   Hal Chapman Wingo III (hence, “Trey”) worked his way up to the big show by honing his television skills at several local television stations.  After his final stop in St. Louis, Wingo received a battlefield promotion to come to Bristol, Connecticut and the wonderful world of ESPN in November, 1997.

The Greenwich, Connecticut native went to college in Waco, Texas at Baylor.  Trey Wingo graduated with a degree in Communications and set forth on a path which led him to one of the most sought-after jobs in sports journalism at ESPN. 

According to his former bio with ESPN, the versatile Wingo initially covered Arena Football (you gotta start somewhere, right?), tennis, women’s basketball, golf, and the NFL.  He eventually worked his way into a coveted position as studio host for the network’s popular SportsCenter daily sports highlight show. 

Trey Wingo had reached the sports pinnacle.  He was tabbed to host ESPN’s “NFL Live” daily football show beginning 2003.  He did that show all the way through 2018.

When ESPN’s Mike Greenberg bolted from nearly twenty years of doing the successful “Mike & Mike” radio show with former pro football player Mike Golic, ESPN handed the co-hosting chores to Mr. Versatility, Trey Wingo, in 2017.  The “Golic & Wingo” radio show (heard on hundreds of radio affiliates around the United States) was a solid morning show, but it lacked some of the unpredictability of Greenberg’s willingness to challenge Mike Golic.  Though Trey Wingo’s “studio host” personality was more geared toward tossing set-ups to Mike Golic to opine about, the radio show was reliably informative and entertaining.    

Wingo even hosted the 2020 NFL Draft for ESPN literally all by himself this spring.  In an impressive feat, the talented Trey Wingo was the lone host in the ESPN studios for the annual spring football event.  With COVID-19 causing other co-hosts, reporters, and contributors to work remotely during the three-day football telecast, Wingo held his poise while having to know about each player being drafted and receiving constant instructions from producers and directors in his earpiece to introduce contributors and roll graphics on the player being drafted.  It was an impressive feat over those three days this spring.

So, where did all of this loyalty to the network get Trey Wingo?  According to several sources, he has been let go by the network this week. 

Earlier this summer, ESPN announced that the three-year “Golic and Wingo” radio show was being replaced by the opinionated former NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, former Duke basketball star Jason Williams, and ESPN studio host Zuben Mehenti.   Based on the shows which I have listened to, they should have titled the new show “Woke Up!” as ESPN Radio’s new morning show has moved even further to the left than Golic and Wingo has been listing.  It’s too early to determine if the ratings will improve (I have my doubts), but let’s wait for the initial results. 

Meanwhile, Trey Wingo remained under contract to ESPN through the remainder of 2020.  With NFL football season upon us, you might have thought that the network’s most familiar face would likely be involved...

It’s that time of year again!  Tonight, the annual draft is being held (via Yahoo! Sports) for my fantasy football team. 

This year marks my tenth season in a league which I play for “fun” only.  This is unlike most fantasy football leagues where participants must ante-up some type of sporting contributions (money) to pay the winners at the end of the professional football season. 

I am far too cheap and much wiser than I was when signing-up to play in my first fantasy football league nearly forty years ago.

As a young professional, I teamed-up with two friends at work (Wayne and Victor) to participate in what was one of the early years of fantasy football.  I chuckle remembering that our league was being run a “shark” (a guy who actually knew how the game should be played) who also happened to be an Accounting supervisor.   Commissioner Harold was quite competitive and, of course, won the league that season.    

Back in those ancient days of 1981, fantasy football was still in its infancy.  The three of us chipped in our share of the $100 team entry fee.   As a newly married man, I advised my lovely wife that this was intended to be an investment in corporate camaraderie. 

The draft was held at a local pizzeria with representatives of each fantasy franchise there.  There was much fun in taunting, cheering, and booing the other teams as they made selections.  By the time a few hours had passed, we were all set with our team roster.  Ready or not, here we come!   

In the ancient days of 1981, there was no internet available.  We were relegated to football information from the daily local newspapers or, if you were seriously into it, you could splurge for a weekly copy of  “The Sporting News” for $1 per issue if you wanted more  stats.  Back then, you could purchase both of them a downtown newsstand.  Those were the days.

Fortunately, there were no Thursday night football games, so your weekly team roster was due by Noon on Friday.    On Friday mornings, the three of us would huddle in an office to hash-out which of our two quarterbacks should be the starter and then work through the remainder of the running backs, wide receivers, tight end, kicker, and defense to play for the upcoming weekend.  Fortunately, our boss was too busy with his own issues to mind that his staff was goofing off (I mean, bonding) every week that fall.

We would grab a cup of coffee on Friday mornings and share some laughs while performing this weekly ritual.   In that 1981 fantasy football league, the Commissioner would be bombarded with phone calls from teams trying to work trades.  He quickly amended the rules to limit the number of trades each team could make and also limited the number of players you could drop or add.   I think that meant that his boss wasn’t as forgiving as ours!

Every Friday afternoon, we ran a few copies of our line-up on the Xerox machine, and one of us would tote a copy to the Commissioner’s office downstairs.   Hope springs eternal every Friday afternoon!

That’s when the pain would begin, too.  I had always enjoyed watching professional football on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights.  However, that particular football season in the fall of 1981 was totally different. 

I would find myself yelling at the television when a touchdown highlight was shown.  As the studio announcer would show a 60-yard touchdown pass in another game, I was already despondent knowing that our weekly opponent had just pocketed $11 for that touchdown.

As Hurricane Laura blew through much of Louisiana Thursday morning, the players of the National Basketball Association are generating their share of wind, too.  

The first round of the NBA playoffs was underway at the $150 million “COVID Arena” at Walt Disney World.  The league has spent even more millions to pay for hotels, meals, and other accommodations for the players to allow for a safe conclusion of the 2019-2020 basketball season.

Thus far, there have been no reported outbreaks of COVID-19 at the NBA’s so-called “bubble” location in Florida. 

On Wednesday, though, a bubble popped.  It wasn’t related to the pandemic, though.

Prior to the first game of the day on Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks players decided to boycott Game 5 of their scheduled playoff encounter with the Orlando Magic.  The players have become upset about ongoing social issues relating to a black man who was shot by a police officer after resisting arrest in a city in southern Wisconsin. 

So, the Milwaukee players unilaterally decided that they would not participate in Wednesday’s game against Orlando.  The players for the Orlando Magic were already on the court and ready to play the game.

Instead of awarding the Magic a victory via forfeit, the NBA agreed to postpone that game and then also postponed the other two playoff games scheduled for Wednesday evening. 

On television, former Houston Rockets player-turned-TV analyst Kenny Smith told the audience that he was going to join the protest, too.  So, while on live TV, Smith took off his headset and walked away while Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and host Ernie Johnson watched. 

As of this morning, it is unknown whether Turner Network Television has taken any action against Kenny Smith for walking off the job on Wednesday. 

In summary, actions by the NBA players led to a cancellation of play Wednesday.  Last night, the players held what was termed to be a spirited meeting with (of course) LeBron James and his Los Angeles Lakers walking out and threatened to boycott the rest of the playoffs.  Their crosstown rivals Los Angeles Clippers did the same.   The rest of the teams, though, apparently want to continue playing ball.

The NBA has often been compared to a sports soap opera.  This emotional outburst by the players seems to be with the best of intentions, but there are numerous practical matters the players may not be thinking about, too. 

There are contracts signed by the players with the team owners.  There are contracts between the NBA teams and the television networks.  There are contracts between the television networks and the sponsors who pay a lot of money to advertise on national television.

The NBA’s players apparently believe that they have control over the owners, television, and the fans by deciding when and if they want to continue playing.

After the players’ meeting Wednesday night, they have demanded that the NBA’s team owners need to do more (right now) to stand in solidarity of social justice issues in America.

Just like a good television soap opera, the NBA has put the spotlight onto itself again. 

Will they play any more playoff games this week?  Will the NBA owners allow two of their teams to bolt and go home?  Will the owners “do more” (whatever that means and however it is measured) to join with the ...

Professional sports have finally reappeared on the scene the past several weeks.  Though the sports are being played in front of no fans or virtual fans, the opportunity to watch sports again has finally returned.

Based on the television ratings, though, it appears that much of America isn’t missing sports as much as I would have thought.   Other than televised golf, most of America’s major sports are falling well short of the television audiences that might have been expected.

With a cessation of sports beginning in March 2020, you would think that sports viewers would have a significant pent-up demand to watch the conclusion of basketball right now and, soon, the beginning of football. 

You would be wrong.

The National Basketball Association decided to play an abbreviated end to its regular season in a creative and unique “bubble” environment at the Walt Disney World complex in Orlando, Florida.  The league reportedly spent about $150 million to create an indoor basketball arena complete with rows of virtual fans (seen via Skype), home team logos on the basketball court, your favorite home team’s organ music, sound tracks which make it sound like thousands of people are cheering for the home team, and even a public address announcer to make it sound like the game is being played in the home team’s city.  It is truly impressive.

Most importantly, the early weeks of the National Basketball Association’s “bubble” in Orlando, Florida have been played without any noticeable issues from the ongoing COVID pandemic. 

With four months of pent-up demand, sports fans are remaining at home more than they would during an average summer.  Even with television networks heavily promoting the games, the television ratings for the NBA are down – a lot! 

Last Friday, ESPN scored just 505,000 viewers for the Miami Heat vs. Indiana Pacers game.  It was the least-watched NBA game on ESPN, ABC or TNT since 2017 when a Chicago-Memphis game garnered just 377,000 viewers while going up against an NFL playoff game.

Through the first week, the 2020 NBA playoffs are averaging 1.68 million viewers, down 30% from 2.39 million in 2019.

Some sports media outlets are cranking out biased stories that would have you believe that sports television viewing is typically down across the board in August.  The NBA playoffs would normally take place in April, May, and June.  As a result, some in the media are trying to convince you that the diminished basketball television ratings are about on par with what the league was expecting for games being played in the month of August. 

Based on what? 

Ask yourself this.  If there are millions more sports fans not traveling this summer and are staying inside in record numbers due to a pandemic, why shouldn’t television ratings be higher than average?  If you love a sport, why would you not watch it when you’re stuck inside?

The NBA has been a leader in embracing social justice issues by the players this spring and summer.  The vast majority of NBA players are now wearing a jersey which features some brief social justice comment on the back.  Seeing “I Can’t Breathe” or “Say Her Name” instead of the player’s name atop the jersey is not what the average fan tuned in to watch.  The games also begin a national anthem featuring players taking a knee on a court which also contains a large painted “Black Lives Matter” logo near the center. 

As covered in some of my other posts,

Tonight, the NBA’s draft lottery will be held.  The NBA’s worst teams for the past season will be given a priority to select the first players taken in an upcoming NBA draft (probably in October).

In by-gone days, the NBA draft lottery represented a fun night for all teams involved.  The original lottery put all 14 of the non-playoff basketball teams into a big hopper and someone would randomly select a card with the team’s name on it.  The final card remaining would win and be awarded the first pick in the pro basketball draft. 

Even if your team had the league’s worst record, the random nature of the selection didn’t insure that your team would get a top spot in the draft.  Every “bad” team had a 1 in 14 chance of being selected at #14. 

I liked the old style lottery process as it discouraged “tanking” (losing more games on purpose to get a higher draft choice). 

No more.

The NBA wanted to make sure that the absolutely worst teams in the league will almost certainly get one of those treasured top three picks (and sell more season tickets), so they changed the rules and stacked the deck.

This season, the Golden State Warriors (recent NBA champions from a few years ago) finished with the worst record in the league.  According to ESPN, the Warriors will have a 100% chance of receiving a top five lottery position, a 40.1% chance of it being a top three pick, and a 14% chance of being the #1 overall pick. 

At the bottom, the #14 team in the lottery will be the Memphis Grizzlies.  In this new “stacked deck” NBA lottery system, Memphis has nearly no chance of being the #1 pick.  The odds show the Griz with a lowly 2.4% of receiving a top five lottery number, a meager 1.7% chance of landing a top three selection, and only a ½ % chance of being the #1 overall pick.

For Memphis fans, this year’s first pick is likely heading to the Boston Celtics anyway after they made a deal to trade the pick to Boston. 

In last year’s first of this new-and-improved NBA draft process, the New Orleans Pelicans received a statistical surprise and moved from the middle of the pack and into the #1 position.  They selected Duke sensation Zion Williamson – who spent most of the season recovering from a preseason injury.   

I doubt very many people will watch Thursday night’s Draft Lottery show (7:30PM CDT on ESPN) , but the “hype machine” is already being set into motion about one of the players who may be selected with the first pick in the upcoming player draft.

Remember Lonzo Ball?  If not, I’m sure that you should remember his father, LaVar Ball. 

Yes, LaVar Ball’s second son is now heading your way soon.  According to the so-called experts, the next Ball is rolling toward a top pick in this year’s NBA draft. 

It’s now time for LaMelo Ball.    

Just a few years ago, Big Daddy LaVar Ball told the world that his first son, Lonzo, was the greatest player on the planet after playing just one season at UCLA.  LaVar then announced that his son would only play for the Los Angeles Lakers (which, ironically, happened to be the team which selected him).  How would you like to be a young man with that kind of pressure?  No, thanks.    

The Lakers would select 6’ 6” guard Lonzo Ball with the #2 pick. 

Sadly,

As a golfer since the youthful age of eight, I have learned over the years that golf can be both incredibly rewarding and cruel. 

Tennis lessons? No way! This is what I want to do, Dad!

If you eventually want to play competitive golf, you must also become quite familiar with and observe the rules of the game.  The current Rules of Golf were developed jointly by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal and Ancient Society (initially from St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland).   Though the R&A codified its rules in 1897, the Rules of Golf were not published for public use until 1952.  For most of golfers, golf’s little rule book is quite a boring read and is usually kept buried near the bottom of your golf bag (if you tote it around at all).   

Though my own junior golf career peaked and ended after graduating from high school, the best golfers often continue into the college ranks and some will reach the professional levels.  At each stage of competitive golf, though, the individual golfers are responsible for knowing the rules and self-enforcing them.  With each step forward, knowing those rules becomes more and more critical.

Just last week at the PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy (a four-time major championship winner) was several shots behind the leaders on Friday’s second round.  Rory’s tee shot on a par-3 hole found some heavy rough to the right side of the green.  A reporter from ESPN (who was following the group) accidentally stepped on Rory’s golf ball and buried the ball deeper into the rough.  What should he do?

It’s time to dust off our USGA Rule book for this one.   Ah, here it is!

7.4  Ball Accidentally Moved in Trying to Find or Identify It – There is no penalty if your ball is accidentally moved by you, your opponent or anyone else while trying to find or identify it.  If this happens, the ball must be replaced on its original spot (which, if not known, must be estimated).

Since no one (including the reporter) had actually seen the initial spot of the ball, McIlroy would be allowed to lift his ball to a little higher spot in the rough (assuming the reporter’s foot smashed it down to the bottom).  Rory, though, insisted that his ball position couldn’t have been that good if the reporter wasn’t able to see it. 

Despite the fact that the Rules of Golf would allow Rory McIlroy some latitude, he insisted on playing his shot from a deeper placement in the rough.  He would go on to bogey the hole.  Though he did make the cut, Rory McIlroy would finish the tournament tied for 33rd place at 2-under par. 

However, Rory McIlroy earned more respect from golf fans worldwide for his sportsmanship and fair play under the circumstances.

This week, the US Amateur men’s championship is being played at the fabulous Bandon Dunes golf complex in southern Oregon along the Pacific Ocean.  Having read and seen rave reviews about this golf course, I was eager to watch Thursday’s coverage on Golf Channel.

To enter this tournament, an amateur golfer must have a handicap of no more than 2.4 (well, I’m ineligible once again!) and qualify as one of the top 264 golfers from not only America but also from entrants around the world.

The predictable cancellation or postponement of the college football season has begun.  Just like so many things in our country right now, the early birds of cancellation due to this lingering pandemic have come from the same areas of the country more likely to close schools and lean left in the upcoming November election.

Meanwhile, down here in the South, birds of a feather are sticking together.  At least for now, that is.  The Southeastern Conference is still set for a 10-game conference-only schedule.  The mid-level Sunbelt Conference is still set to go, too. 

What about teams in states which do not currently have a big problem in dealing with the C-virus?   Nebraska (the state and the state’s flagship university) have been less affected than all of the other Big Ten teams (such as Rutgers in New Jersey).  HuskerNation wants to play football – against anyone – this fall. Now that the Big Ten just pulled the plug on its fall football schedule, why shouldn’t Nebraska (or any other college football team) now have the freedom to play football this season against any other teams which they can schedule and play this year only?

On Monday, the Mountain West Conference joined the Mid-American Conference in cancelling the fall football games.  On Tuesday, the Big Ten and (of course) the Pac-12 Conferences threw in the proverbial towel on fall football, too.  

Last week, the MAC Commissioner said, “The decision is grounded in the core values of the Conference that prioritize student-athlete well-being; an area the MAC has traditionally taken a leadership role.  Clearly, we are charting a conservative path – and it is one that has been recommended by our medical advisory group.”

The football teams of the Mid-American Conference are located in states which are fairly close geographically and which have seen a relatively high level of C-Virus cases.  Those states are Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and New York.

The Mountain West Conference, though, is spread from Hawaii to California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.  Let’s say that Wyoming, Boise State, and Utah State (which are in states which are not struggling as much with the virus) wanted to join-up with Nebraska of the Big Ten and play some football this fall. 

It is quite possible that a significant number of college football teams might desire to play ball this fall after their respective conferences stand down.  Any conference school that wishes to play football this fall is not hurting any of the other schools which opt out.  Why not grant them a temporary release? 

Several states in the central portions of the United States have not been hit as hard as other regions of the country.  If that team’s football conference shuts down, it should be possible for some of these college football programs to play ball elsewhere for this one season.  

Unfortunately, legal issues might tackle Nebraska and any other programs which want to play college football outside of their current conference affiliations.  Network television contracts with each conference could muddy the waters for any teams desiring to jump ship for a year.

As expected, ESPN jumped into the waters to defend solidarity within the Big Ten conference.  ESPN’s College Game Day host, Desmond Howard,