So many contingency plans.

First off, Nate basically stole my headline in his piece Thursday. I, too, was going to say something about dominoes, but now I can’t. Headline thief. Moving on...

Missouri Athletic Director Jim Sterk spoke with the media via Zoom on Thursday afternoon, and it was both informative and unnerving (for me, at least). According to Dave Matter’s recap in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the biweekly SEC calls between the league leaders and ADs have contained some discussion about cancelling non-con games, but “we’re not there yet,” Sterk said.

I’m sorry, but how AREN’T we there yet? I really think we’re just fooling ourselves if we think the recent Ivy and B1G decisions won’t just be the beginning of a massive onslaught of similar announcements that will eventually make their way to the grand Southeastern Conference, the mightiest conference in all the land (was that a bit much? sorry). Has anyone noticed the rising COVID numbers in SEC states like Alabama? Georgia? Louisiana? Tennessee? South Carolina? FLORIDA (sorry, mom & dad)? Looking at the most recent numbers on the reported positive tests from Wednesday, those 6 states alone had anywhere from an additional 1100-9,900(!!!) positive tests. COVID — pardon my terrible grammar for a sec— AIN’T GOING NOWHERE.

So personally, no, I don’t know if I see how keeping the schedule as is is going to work.

I don’t honestly know if I can see football being played at all. An NFL story came out Thursday said that they were banning jersey switching and postgame interactions with players of other teams less than 6 feet apart, like that will just magically solve the problem. That is almost comical, though not altogether unsurprising coming from that league. And as it has also been pointed out, what about offensive and defensive lineman? There’s no way they aren’t transferring droplets from their own bodies to others and vice versa. It’s a contact sport, for God’s sakes. Did the rules of football suddenly change? Are we transitioning to college-level flag football?

And as Nate said in his piece, the dominoes are starting to fall. Not long after the Big 10 made their announcement on Thursday, there were rumblings of the PAC-12 following suit. So who’s next?

It IS great to know, and Matter’s article pointed it out, that no positive tests came from Mizzou’s athletic facilities. Their cleaning practices and social distancing protocol ARE working, and that’s great. But, that means those testing positive are getting it from going other places and being around other people — in bars, at restaurants, attending parties — who have COVID, and that’s... not great. It’s not like we can keep student-athletes in a bubble like the NBA or lock ‘em in their rooms or have them be chaperoned 24 hours a day, though. I mean, they are UNPAID athletes and college kids who will, sadly, do what they want regardless of what is strongly suggested that they do by their “elders” (coaches, upperclassmen, parents, etc).

As for good news, it appears that as of now, all Mizzou sports are safe. That, of course, can not be said of other schools like Stanford (<— link to excellent story by Pat Forde) and now, Dartmouth, who announced that they are cutting their swimming & diving programs on Thursday, among other sports like rowing. My dad reminded me (they lived in MA for a while), that rowing is HUGE in the northeast, especially at an Ivy, so cutting that is just... wild. It’s wild times, y’all.

Anyway, on to the links. Sorry (but not really sorry) about my anger regarding this. I wish SO BADLY that I had more optimism about college football season (and sports occurring in general), but I do not. Not at all.

Happy Friday? Yeah, HAPPY FRIDAY!!

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Yesterday at Rock M

• Nate covered the breaking news about the Big 10 moving to conference-only games.
• Sam and Matt were back with a new episode of Dive Cuts and talked crootin’ and cocktails (I’m sensing a theme these days).
• Coming up: I (yes, me, Karen) will have a post up Sunday about Melvin Booker’s MIZ-ZOOM event and the Mizzou Hoops documentary on the 93-94 season we never really talked about ‘round here. And BK has a post coming later this morning with his take on the ever-changing college football landscape.

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More Links:

Football

• KC Star: Souichi talked with some Sun Belt coaches about what to expect from Drink’s offense this fall (super cool).
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Matter was back with his weekly chat. Here’s the Q&A.
• Trumans Tales/Fansided: Rilee Stapleton continued his 2020 position previews with Quarterback, while Christian McDonald wrote about three freshmen to watch this season.
• PowerMizzou/Rivals): Gabe put together the first part of a two-part post of an All-Era Rivals Show Me team starting from its rankings inception in 2002. Part 2 will contain their own more subjective rankings.
• Jim Sterk ZOOM call coverage: Andy Kimball (Columbia Missourian). Souichi Terada (KC Star). Gabe DeArmond & Mitchell Forde’s transcript (PowerMizzou).
• Saturday Down South: Connor O’Gara wrote about how we don’t totally know what to expect from Drink’s offense, but we do know some things, and Adam Spencer previewed Mizzou’s Offense from a better or worse prospective (part of a series on each SEC team).
• Excellent work by the graphics department:

Other Mizzou/Local Sports

• Bennett Durando of the Missourian has done an awesome job compiling stories from local coaches about moments that shaped them in their coaching careers. This is a landing page to all that has been shared so far. Well worth checking out.
• Power Mizzou’s Gabe DeArmond and Mitchell Forde were back with more hot taeks in their weekly Blowing Smoke, Presented by Weston Tobacco series. It’s mostly football, but has some random stuff, too.
• I don’t particularly care for this game X is playing....

• Wishing a very happy birthday to Coach P!

• Lots of Mizzou Athletics teams participating in the #MaskUpMizzou hashtag: Mizzou Baseball, Larissa Anderson , Coach Pingeton, Coach Martin, Coach Smith (wrestling), Volleyball, and many of the student-ahletes. WEAR A MASK. Seriously.

Interesting/Non-Mizzou News

These are some of the best sports stories & tidbits I found regarding some goings-on in sports and the world— Enjoy!

• Jim Henry of The Joplin Globe (via the Columbia Tribune) explained the 10 new classes that will be added to MSHSAA sports once they get started again. Of note, basketball will change from 5 to 6 classes, but will still play on two weekends.
• Five star Makur Maker told Jerry Benbry of The Undefeated about his decision to attend an HBCU, Howard, to play basketball. It’s a really great story, and I’d love to see more athletes choose HBCUs in the future.
• Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote an excellent piece on Jack Flaherty, who has become quite the advocate for social change in the Cardinals clubhouse.
• In a really interesting story in the LA Times, J. Brady McCullough wrote about how college football parents have formed a group, College Football Parents 247, which now has 1400 members, and advocates for those returning to the field to play football in the midst of a global pandemic.
• Chiefs safety (and seemingly excellent human) Tyrann Mathieu stopped by the Son of a Saint organization in New Orleans (his hometown) to make a surprise donation and give them some Jordans!
• KMOX’s Tom Ackerman was back with a new Garage Happy Hour. His newest guest? THE FREESER!

• In “Karen Loves the NBA News” (not to be confused with Wednesday’s Karen Loves the WNBA News), Tori Miller was promoted to GM of the Atlanta Hawks G-League team, the College Park Skyhawks. She is the first woman (overall, not even just the first Black woman) to hold such a title in the G-League’s history.
• And I’ll leave you with this, from Bill Nye The Science Guy (my fifth graders LOVED Bill Nye videos and could sing the theme song without even watching his show).

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