No Championships; What Are We Doing? -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 ACC Yet to Announce Postponement of Fall Sports

Paulie wrote about this yesterday, so you'll have to forgive me for repeating topics, but what are we doing here? With the cancellation of fall sports championships by the NCAA, the ever-growing likelihood of conference-only seasons, and the continuing threat of cancellation at any point, why have the other three Power 5 conferences not gotten on board with the PAC-12 and Big 10? I know that we want to see fall sports. I want to see women's soccer continue their evolution as they have over the last couple of years, and I'm sure Jeff is itching to see a mostly intact volleyball squad pick up where they left off. However, we're getting closer to this creating a completely unfair situation for the fall student-athletes. 

Nick Saban was quoted the other day lamenting that the argument has become "we shouldn't have football" when he believes a more appropriate argument would be "we shouldn't have school." I think he's spot on, but he's missing the point. How many schools are opening to in person classes only because it would make no sense to have football without class? It would be unjustifiable. In the fall, in the southeast (and South Bend), football is king. If schools like Georgia were making a legitimate effort instead of putting a four foot piece of plexiglass on the front of the professor's desk, we'd probably not be having classes, and therefore we'd have no football. But that isn't the case. Those schools know who pays the bills, so they're open for business. We've talked about how these conference-only schedules are built to benefit football specifically in the past. College football teams already play 75% of their regular schedule in conference and don't play all of the teams in the league. Adding more conference games doesn't hurt their feelings, but it is a big hit to sports like field hockey, who play less than half of their regular season schedule in conference.

The closer we get to creating some hodge-podge conference-only schedules in the Olympic sports, the closer we get to fall athletes getting screwed. Spring sports received a waiver for getting two-thirds of their season canceled, but the NCAA, not mandating a postponement or cancellation of fall sports, has set up a bunch of athletes to play a half of a season, without the opportunity for a national championship, and have it count as a full season of eligibility. Frankly, it's a bunch of crap, and the conferences that insist their methods are plenty safe (despite some players saying otherwise; see FSU and Syracuse) are complicit in screwing over their non-football athletes. 

I understand that our goal here is to promote the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics, and this doesn't seem to be doing that, but I promise that is my ultimate goal. I want to see all student-athletes at UofL treated the same way, with the same opportunities. The organization that is allegedly in charge of keeping all college athletics on the same page and keeping student-athletes' "best interests" in mind has completely neglected those duties, and is now sitting back, claiming they've done all they can do. I'm mad about it. I want to see the young men and women we support at UofL and throughout the remaining conferences treated fairly, and I suppose that's it. End rant. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Can you guess what one of our main topics might be today? I'll do my best to take a few breaths before the show and calm down, but I imagine many of these points will come up. We'll also chat WNBA, some staffing news at UofL, and hopefully Paulie will continue our weekly quiz. I believe we'll have a full house so tune in at 11AM on the Cardinal Couple Youtube Channel for this week's live show, or check out the rebroadcast any time after the show ends.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-