Hockey East 2020-2021

[leswp1]

So with Rt (Time Varying Reproduction Number) and positivity rates trending down and vaccination rates trending up, the Ivy League still finds it necessary to cancel all Spring sports? I know all too well that COVID is real and that it kills but I'm not in the boat of shutting down the world until all of the metrics reach zero. Maybe the Ivies should fall in line behind Chicago and NYU and just abolish all intercollegiate sports.

The smart people are being smart? Lots of manpower, $$ and immense number of manhours to make it work. The rolling quarantines for different teams (or schools) the amount of schedule, re-do, then re-do again is unreal. It is not unusual to have games/travel rescheduled multiple times (I think the highest number I heard was 4 in less than 48hrs) finding out in <24 hours where they are going~ only to have it canceled the day of~ sometimes when they are enroute. Some schools also then require shelter in place upon return for X days.

There is an ungodly amount of contact tracing. People coming up positive on the way to and from games, inability to know exactly who was near who in a game and if that constitutes a reason to quarantine or not. Not to mention each school has different testing protocols, a different threshold for who to quarantine and how long. Multiply that by the number of different sports and it gets silly.

Having listened to it for the past 6 months, pretty much non-stop, I can't see why anyone would waste the $$ and resources. It isn't like it is money making. There are no fans. Not wasting resources for meaningless play or loss of eligibility.

The athletes are at the bottom of the pile for the vaccine so they are the last to be protected - so far they could be an audiovisual aid showing just how efficiently the spread can happen and the new variants are way more infectious.

[J.D.]

Life shaming at its finest. How dare anyone try to give these kids a chance to play a sport a YEAR into a pandemic. I dread asking when it's ok to play but probably won't get an answer anyway.

[Carmine Scarpaglia]

Rather than engaging in the COVID mongos tonight ... did anyone get a snapshot of the standings prior to the games tonight? Curious to see if BC lead increased or decreased over BU for first place after a home win over 8th place Maine.

[J.D.]

I actually had a screen grab of it from last Saturday night. It was:

BC 58.45
BU 58.32

Have to remember that just like PWR your score can change even when not playing. Now it's:

BC 58.81
BU 58.33

[Chuck Murray]

Life shaming at its finest. How dare anyone try to give these kids a chance to play a sport a YEAR into a pandemic. I dread asking when it's ok to play but probably won't get an answer anyway.

The answer is, most of the schools had been following Academia's ("Smart People Being Smart" apparently) general playbook to play up the impact of the virus, even though it's demonstrably clear that the student athletes aren't at serious risk (despite certain quarters ghoulishly speculating about potential adverse risks - you know who you are). It was going just fine until the SEC Football schools decided to ruin it for everyone else, dragging most of the non-Ivy D-1 world reluctantly along for the ride of playing with restrictions. Only the hardcore ideologues (i.e. the Ivies a/k/a SPBS) are sticking to the sidelines now.

As to Carmine's latest post ... when did BC fans start caring about polls and rankings and BS computer formulas? I thought it was "all about the hardware" at The Heights??

You guys bucking for a RS/HEPI banner now?!? I'm confused, help me here, please ...

[J.D.]

Ha, I guess the advantage would be playing on home ice. It probably won't happen but maybe the BC administration could put a plan in place to allow some students in. I will now duck for cover for even suggesting that.

Along the same lines, are they even awarding a RS trophy this year?

[Felger]

Rather than engaging in the COVID mongos tonight ... did anyone get a snapshot of the standings prior to the games tonight? Curious to see if BC lead increased or decreased over BU for first place after a home win over 8th place Maine.

Not related to your question but did notice that UNH dropped behind MC after its tie/SO win Friday night, but moved back ahead of the Warriors after the BC game went final.

[Chuck Murray]

Ha, I guess the advantage would be playing on home ice. It probably won't happen but maybe the BC administration could put a plan in place to allow some students in. I will now duck for cover for even suggesting that.

UNH was going to try that, until Dean Dean got wind of it, then he locked down the entire campus.

I'm sure he got tremendous pressure from SPBS to "knock it off, stop making us look bad" etc. ...

[Chuck Murray]

Not related to your question but did notice that UNH dropped behind MC after its tie/SO win Friday night, but moved back ahead of the Warriors after the BC game went final.

Mrs. Press Release can't be happy about that latest development, suspect it'll be "fixed" tonight ...

[wildcatdc]

UNH was going to try that, until Dean Dean got wind of it, then he locked down the entire campus.

I'm sure he got tremendous pressure from SPBS to "knock it off, stop making us look bad" etc. ...

Chuck, while I am largely aligned with you in terms of letting the kids play, this is an absolute, 100% falsehood. President Dean was 100% supportive of the students coming to the game, (he said as much), but then positives kind of went to hell coming out of break. What had been tracking at 30-40 positives throughout the fall semester spiked to 385 coming out of break, and they had to reverse course on what the AD and President had agreed to. Fortunately, cases have dropped pretty precipitously on campus since then, so I’d imagine they will do everything they can to normalize now. Unfortunately, we are running out of season! He has been extremely emphatic about trying to provide as normal an experience as possible, while many of his counterparts began running for cover last summer. The on-campus testing, about the best you’ll find amongst universities, has played a big role in that.

[msprice]

I believe the numbers are not going down but are now up over 500 active cases.

[wildcatdc]

I believe the numbers are not going down but are now up over 500 active cases.

I should have been more clear - new positive tests are coming down precipitously, which is clearly a leading indicator. Active cases in total will lag, as you point out.

[Snively65]

[QUOTE=wildcatdc;n3642663]

Chuck, while I am largely aligned with you in terms of letting the kids play, this is an absolute, 100% falsehood. President Dean was 100% supportive of the students coming to the game, (he said as much), but then positives kind of went to hell coming out of break. What had been tracking at 30-40 positives throughout the fall semester spiked to 385 coming out of break, and they had to reverse course on what the AD and President had agreed to. Fortunately, cases have dropped pretty precipitously on campus since then, so I’d imagine they will do everything they can to normalize now. Unfortunately, we are running out of season! He has been extremely emphatic about trying to provide as normal an experience as possible, while many of his counterparts began running for cover last summer. The on-campus testing, about the best you’ll find amongst universities, has played a big role in that.[/.]

And, unfortunately no home ice again this post-season for our Cats.

[Chuck Murray]

Chuck, while I am largely aligned with you in terms of letting the kids play, this is an absolute, 100% falsehood. President Dean was 100% supportive of the students coming to the game, (he said as much), but then positives kind of went to hell coming out of break. What had been tracking at 30-40 positives throughout the fall semester spiked to 385 coming out of break, and they had to reverse course on what the AD and President had agreed to. Fortunately, cases have dropped pretty precipitously on campus since then, so I'd imagine they will do everything they can to normalize now. Unfortunately, we are running out of season! He has been extremely emphatic about trying to provide as normal an experience as possible, while many of his counterparts began running for cover last summer. The on-campus testing, about the best you'll find amongst universities, has played a big role in that.

Talk is cheap - actions speak louder than words. The road to he11 is paved with good intentions.

Just another so-called leader who will back down at the slightest hint of turbulence.

If he was SO committed to making this happen, why not give it another shot next weekend?

It will have been more than two weeks' quarantine since the last student lockdown went in.

The "running out of season" thing is just another excuse, one I'm sure he'll use if put on the spot ...

[Drew S.]

Talk is cheap - actions speak louder than words. The road to he11 is paved with good intentions.

Just another so-called leader who will back down at the slightest hint of turbulence.

If he was SO committed to making this happen, why not give it another shot next weekend?

It will have been more than two weeks' quarantine since the last student lockdown went in.

The "running out of season" thing is just another excuse, one I'm sure he'll use if put on the spot ...

Doubt the whole campus would want to be locked down an extra two weeks because a small percentage went to a hockey game. It’s a very straightforward decision.