MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

That's a good point. The idea of a 15-to-18-game regular season for the CCIW, depending upon divisional configuration and the number of round-robin passes through the circuit, might be too ambitious -- especially if games don't start immediately after New Year's Day.

There won't be games immediately after NYD mostly because if the students are coming back from far flung places over the holidays, they likely need to self quarantine for a number of days. Schools are creating acclimation buffers now which can last a week or two before regular activities resume.

The "if" was relational, not conditional. Of course students have to quarantine, and, since nobody is going to arrive on campus until at the very earliest the day after Christmas, that means that there won't be games any earlier than Saturday, January 9.

My point, and I think that this is implicit in what Pat and I were discussing in light of the January 20 date he mentioned for the NJAC, is that games aren't just going to start up immediately once the student-athletes arrive on campus. There's necessarily going to be at least some sort of minimal preseason.

[WUPHF]

I am not sure how we got to of course students are going to quarantine.

There are many college and universities that are not requiring a 14 day quarantine.  Maybe I missed something with the new NCAA rules?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

You all should listen to the proposal that is floating around men's and women's DIII basketball .... we talked about it on the Hoopsville podcast. Now that the PAC 12 has indicated they won't start winter sports until January ... the idea of shifting the season may be more realistic.

The segment with Philip Ponder was pretty good.

[Gregory Sager]

I am not sure how we got to of course students are going to quarantine.

There are many college and universities that are not requiring a 14 day quarantine.  Maybe I missed something with the new NCAA rules?

It's not about the NCAA, it's about state and municipal sanctions regarding the quarantining of people coming in from other specific states. The map of the fifty states is a welter of cross-listing*; Chicago, which is a big complication for the CCIW in terms of the coronavirus, has something like 12 to 15 states now on its own specific list, and one of the states on Chicago's list is Wisconsin. The CCIW is not a league whose student-athletes, or students in general, all hail from the Land of Lincoln. Heck, they don't even all come from the United States.

Admittedly, the current societal situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic is in constant flux. Perhaps we will find ourselves in a situation around Christmastime in which the virus is so contained, either by medical intervention or by social strictures, or both, that quarantine lists are no longer a problem for things like CCIW athletics. But, honestly, right now it appears that the situation is getting worse. I am not at all optimistic that student-athletes will be able to arrive on CCIW campuses after Christmas from wherever their points of origin happen to be and then engage immediately in open physical and social contact.

(*Granted, the NYT article is not up-to-date -- I used it more as an example than as a snapshot of the current status quo -- but the general situation of quarantine sanctions is still nationally widespread, and it's changing all the time. Chicago, for example, has removed Kansas and Utah from its list, but Puerto Rico has been added to the list, and -- scarily -- Illinois itself is inching closer to joining the city's list.)

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

FYI ... CCIW will postpone start of season to January: https://twitter.com/d3hoopsville/status/1294016642800922625

[WUPHF]

It's not about the NCAA, it's about state and municipal sanctions regarding the quarantining of people coming in from other specific states.

I live in Missour-uh where we have accepted that Covid-19 is more or less everywhere.

If a student is returning to North Park from Missouri after being away since March, they have to do what?  Remain locked inside their dorm room for 14 days?  Yikes!

I guess under the current Chicago policy, North Park will have to play games against Carroll and Carthage at the College of Lake County?

[RogK]

WUPHF, I have to admit that my initial reaction to your comment was to doubt that you speak for the entire population range of Missouri, from imbeciles to the smartest.
But then I checked the web site of the smartest Missourians, Barnes-Jewish Hospital / Washington University Physicians, and saw that they indeed have abandoned their policy of having employees and visitors wear masks*. A shocking reversal.
-
*sarcasm

[Gregory Sager]

It's not about the NCAA, it's about state and municipal sanctions regarding the quarantining of people coming in from other specific states.

I live in Missour-uh where we have accepted that Covid-19 is more or less everywhere.

If a student is returning to North Park from Missouri after being away since March, they have to do what?  Remain locked inside their dorm room for 14 days?  Yikes!

I guess under the current Chicago policy, North Park will have to play games against Carroll and Carthage at the College of Lake County?

As I said, Chicago is a big complication for the CCIW in terms of the coronavirus. The realities of contagion and quarantine are just a whole lot different for a city of three million people that is one of the major hubs of business and travel for not just the country but the entire Western Hemisphere.

And let's not forget that there are Chicago-based student-athletes that play for other CCIW schools besides North Park.

[WUPHF]

I have to admit that my initial reaction to your comment was to doubt that you speak for the entire population range of Missouri, from imbeciles to the smartest.

I may further away from the smartest than I care to admit because I am not sure I follow.

I was not commenting on masks.

But, I do think, based on data, that I could move my kid in to a North Park dorm and not increase the risk of Covid-19 spread, relative to the family from say Palatine or Palos Heights.

[Gregory Sager]

... and, as I said, Palatine and Palos Heights -- and the rest of the non-Chicago parts of Illinois -- could be on Mayor Lightfoot's list fairly soon as well if the daily infection rate for the rest of the state tops the 15/100k mark.

As for dropping off a kid at school in the city, that topic is covered on the city's Emergency Travel Order page.

[WUPHF]

As for dropping off a kid at school in the city, that topic is covered on the city's Emergency Travel Order page.

Does North Park plan to ask kids to stay in their room for 14 days?

[Gregory Sager]

NPU had a 14-day quarantine plan set up for this month's incoming student-athletes. When the kibosh was put on fall sports, that became a moot point.

Within the past few days, the Chicago Department of Public Health has issued a new directive that has softened the quarantine rules for incoming college students. This is from North Park's Reopening Campus page:

WE HAVE GOOD NEWS! Now there is a preferred new option for complying with that order: The Chicago Department of Public Health has issued new guidance allowing students from those "hot spot" states to quarantine for two weeks BEFORE coming to Chicago — and, upon arrival, to sign a document affirming that they did so.

North Park University strongly encourages ALL students to quarantine for 14 days before coming to Chicago — and students from the hot-spot states are required to do so.

Students from the designated states who feel they are not able to quarantine before arrival due to special circumstances should get in touch with Residence Life as soon as possible at housing@northpark.edu.

Guidance from the Chicago Department of Public Health says that parents who accompany students to campus from high-incidence states should quarantine during their stay, avoid public settings, and limit exposure to others outside of the scheduled move-in time. At North Park, parents are invited to help their students move into their residences during a three-hour window and are welcome to remain for an hour longer, for a total of four hours on campus.

This is very hopeful ... but who knows how long it will last? Everything around here seems to change from day to day. I've just got my fingers crossed that it will still be in place when Threshold, NPU's new student orientation process, begins a week from tomorrow.

[WUPHF]

Thanks Greg! So, that policy seems to nullify concerns over the far-flung students returning to campus and competing, depending on what the affirmation document says.

[Gregory Sager]

I wouldn't say that it "seems to nullify concerns." The holidays will be a whole 'nother thing, and who knows where the country will be vis-a-vis the coronavirus at that point?

I think that we've established two things at the moment: 1) There is a window open right now that will be advantageous to NPU (and to the U of C, DePaul, Loyola, UIC, etc.) if the city's health department continues to be generous by basically allowing incoming students to operate on the honor system; and 2) we have a mayor who will not hesitate to pull up the drawbridge if she thinks it's the right thing to do.

[Titan Q]

IWU's students are moved in and the Fall semester is underway.

Some of the COVID-19 protocols I'm aware of:

* Each student had to produce a negative test result in order to move in.

* Each student on campus is now being tested.

* Every 2 weeks, 10% of the student body will be tested.

* IWU has 3 floors of the Marriott-Normal (about a mile from campus), and these rooms are being used as dorms.  They've tried to give as many students as possible single rooms and using a hotel has helped with that.


Quite an interesting school year underway.