Message from Big12 To B1G and PAC

[Red_Alert]

"But for those pressing forward to play, heed one warning: The lawyers will be circling. Not the ones counseling conferences to avoid trifling with players’ health, but the ones who will be doing the suing if, God forbid, a player dies, has long-term damage or career-threatening complications. In an email to Sports Illustrated, prominent college sports attorney Tom Mars offered this chilling view of what the Big 12, ACC and SEC could be getting into:

“Whatever conference(s) decides to play football this fall will be taking a ridiculously high risk they may soon regret. I know and have talked with some of the best plaintiff’s lawyers in the country this week, and they’re praying the SEC, Big 12 and/or the ACC are greedy enough to stay the course. If things go sideways, the plaintiff’s Bar will immediately get their hands on the internal financial analyses of the schools (a FOIA layup), get the conference financials through the discovery process, and then just stand in front of the jurors and point to the conferences that decided not to risk the health of their student-athletes. Good Lord, I’d hate to be the lawyers defending those cases.”
And the attorneys lining up to represent plaintiffs? “These are lawyers who’ve already slain bigger dragons than the SEC, and they can afford to finance the most expensive litigation on the planet. As a coalition, they’d be the legal equivalent of the Death Star.”

Sleep well, Big 12, ACC and SEC leaders."

Obviously written by a sniveling douche suffering from a massive case of TDS.

It's a pretty simple solution really. Have the players and their parents sign a legal release if they want to play, practice, eat at the dining table, use the weight room, participate in team meetings, etc.

The onus of risk is on the players and their parents.

This is no different than a release for breaking one's neck making a tackle. There is already a legal release relating to that before he takes the field.

When you buy a ticket to a baseball game, you agree to a release that you will not sue if you get hit in the bean by a screaming foul ball.
.

SI article is just more low hanging fruit for empty headed dullards.

Anything for clicks, I guess.
.

 

[Texas Jefe]

The players are as safe-most cases much safer-being at school, in the Athletics bubble.

At Texas, they're testing 3 times a week. Brought players in in bunches, tested them, quarantined if needed, etc. They dont have to worry about healthcare costs, testing costs, getting results back asap, as they would if they are at home.

They've been lectured, had discussions: they really want to play, their parents want them to play...thus they know to get thru the season, they need to stick to the protocols.

I think they'll do pretty good. There will be some who get infected/quarantined, etc. but if stick to the program and the season continues.

Hot damn I want to see football

 

[Red_Alert]

The players are as safe-most cases much safer-being at school, in the Athletics bubble.

At Texas, they're testing 3 times a week. Brought players in in bunches, tested them, quarantined if needed, etc. They dont have to worry about healthcare costs, testing costs, getting results back asap, as they would if they are at home.

They've been lectured, had discussions: they really want to play, their parents want them to play...thus they know to get thru the season, they need to stick to the protocols.

I think they'll do pretty good. There will be some who get infected/quarantined, etc. but if stick to the program and the season continues.

Hot damn I want to see football

Typical commie bureaucrats.

"You're incapable of making your own decisions. We know what's best for you."

They're not giving any of these players a chance at personal responsibility. IMO a player who wants to play on Saturday is going to be extra careful not to catch Covid via public.
They know the impact it will not only have on themselves, but also on their team going forward.
.

 

[LawDawg]

A potential gold mine for the legal profession....

https://www.si.com/college/2020/08/12/ncaa-football-divide-big-ten-pac-12-sec-big-12

tldr; No, it's not even close to a potential gold mind for a few attorneys, let alone the entire legal profession.

I don't see a goldmine, and I am a lawyer/litigator:

• There are a number of assertions in the article that are just ridiculous. I'll start with the craziest one: Lord, I’d hate to be the lawyers defending those cases - something no defense lawyer ever said. Defense lawyers live for cases like these as they bill hourly. As a defense attorney, we have a saying - "the enemy of my client is my friend." It's how we make our living. If no one sued my clients, I'd be doing something else. My client, with insurance and/or deep pockets, getting sued is great for me. I'd make a half million or more on a case like this.
• Speaking of insurance, all the conferences and teams have plenty of insurance and they pay the lawyers and the awards, if any. So this idea that it will break the schools' banks is stupid. They are more worried about bad PR than any potential damages that would most likely be paid by insurance.
• He states that the the plaintiff’s Bar will immediately get their hands on the internal financial analyses of the schools (a FOIA layup), get the conference financials through the discovery process, and then just stand in front of the jurors and point to the conferences that decided not to risk the health of their student-athletes. What an idiot, it's never that easy. Let's break this down ... his use of the term "Plaintiff's Bar" shows he doesn't know what he is talking about ... it is a concept, not a person or people. There are organizations of plaintiff's attorneys, and you loosely refer to the the plaintiffs and defendants' bars as being the lawyers that take those respective sides most often in litigation. But, "they" won't do anything. So, it's obvious he knows nothing about a real lawsuit and is just repeating things he has been told, out of context.
• And the attorneys lining up to represent plaintiffs? “These are lawyers who’ve already slain bigger dragons than the SEC, and they can afford to finance the most expensive litigation on the planet. As a coalition, they’d be the legal equivalent of the Death Star. He makes it sound like there are going to be dozens or hundreds of these suits. With the percentage of hospitalization and deaths being so low for this demographic, even if it goes sideways, as he says, there will be a couple lawsuits. You can't sue just because you got COVID. You have to really get fucked up, and that just doesn't happen that often to this demographic. This isn't tobacco litigation, or some drug that affected tens of thousands of people. There won't be large groups of plaintiffs attorneys running ads late at night, "if you played college football in 2020, you may have a claim."
• They would have to have a reason to get the school financials, and then there are limits as to how you can use them. I am sure the Plaintiffs will get creative, but you don't just get to throw financial information around and expect that to suddenly result in a big judgment. It can certainly help in the damages phase if you can get to punitive damages, but that's not likely, and it's not as easy to get or use that data in the way he makes it out to be.
• Then the suits won't be easy. As to causation, how do you know you got it from football, not going to class? Going to a bar? Going home with your family, banging your girlfriend (or boyfriend for the PAC players)? Hanging in your dorm, all things that the players for the Cuck 2 Conferences are also doing even though they cancelled the season. Causation, a requirement of a tort suit will be tough to prove.
• As for breaching their duty to keep the athletes safe, the schools will show all they did and that it was reasonable. Testing 3 times a week, EKG baselines, and all the great medical care they gave the players, telling the players to stay in, etc. Here they are just showing they acted reasonably, and not with reckless disregard to the players health. They will have quotes from players saying that the school did everything they could do. They will have experts saying they acted more than reasonably, that they went far beyond reason. The point here is to show you did everything you reasonably could have done, and more. If nothing else, you want to take punitive damages off the table.
• It will become a battle of experts, and both sides will put up impressive experts saying opposite things. The schools' experts will say that it could be played safely, and that the school did everything they could do. They will disagree with the other experts that advised the other conferences. Let the Plaintiffs bring in the PAC and B1G ... the other conferences will tear them apart and show that they went from announcing schedules to canceling the season in 5 days, and that their rationale was not medical but political. That they were avoiding the Unity movement. It will be Stanford experts against Vandy and Duke and Baylor experts ... those who think that the Alpha 3 don't have as good doctors as the Cuck 2 are crazy.
• Most importantly, the primary defense will be that the plaintiffs "assumed the risk" by voluntarily participating in a dangerous sport or activity. These are not kids ... they are adults over 18. This isn't tobacco or a drug adverse reaction case where they defendants hid information from the plaintiffs. The schools will show that they adequately informed the adult students, and their parents, of the risks, and that they told the players they were allowed to sit out and maintain their place on the team and their scholarship. The decisions of the Cuck 2 will be used to show that the players knew that there was a danger, so much so that 2 conferences canceled their seasons. They won't be able to assert ignorance when there has been so much coverage. The players will make a voluntary decision to play ... no one forced them, and no waiver is needed for that. They will be seen to have assumed the risk, and once that is proven they have to show the schools were grossly negligent. That's tough to do.
• Get this far and you have to prove damages. The chances of death or long term injury are miniscule. That chances that it happens to someone with an NFL career even more remote. A heart condition won't keep the 97% of the players who won't go to the NFL from selling cars or insurance, or being a high school coach. And even in the remote chance it happens to a potential NFL players, they have to prove what they could have made in the NFL and didn't. That won't be easy as those who get injured in bowl games and try to recover from insurance policies have found out.

At the end of the day, it is absurd to think this will be a gold mine for a few lawyers, let alone "the legal industry."

 

[volbound2002]

as opposed to BIG 12 were its Oklahoma and everyone else
ACC where Clemson is the only team doing anything.

Big12 has Texas and Oklahoma State and ACC has Miam, FSU, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, etc.

Pac12 has NO fans except Oregon, USC, and kind of Washington. You can get more people out to a BLM rally than most Pac12 football games.

 

[volbound2002]

Oregon has been doing just fine recruiting.

You must have missed the part when I listed Oregon and USC as an exception.

 

[AlaskaGuy]

Big12 has Texas and Oklahoma State and ACC has Miam, FSU, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, etc.

Pac12 has NO fans except Oregon, USC, and kind of Washington. You can get more people out to a BLM rally than most Pac12 football games.

WTF are you going on about. Washington has lead the conference in attendance for the past five years now.

 

[michaeljordan_fan]

You must have missed the part when I listed Oregon and USC as an exception.

I suppose that's true. Washington can't even fill their dump of a stadium, despite being in downtown Seattle.

 

[volbound2002]

WTF are you going on about. Washington has lead the conference in attendance for the past five years now.

Where would they have ranked in the SEC, 8th?

Pac12 is just not that relevant to football. Every once in a while one of your team rises up for a little while like Oregon with Chip Kelley or USC with Pete Carroll and then you go back to be irrelevant. Having you guys sit out this year wouldn't be much of a change from most years lol.

 

[volbound2002]

I suppose that's true. Washington can't even fill their dump of a stadium, despite being in downtown Seattle.

Even with USC, they really only have fans when they are good kind of like Miami.

 

[AlaskaGuy]

Where would they have ranked in the SEC, 8th?

Pac12 is just not that relevant to football. Every once in a while one of your team rises up for a little while like Oregon with Chip Kelley or USC with Pete Carroll and then you go back to be irrelevant. Having you guys sit out this year wouldn't be much of a change from most years lol.

You lost to Georgia St. and BYU last year .. both games @ Neyland and then the Vols slipped by Indiana 23 - 22. Washington would pump the Vols like a homeless crack addicted runaway hillbilly teen at a Tennessee truck stop if those two teams met up.

 

[Muncie2]

Big12 has Texas and Oklahoma State and ACC has Miam, FSU, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, etc.

Pac12 has NO fans except Oregon, USC, and kind of Washington. You can get more people out to a BLM rally than most Pac12 football games.

Enjoy.

Ignore the score and sell-out crowd.

 

[volbound2002]

Enjoy.

Ignore the score and sell-out crowd.

You pull out a game from a decade ago to show you have fans?

 

[AlaskaGuy]

One of you SEC posters better put a leash on your Vol here before we work his ass like a wino who just found a C-note on the sidewalk.

 

[volbound2002]

One of you SEC posters better put a leash on your Vol here before we work his ass like a wino who just found a C-note on the sidewalk.

The B1G and Pac12 combined have 3 National Championships, that is it.

USC 2004 (actually that was canceled by NCAA)
Ohio State in 2002 and 2014

Both leagues are irrelevant.

 

[wazzu31]

Candidly, I've been in so many threads the past 36 hours on this and other forums, I have no idea what I said. Let's look at the possibilities:

1. As Wazzu31 asserts, they are afraid of the players uniting and having to accept their demands.
2. They truly believe that it's not safe to play.
3. It's politics, and they feel the need to mollify their fan bases/locals and cancel the season because blue states take this think seriously, and red states don't.

What are our other options?

I think it's most likely 2, but believe they are pulling the plug too quickly, and for faulty reasons.

I will completely reject number 2. And number 3 doesn’t really make sense because blue states love them some women’s sports and cancelling the football season doesn’t really hurt football players. It hurts women sports and men Olympic sports.

 

[Red_Alert]

The B1G and Pac12 combined have 3 National Championships, that is it.

USC 2004 (actually that was canceled by NCAA)
Ohio State in 2002 and 2014

Both leagues are irrelevant.

Don't forget they also refused to join the Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance that were the predecessors to the BCS and meant to pit #1 vs #2.

Bowl Coalition - Wikipedia
Bowl Alliance - Wikipedia
.

 

[cwalke3408]

The Pac 12 wasn’t cancelled because of Covid. It was cancelled because the conferences’ heads don’t want to deal with the Unity movement.

You mean to tell the PAC 12 were willing to throw away millions just because of a few twitter posts

 

[AlaskaGuy]

You mean to tell the PAC 12 were willing to throw away millions just because of a few twitter posts

The PAC school Presidents would come out publicly for Antifa like they did for BLM if they didn't think they'd face any backlash.

 

[volbound2002]

The PAC school Presidents would come out publicly for Antifa like they did for BLM if they didn't think they'd face any backlash.

So why are you a fan of them? The league never wins titles, has different political views from you, and can't fill their stadiums. Adopt a real football team. He'll even Arkansas or Vandy would be better choices than Washington.