And so it starts! Does SEC follow?

[dog12]

Don’t know what happens from here. But IF the SEC and ACC play this fall without any major issues, every B1G leader involved in this decision is toast.

I don't think so.

I've come to realize that America has LOTS of "safety at any cost" people.

Don't get me wrong . . . I believe in taking reasonable safety measures . . . but I don't believe in taking unreasonable safety measures.

I assure you that the liberal media will devote vast resources supporting and defending the Big Ten leaders responsible for cancelling their football season.

Conversely, I'll call them p*ssies. Looks like Nebraska is too.

 

[Go Budaw]

Because all of the students will eventually be sent home? Once all the Starkville area hotels are full of quarantined students, they will send everyone home again.

I dont see how engineers can be adequately taught remotely. Probably hard in other disciplines as well. I wonder if med schools would do online learning? Or law schools...i dont think the socratic method would work quite as well via Zoom.

That’s a pretty big hypothetical. But even if it happened, there’s no argument to be made that players will be safer on campus / in their “bubble” than they would be at home, because the only way they will be at home is if campus shutdowns across the country effectively end football season anyway (even if it was scheduled to go on).

 

[MSU601Dawg]

I think the "liability" angle is a cop out.

It's not being mentioned as a deterrent to schools starting back in person all over the country. Are Kroger or Wal Mart worried about liability if someone says they got it there?

How can someone prove they got it from a football game as opposed to in class?

If athletic departments are liable, so is every single public place that anyone goes to

 

[8dog]

Because you can abide by public health guidelines to get kids back in class. In fact MS Covid liability protections only apply if a good faith effort is made to follow those guidelines.

as for proving where you got it, thats been a part of mass tort lawsuits for years. “Hey i worked here and got it, now defendant prove i didnt”.

 

[Shmuley]

The mass tort comparison falls short in my opinion. I'm not aware of any mass tort lawsuits that involve an infectious biological agent as the source of injury. Causation is very much in play here. And I have not heard one plausible explanation as to how one overcomes the totally speculative nature of proving causation as to manner/source/location/date/time of infection. Four elements of proof must be established by a preponderance of the evidence for a successful tort claim: duty, breach, causation and damages. A failure of any one equals a failure of the claim. One would require expert witness testimony to establish causation. I have yet to see even one example of a viable "expert witness" who could give credible testimony proving, even by a preponderance of the evidence standard, the manner, source, location, date or time of infection.

The "danger" here from a liability stand point is just the sheer number of "potential suits" that will have to be defended until the plaintiffs' bar realizes that the suits are not economically viable and finds something else.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

Are Kroger or Wal Mart worried about liability if someone says they got it there?

How can someone prove they got it from a football game as opposed to in class?

If athletic departments are liable, so is every single public place that anyone goes to

Public companies are scared to death of liability. They have lobbied Congress to have liability protection added to the next money printing bill. That's why the vast majority of public companies still have everyone that can work from home, still at home.

Just to put it in perspective, Amazon committed $4 billion after the first quarter on protecting it's employees... That's $500 million more than the entire NCAA member institutions in all divisions award in annual athletic scholarships to 180,000 student athletes.

Everyone that has more than 2 nickels to rub together right now is thinking about some money grubbing ambulance chaser coming after them... I'm not talking about negligence either, it's just going to be a **** show of lawsuits for years with settlements out of the wazoo .

For the record, I disagree completely with how litigious our society is and this is no exception... But this is the world we live in.

 

[8dog]

It would make it to trial and as a smart attorney once told me- “when you get to trial, you can throw burden of proof out the window”. And thats my main point. In a Hinds County jury (where i assume the state would be sued) who knows what happens