Kjerstad, Opitz on disappointment of early end to season, delay in MLB Draft
Razorback players Casey Opitz and Heston Kjerstad talked with the media Tuesday about how they are each dealing with the shutdown of the baseball season back at home, the draft and disappointment.
Grass is green, maybe best ever, which Van Horn just walks around in these days
Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn talked during a teleconference Tuesday about he he’s dealing with the different things when he should be coaching games during the spring and Baum-Walker Stadium’s field may be best he’s ever seen it.
League cancels spring meetings scheduled for Destin in May
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey announced Tuesday the 2020 SEC Spring Meetings have been canceled due to issues related to the spread of the coronavirus.
The SEC will determine alternate methods for holding meetings important to conference operations and present awards, which is done during the last week of May in Destin, Florida.
“The SEC Spring Meetings represent one of our conference’s great traditions and provide an opportunity to celebrate the past year, plan for the future and focus on our mission to serve people through our universities,” said Sankey in a press release. “We regret this year’s event will not be held as planned, but we know cancellation is appropriate in the light of supporting safety and well-being during this unprecedented public health crisis.”
The SEC Spring Meetings serve to bring together university presidents and chancellors, athletics directors, student-athletes, senior woman administrators, faculty athletics representatives, communications directors, and head coaches in the sports of football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.
The meetings are designed to help shape the rules, regulations and overall strategy for the conference.
“We are currently exploring ways to conduct as many of the planned meetings in an alternate format and time,” Sankey said.
The SEC Spring Meetings have been held in Destin annually since 1985 and previously were held in various locations and in different formats.
Information from the Southeastern Conference is included in this story.
NCAA gives approval to added year of eligibility, but no guidance to schools
The NCAA basically got a lateral from schools on player eligibility due to the current health crisis, shrugged and said they didn’t care, gave ’em the ball back and told ’em to do what they wanted.
The NCAA Division I Council voted Monday for to give spring sports seniors an added year of eligibility 17 days after the committee released a statement agreeing with the idea in theory in the wake of the NCAA canceling all spring championships because of the coronavirus.
Just because of simple financial reasons some schools will be able to deal with it better than others. From a financial standpoint, Power 5 schools won’t have much problem.
This affects just spring sports and not winter sports, most of which had concluded their seasons and the decision to cancel tournaments affected only postseason games.
Seniors will not be required to receive the same amount of aid in 2021 as they received in 2020, instead leaving that up to each individual school. Scholarship limitations were also adjusted and the roster limit in baseball was increased.
That is the only spring sport with a scholarship limitation.
The NCAA Student Assistance Fund to help pay for scholarships in 2020-21, as well.
“The Council’s decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, the athletics director at Penn said in a release. “The Board of Governors encouraged conferences and schools to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and their communities, and now schools have the opportunity to do that.”
The Division II and Division III levels of the NCAA, as well as the NAIA and NJCAA, had already approved similar measures but they do not rely on a distribution check from the national organization in their operating budget.
Mid-major schools will be hit the hardest. It would have added about $2.5-3 million to Arkansas’ financial picture and cancelling the spring schedule in all sports probably saved at least that in expenses.
For the Razorbacks, over half of the seasons in baseball, softball, golf, tennis and outdoor track were the sports affected.
Baseball may have the biggest impact in Fayetteville as the Hogs had played just 16 of 56 regular-season games. It is also the sport lately that has had a huge impact on the economy in the area.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast — Mason Jones declares, best sports photos of all time
Tye & Clay talk about Mason Jones’ future and the best sports photos of all time
Declaring for draft now may raise questions, but is a grown man’s choice
When Mason Jones declared last week he’s putting his name into the mix to be selected for the NBA Draft that is currently scheduled for June, but may — or may not — happen at that time.
Isaiah Joe may be looking at making the same decision in the next few days or weeks. That is not known right now.
Neither are projected right now to even be picked in some of the mock drafts that are continuing right along in these uncertain times due to the global health crisis.
Of course the NBA only picks 60 players a year, so to not be on the board right now removes them from being kids and turns them into grown men.
When you make the decision to forego college eligibility with no guarantees, well, that’s fine and well but just remember they are making their first legitimate grown-up decision.
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman didn’t criticize Jones’ choice, although having the SEC’s leading scorer on the team for the next season would make the projections a little higher.
He supported the decision (at least publicly), but it would be interesting to hear his evaluation of whether Jones would have moved up on the boards (which is more money) by coming back to the Razorbacks.
Don’t throw injury out there. The numbers show he’s more likely to suffer a career-ending injury crossing Leroy Pond Dr. in heavy traffic than playing another season. If you don’t believe it, go ahead and try to cross when everybody’s back in town, even in the crosswalks.
Hopefully it will all work out.
While Jones is going while he is the co-MVP of the SEC this year along with Mississippi State’s Reggie Perry, Joe doesn’t exactly have the biggest numbers to bank on.
In Joe’s case, the projection numbers are all over the place. CBSSports.com has him at No. 18 while others don’t have him even listed on the board and a couple of others have him rated higher than Jones.
Of course at this point there is a lot of speculation whether the draft is even held as scheduled, although with the NFL announcing it’s holding their annual cattle call in Las Vegas as a TV-only event, the guess here is there will be a draft.
Don’t be surprised to even see a window open up to allow workouts, interviews and such for teams to evaluate potential players.
That is where Jones could possibly improve his stock.
Hopefully it works out great for both.
It’s their decision and it officially moves them to adulthood.
Why sports still matter during time when more real issues loom larger
We’ve reached a point in the current global health pandemic where watching the news is almost exhausting, especially delivered with political slants on both sides of the spectrum.
No, this isn’t about politics. That’s for others to cuss and discuss.
At least some of us have sports to speculate on everything from what-if’s to what-will’s in that world when competition resumes … at some point in time.
Things have fallen to the level of arguing about Arkansas bringing out the old gray-looking helmets for the football team to wear, regardless of how stupid that whole idea is. But that’s a topic for a different day.
This serious health crisis is a cause for concern. It’s also why sports — even with no games — has become an important part of just getting through it all to some folks.
It’s a distraction from the important issues of the day.
For Razorback fans, there will be no games until football practice starts, which could be as early as this summer. Not making any predictions here, but my guess is there will be a college football season and an NFL season.
Yeah, there may be a slight downturn in the quality, but the odds are no one really notice that much. As Sam Pittman told us last week “everybody is in the same boat.?
That’s the most important thing. Nobody is really getting any sort of advantage from this suspension of literally everything.
And every coach is bored silly, but they are able to deal with it because everybody’s playing on the same level right now. They are all focusing on recruiting and now that comes down to who can do the best on that … they can’t impress ’em with facilities, culture or any of that up close and personal.
According to the guys who follow the world of recruiting closely, the Hogs have been making a lot of offers during this down cycle, keeping up with the pace they’ve been on since Sam Pittman and his new staff came in.
There are even sports books that have put out lines on some key games in the college football season that some question even happening, but my guess is it will.
Here are some of the interesting numbers:
• Oklahoma over Texas by 3.5
• Alabama a 3.5-point favorite over LSU in Baton Rouge
• Alabama by 7.5 over Auburn
Arkansas hasn’t been forecast, yet.
All of this is why sports really does matter. People are still talking about it.
Everybody has an opinion, which is what normally happens anyway, but now it/s all by guess and by golly.
Nobody’s wrong. It’s their opinion, so they aren’t wrong whether we agree with them or not.
It also gives everybody a chance to step back and take a breath from the serious talk of the day, which really is far more important in the overall scope of things in the world.
Yes, sports does matter in these difficult times, even without games or even practices to argue about.
But hang in there.
This, too, shall pass.
Pittman, Hogs’ staff will finally be able to hold ‘virtual’ meetings with players
While it’s still not getting on the field, new Arkansas coach Sam Pittman and his staff will be able to hold online meetings with players during the downtime caused by the ongoing health crisis.
This comes from a report from 247Sports.com on Friday evening that obtained a copy of a memo from the SEC office to member schools.
They had not been able to take advantage of modern technology for virtual instruction, position meetings and other activities during the pandemic after everything was halted March 13 when students were sent home.
Most of the spring break ends this week and campuses will be closed, but the schools have gone to online-only instruction and the memo will allow coaches to meet with players but can’t ask the players to get video of their workouts.
With many gyms and workout facilities closed across the country, the players are having to go back to old-school type excercises in many cases.
Nobody knows what the schedule going forward could be, as Pittman told the media last week. For an almost completely new coaching staff he’ll take what he can get now.
As he said, “everybody is in the same boat.”
Which could change a lot of things when the ball starts getting thrown around.
