This week was as odd as it gets in college sports.
Western Michigan and Ball State nearly recreated the Cal-Stanford “Band Game.”
CHAOS ?
Both teams ran onto the field before the play was ruled dead as Western Michigan attempted a last second TD.
Ball State went on to win the game and division title after the Broncos were penalized for an illegal forward pass. pic.twitter.com/yzjVTBgJ5b
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 12, 2020
Florida lost in part because a Gator defender threw a shoe that belonged to one of LSU’s players.
Florida was flagged with unsportsmanlike conduct after this play: pic.twitter.com/BBsmOu64j9
— ESPN (@espn) December 13, 2020
The Big Ten changed its rules mid-season to help Ohio State get to the conference championship game. And Duke is canceling the rest of its non-conference basketball season.
Locally, the Pitt football team won its season finale against Georgia Tech despite players opting out of the game. The Yellow Jackets coach, Geoff Collins, blew by the post-game handshake with Pat Narduzzi. And now the team is blowing off a bowl game.
Why bother? After yet another season with at least five losses, a bowl game isn’t worth it.
“Six-and-five, to me, is a huge disappointment, considering all the talent on this team,” DiPaola said. “When you get to April, and you have the NFL draft coming up, you are going to have a couple guys drafted in the first round and another in the second round (Patrick Jones, Rashad Weaver, Paris Ford). Kenny Pickett (QB) is going to go. Damar Hamlin (DB) is going to go. Jason Pinnock (DB) could go. Maybe Bryce Hargrove (OL) and Jimmy Morrissey (C). All those guys are going to play on Sundays or be in NFL training camps.
“With all that talent, and you lose five games — for the 11th year in a row by the way, that they’ve lost at least five games — you expected more.”
Not to mention defensive lineman Jaylen Twyman who opted out of the entire 2020 season.
Meanwhile, on the basketball front, Panthers forward Justin Champagnie is racking up double-doubles like Karl Malone. He just completed back-to-back games with 20 points and 20 rebounds apiece.
Yet sports at Duquesne (men’s basketball), Robert Morris (hockey) and West Virginia (football and basketball) have had to cancel or postpone games by the fistful.
So what is going on when it comes to college sports and the decisions to either plow through covid-19 or get shut down by it?
Jerry DiPaola of TribLive joins us to talk about all angles of the college sports world in Monday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast.
Note: With the late Steelers game Sunday night — and “Madden-Benz: Unfiltered” posting Monday morning — this week’s “Madden Monday podcast” will run on Tuesday morning.
