Random Thoughts: pro sports and more

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

An important conference call with odd timing, Major League Baseball, the NFL, NBA and NHL, the HCAC, a different MAC, and the results of a Twitter poll are included in this week’s Random Thoughts.

August 4

The Ohio High School Football Coaches Association is scheduled to hold a conference call with Lt. Governor Jon Husted one week from today, August 4, presumably to discuss the upcoming football season.

Practices are scheduled to begin Saturday, August 1. Why hold a meeting three days later? That doesn’t make sense, especially if there’s a chance the season will be delayed, postponed or canceled.

One would think a chat would be held before Saturday.

However, it is fair to note that Governor Mike DeWine or the Ohio High School Athletic Association could make a decision before Saturday. In fact, the OHSAA has said fall practices likely won’t start without some fairly solid assurances that games would be played.

MLB

Two Major League Baseball games were called off on Monday because of the coronavirus – Baltimore at Miami and the Yankees at Philadelphia.

I’d ask what’s next, but I don’t think I want to know the answer.

Supposedly, MLB isn’t ready to pull the plug or hit pause on the season, but we’ll see.

NFL, NBA, NHL

NFL training camps are scheduled to begin today, the NBA season will resume on Thursday and the NHL will follow suite on Saturday.

It would seem the teams in the “bubble” – the NBA and NFL will be fine, but I’m not so sure how this will work with NFL teams.

HCAC

The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference is the latest to announce that fall sports will be postponed until 2021.

Football, soccer and volleyball are on the list of sports that will be played next spring.

The decision affects Defiance College and Bluffton University are among the schools affected by the decision, and it seemingly doesn’t bode well for fall high school sports in Ohio.

Minor scare

It was reported on Friday that the MAC suspended all fall sports – the collegiate MAC.

As it turns out, it wasn’t the Mid-American Conference. It was the Middle Atlantic Conference, a Division III conference with 14 of its 18 schools in Pennsylvania.

So for now, fall sports are still on in the Mid-American Conference.

Twitter poll

Nearly 200 people responded to a @VWindependent Twitter poll about the 2020 fall high school sports season.

The question was “What should happen with high school fall sports in Ohio?” and the choices were play as scheduled, delayfed for 2-4 weeks, swapped to spring or outright canceled.

62 percent of respondents said games should be played as scheduled, 14 percent said outright canceled, 13 percent said swapped to spring and 11 percent said delayed for 2-4 weeks.

Interesting results. I really thought the majority of people would say play as scheduled, but I also thought more would go for a 2-4 week delay.

As always, if you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com.