Will HC play football in the Spring of 2021?

If HC plays FB in the spring, it will be PL games only. Mark it down.

You forget that many of the Ivies have only half or less of their undergraduates on campus for the spring semester. Same for Georgetown. Georgetown is bringing freshmen on-campus for fall semester, sending them home, and bringing seniors on-campus for spring semester. The only way that will be avoided is widespread vaccination of faculty, staff, and students starting in December, with a booster shot 30 days later.

I have a better chance of being selected as the next President of Holy Cross than that happening. It's increasingly clear that shortages of testing kits and an inability to produce test results in a timely fashion are major factors driving college's decisions on whether to have fall sports.
www.politico.com/news/2020/07/13/mulvaney-coronavirus-testing-359695

You bring up a good point that there are relatively nearby schools who are planning NOT to have two or three entire classes on campus in the Spring. The numbers we are now seeing (infection v deaths) may be an education on a number of fronts and the success schools like HC should see on campus (w/all four classes) first semester aren't likely to influence a January reversal from those schools. (By success I 'd say 0 deaths … of course they'll be cases of Covid-19 and flu on campus.)

If the Ivy League announced it was no longer sponsoring football anymore, would Holy Cross follow?

At some point the PL either has to stand up on its own or abandon any pretense of owning its own destiny.

The Patriot League was at its strongest when it had a scheduling agreement with the Ivy League. Fans liked that too. Dartmouth or Monmouth? Easy choice.
As for spring ball, doubtful.
I talked last weekend to a friend who organizes outdoor concerts and festivals. Within the music industry, full recovery is not expected until September 2021. That will vary by state.
Different business, same industry.

Good idea.
The athletes may need only a semester, not an entire year.

Georgetown thought by signing up for the PL that it would engage in frequent games with the Ivy to build football rivalries. For the most part, that hasn't happened.

The Ivy League never warmed to playing Georgetown, whether due to distance, facilities, competitiveness, or just that it's not in their collective interest to do so. Most of these games don't draw any interest at either school--and to be fair, when you're 450 miles away, getting worked up for Georgetown and Harvard is a stretch. Some schools will schedule one-offs at their place but not return a game to DC. After 2021, Brown appears to be the only Ivy scheduling games with Georgetown going forward.

The uncomfortable question is, after 20 years, is there any roadmap for Georgetown to fully compete, not merely show up, in the PL? This is increasingly a narrowing one.

If Georgetown wanted to legitimately compete in the PL, they could tomorrow. Their issues are self-inflicted.

Finish building a football stadium.

Go scholarship.

Pay the coaches.

Without making an investment, they’ll forever be swimming upstream.

Did you not read this article that clearly states tens of thousands protesting in recent weeks are not responsible for a spike in cases?

www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/us/Epidemiologists-coronavirus-protests-quarantine.html

Incredible stuff.

Floyd protests? No problem at all. Other protests? Big problem. Just what one could expect to be published in this horrendous rag.

No spring sports without a vaccine by December. Will there be a vaccine by December?

Moderna starts phase 3 trials in little more than a week. 15,000 get vaccinated. 15,000 receive a placebo. Booster shot 30 days later for the 15,000 vaccinated, placebo shot for the 15,000 not vaccinated. At the end of August, the clock starts ticking.

The phase 3 trial relies on the 30,000 living in areas which are hotbeds of community spread. That would rule out Boston, for example, being a site for the trial.

The concept of the trial is that those who are vaccinated won't become infected, while some of those who received the placebo become infected. Fauci believes it will take three months to demonstrate that the vaccine works, assuming the trial sites remain as hotbeds. Poor choice of sites means the trial could take more months to complete.

Ninety days from the end of August is the end of November. Assume that vaccine is shown to be safe and effective. Vaccinations begin December for those with the highest priority. Vaccinations ramp up in January for those with lower priorities, e.g., the elderly, those with underlying conditions., etc.

By February, they may reach the tranche of college students living in congregate settings. First vaccinations Feb. 1-15; booster March 1-15. If colleges are willing to proceed based on partial immunity of the first shot, could play football in March. If colleges wait for the booster, could play football from mid-March onward.

I use Moderna because it is the US vaccine to start phase 3. Three other potential vaccines have already started phase 3 trials. Two are Chinese-developed, one is British, developed by University of Oxford. The Oxford vaccine started phase 3 at the end of June, in Brazil.

See:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html