Seven Thoughts on the Oklahoma State Coronavirus Survey

OKC Dave put together an excellent survey last week for how OSU fans are experiencing the coronavirus pandemic. He posted his results recently, and I had a chance to roll through them and put together a few thoughts on the data. Here they are.

1. What Concerns Us

This is not what I expected, and it actually feels … encouraging (?) that the two lowest subjects are loss of job and financial situation. Maybe we are all disproportionately weighting the economy against personal loss and this chart should actually be inverted, but I found some hope in this answer.

2. More Books?

What are we doing here, people?? Netflix as high as family time and reading going in the other direction. If you need book recommendations, I have them!

(I’m glad Disney+ wasn’t one of the choices).

3. Crooked New York Times

???

4. CFB/CBB Season

This is how a group of people who badly want a college football (and basketball) season to happen (all of us) feel about a college football (and basketball) season happening. This is probably not a great sign. It feels — again, this might not actually be reality but rather my emotions overtaking my logic — as if each day we are further from “returning to normal” rather than closer, as counterintuitive as that might be.

I just don’t see how you can have sports (or any big public gatherings) at all before there’s a vaccine, even without fans. Maybe that’s pessimistic or shortsighted, but that’s where I’m at right now.

Also, a note: The most Oklahoma State thing of all time would be to land Chuba Hubbard for another year and Cade Cunningham for his only one and to see both of those seasons wiped out by a pandemic. One of my friends texted me the other day and said, “When is the last time a college basketball program got two No. 1 recruits nationally and neither saw a minute of playing time for that team?”

Answer: there’s no way it’s ever happened.

5. Nobody Is Into Sports

I have seen this response in our own traffic here at PFB. Nobody cares about sports right now because 1. It feels (and mostly is) inconsequential and 2. Because there are no sports to care about. Not exactly a golden age for sportswriting!

6. Who Gets the Reins

I voted Holder here, but I could be talked into Hargis. Those are the only two reasonable choices unless another civil war breaks out in which I will ride with John Smith until we no longer ride.

7. The Only Answer

The only answer here is Randy Rutherford. Listen, I want somebody who cares the least about whether they make it or not. I was asked this question in golf form the other day: Which golfer would you pick to birdie a par-5 if your life was at stake? The only answer there is Brooks Koepka because he legit would not care whether I died or not. Randy gives off that vibe. Corona or no corona, he’s probably going to play some pool, get some shots up and do his thing. That’s who I want shooting to end a global pandemic.

Last note here: The “what’s one good thing that will come out of this” question has some true roller-coaster answers here. It was fun to read through. Also, I’m excited to help the six people who said they needed help at the end of the survey. There were over 100 who said they would love to help, and this is a really great opportunity to aid some fellow Pokes.