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Blowin' Smoke Presented by Weston Tobacco

What's more fun than us giving you a chance to mock us every single week? In our new feature, Blowin' Smoke presented by Weston Tobacco, we will do that each and every Thursday. Gabe DeArmond and Mitchell Forde will make five predictions almost sure to go wrong every week in this space. These will range from big games to big picture predictions with a bit of the comedic and absurd mixed in most weeks as well. On to this week's predictions.

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1) Time to revisit this: Does Missouri play football on September 5?

Gabe: At this point, I think the only way they wouldn't is if there's some ridiculous spike of the virus that spreads throughout the team (or teams across the country). It seems to me everyone made their mind up about a month ago that they were going to find a way to get this done. And honestly, I see absolutely no reason they shouldn't be playing by then.

Mitchell: I think so. Clearly, at this point, Missouri and the SEC are going to try to have a season. This is the most optimistic I've felt since this whole thing started that they're going to play in some capacity. Now, would I bet my life savings on the Central Arkansas game happening Sept. 5? No. If for some reason there's a spike or a bunch of Mizzou players get infected or something crazy happens where the NCAA says they need to push back the start of the season, I think the school could live with sacrificing that game if it meant keeping hope alive to play more meaningful ones. But overall, I think it's more likely than not football will be played on Faurot Field Sept. 5.

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2) If they do play, what is the attendance?

Mitchell: Pretty close to the maximum allowed. I've seen lots of different percentage numbers thrown out there. I'll guess outdoor stadiums are allowed to have 35 percent capacity, at least to start the season. For Mizzou, that would be a hair under 22,000. So let's say 21,500.

Gabe: Yeah, this was obviously just a clever way of asking what the capacity allowed was going to be. I'm going to say it's 50%. So that would be about 32,000 allowed if memory serves. And I think they'll get that. If you look at the last 20 years, every game got significantly more than that pretty much, so as long as capacity is under 50,000, they'll fill pretty much every seat.

3) At this time next week, is Kirk Ferentz the head coach at Iowa?

Mitchell: I'm not sure this will move quickly enough that he's gone within the next seven days. He's been at Iowa forever, so he should at least get the benefit of a thorough investigation into all these claims about the team's culture of mistreatment and intolerance. At this point, though, I'd guess he will not be Iowa's coach when the 2020 season kicks off.

Gabe: I think Ferentz survives. A week ago, he might legitimately have been the most secure coach in the country. He not only was going to get to name the date he walked away, but the program was pretty much going to be turned over to his son. And now I'm not sure any of that is true. I think Chris Doyle is out and by that happening I think Ferentz can survive it. But I think this will probably be his last year there. And that might have been the plan anyway. It's possible he voluntarily walks away at the end of the season...but nobody will believe it's voluntary which is unfortunate.

4) Will Major League Baseball play this season and if so how many games?

Mitchell: The most recent update I saw said that the owners proposed a 76-game schedule to the players' association. I really think the MLB is starting to feel some pressure to get it together — or at least it should — and stop arguing over money with so much else going on in the country right now. So that's my guess. They do play, they play 76 regular season games with like three days off per team for the whole season and then jump right into the playoffs.

Gabe: They'll probably play some stupid 60-ish game schedule. And the diehards who sit around and watching the vast majority of the 1500 innings every season will be invested. But the casual fans won't. Baseball was my favorite sport growing up. It's pretty close to losing me. Don't get me wrong, I'll turn a game on as background noise, but I won't be all that invested in a third of a season that could have been longer if the people involved weren't all such infants (for the record I blame the billionaires more than the millionaires here).

5) What are the penalties for Kansas basketball?

Gabe: When Oklahoma State happened, that changed the game. The NCAA has no time for messing around right now. They're nailing people to the wall to prove they're still relevant (I'm not sure they are, but they're trying). I think Kansas gets a three year ban, loses multiple scholarships, has to yank down some banners and Bill Self is suspended for at least a season. I think a show cause is in play. But I'll believe that part when I see it.

Mitchell: We answered this question a few weeks ago, but you pretty much have to adjust your expectations after what happened to Oklahoma State last week. The Cowboys got absolutely hammered for one Level One violation: a one-year postseason ban, three lost scholarships for the next three seasons and recruiting restrictions, among other penalties. I know OSU went through the Committee on Infractions and Kansas is using the new IARP thing, but even considering that and the fact that the NCAA hasn't exactly been a model of consistency when it comes to handing down sanctions, there's no way you could justify giving Kansas similar or lesser sanctions. So, as a result of all that, I'm upping my prediction: Two years' postseason ban, scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions for five seasons and (this is the biggest change) a multiple-year show-cause penalty for Bill Self. That should, in theory, result in Kansas having to find a new basketball coach, which would probably be more impactful than any length of postseason ban.

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