The first steps toward a return for Auburn athletics came Thursday evening, when football players reported to campus for the first time in nearly three months due to a prolonged quarantine period in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
While players, who will all be tested for COVID-19 on Friday, will commence voluntary offseason workouts on Monday in anticipation of the upcoming season in September, the athletics department is still working out its own plans for the 2020 season. Namely, the department is weighing its options as it relates to attendance for games at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
One of the biggest and most onmipresent questions surrounding the return of sports amid a pandemic -- especially when considering the contagious nature of the disease in close quarters -- has been whether fans will be allowed in the stands across the country. The NBA has paved a way for its return within a bubble, so to speak, with teams set to isolate at Walt Disney World resorts in Orlando, Fla., where all remaining regular-season and playoff games will be played on the Wide World of Sports campus. MLB and MLS are still working on their respective plans to, hopefully, return to action this summer.
Meanwhile, some colleges have already made some projections for possible attendance figures should the season proceed with social-distancing guidelines. Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith recently suggested the Buckeyes could host between 22,000-50,000 fans on gamedays this fall, depending on how relaxed the protocols are, while Notre Dame president John I. Jenkins wrote late last month in a New York Times editorial that he there is “no way currently to allow spectators unless we restrict admissions so that physical distancing is possible,” and LSU AD Scott Woodward on Thursday said the program is “willing to assume some risk” in permitting fans in Death Valley this season.
At Auburn, athletics director Allen Greene and his staff are planning as though the season will continue as normally scheduled with fans, but measures are being taken to consider alternative options as things become more clearer in the next three months ahead of the opener against Alcorn State on Sept. 5.
“This goes back to several weeks ago,” Greene said. “No. 1, it’s too early to tell what the endgame is going to be, but we are planning to have the fall seasons — whether it’s football or cross country or volleyball or soccer — we’re planning on doing those as normally scheduled the way that we want to do it.”
Of course, there is reason for Greene to proceed with optimism. It makes sense to prepare for the best-case scenario -- full attendance at Jordan-Hare Stadium, without restrictions -- as not being ready for that possibility would be simply irresponsible, especially as governors across the country continue to scale back some of the restrictions that were put in place at the onset of the coronavirus outbreak.
Still, Greene is taking a measured approach and will continue to monitor the situation and weigh Auburn’s options for the upcoming season.
“I think it’s naive to think that there won’t be some tweaks and some twists to that,” Greene said, "but we don’t know what those are, so we’re contingency planning in case we have to use it.”
If Auburn has to trigger one of those contingency plans, it then begets another question: How do you decide which fans get to attend games if attendance is limited?
These are all hypothetical questions for the time being -- albeit questions Auburn has to be prepared to answer at some point -- as it remains unclear if the season will begin on schedule. The NCAA and SEC still have not announced plans for when practices and preseason camps could begin, though according to Yahoo Sports, the NCAA football oversight committee met on Thursday to discuss what the preseason could look like and will reportedly make recommendations to the Division I council next week regarding protocols.
“I think they’re still kicking around some ideas -- whether it’s to extend fall camp or OTAs,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “But I’m very hopeful that we’ll have some kind of football, working with our players. I think, too, getting off to a good start will help that. I think the decision makers are still in the process of seeing how the first week or two goes. That’s why we decided to go overboard the first week and isolate and quarantine for seven days. I don’t know what other teams are doing, but I’d bet very few are doing that.”
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
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June 05, 2020 at 10:02PM
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Auburn developing contingency plans for fans this football season - AL.com
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