PROVO — It may be the virus that stops college football this fall, but one could argue all the election-year political grandstanding and media fanfare could actually be the nail in the coffin.
The Pac-12 and Big Ten have announced they will play only conference games — if and when the season kicks off. The Ivy League schools that include Harvard, Princeton and Cornell canceled their football seasons altogether. The Big East canceled all non-conference fall sports competitions, while the MEAC is reportedly canceling all fall sports, including football. The WCC is delaying the start of fall sports like golf and soccer.
In other words, it is safer for Utah to travel to California, Washington, Arizona and Colorado than have BYU visit from 45 miles away.
Conference commissioners can posture all they want, prepare all they can for an opening for football, but a governor in any state within their boundaries can stop any gathering, any competition on any field at any second.
Remember, we lost the NCAA Tournament in March and these virus numbers were not what they are today.
NCAA medical guidelines are expected to require athletes to wear masks while training, social distance and be tested, a real brain tickler, 72 hours before kickoffs every week. The cost of testing for an athletic department could be staggering. Most all athletic departments in the country ran in red figures before the pandemic. Now, with big revenue losses projected, layoffs and cutbacks, how is that expense going to fly?
And the testing? How accurate are these tests? Is it 100%, 90%, 80% or 50%?
Testing is a real thing. The CDC has admitted mixing results of COVID-19 with antibody tests, which are two completely different diagnostics, thus a wrong positive total.
Debatable for sure, but what is not in question is our COVID-19 numbers are not good and explosions in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California the past few weeks are indeed scary.
College medical guidelines for athletic teams, obtained by Sports Illustrated, is in the following edict. This paragraph has a chilling impact if you are hopeful for a college football season:
“When an athlete tests positive for COVID-19, local public health officials must be notified, and contact tracing protocols must be put in place. All individuals with a high risk of exposure should be placed in quarantine for 14 days as per CDC guidance. This includes members of opposing teams after competition. The difficulty is defining individuals with a high risk of exposure, and in some cases, this could mean an entire team (or teams).”
Former basketball coach turned ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes tweeted out: “We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom.”
“We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom”....
— Jimmy Dykes (@CoachJimmyDykes) July 18, 2020
This spring and summer has been Looney Tunes.
And it’s an election year. It has been said that in an election year, everything is about the election. And you better believe how we approach COVID-19, who to blame or who to praise has a lot to do with what we’re hearing these days.
SI columnist Pat Forde penned a column this week declaring if college football is canceled this fall, blame Donald Trump. His opus never mentioned the massive street protests nationwide in early June that destroyed every social distancing measure embraced by America the previous three months.
Yes, our sports seasons are in jeopardy. We can point fingers all we want but the bottom line is this: Are we all doing everything we can to limit the spread?
If not, we just might have to take some personal responsibility for the void.
Prepare yourselves. This football is going to get kicked and passed around like a hot potato before decisions are made whether to play or not play.
But the blame game may be the actual surviving sport.
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July 19, 2020 at 07:00AM
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If college football season is lost, might we all be somewhat to blame? - Deseret News
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