Chancellor says fans can expect A&M football this fall.
A&M optimistic that season will start with fans in stands
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp has declared that A&M and its 10 affiliated campuses statewide will reopen to students this fall. But will football also be on tap at Kyle Field?
According to Sharp, fans can expect to catch the Aggies in action this fall despite the current coronavirus pandemic.
“Obviously, the final decision (regarding football) is left to the governor (Greg Abbott), the (A&M) board of regents, the NCAA and the SEC, but Chancellor Sharp charged the A&M system leadership to come up with a plan to achieve the goal of reopening this fall,” said Laylan Copelin, A&M’s vice chancellor for marketing and communications. “Chancellor Sharp concluded, ‘Make this happen.’ ”
Sharp, a former state comptroller, has adopted an optimistic approach as spring winds down, and one easier said than done with May’s arrival and with parts of the country emerging — at least for now — from the lockdown prompted by the pandemic. Sharp’s plan includes a helping hand from A&M’s Health Science Center.
“That means in-person instruction and playing football safely for our players and fans,” Copelin said of A&M’s intended use of “testing and contact tracing” through the science center.
Several schools, including UH, Baylor, SMU, Texas Tech and TCU, have said they plan to open classes in the fall semester with students on campus, one of the key requisites for schools to be able to play football. Others, like the University of Texas and Rice, have indicated having students on campus in the fall but haven’t made a firm decision.
The concept of 102,000 fans in one place for a football game is met with a certain amount of skepticism.
Bob Bowlsby, the Big 12 commissioner, said in an interview on SiriusXM that college campuses and stadiums were like a “Petri dish” for spreading the infection.
A&M’s spring drills and spring game were canceled, like other NCAA programs, and Aggies athletic director Ross Bjork said July 1 is a target date to have football players, in particular, back on campus.
“We have some clarity, which gives us optimism that we’re reaching maybe the peak of all of this,” Bjork said. “Whether it’s locally, regionally or as a country. With each passing day, and we get more good news and testing becomes more available, we can start to look at (how we) might operate in terms of how we can return to activity, play games and go to school — all those things.”
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said it’s “most healthy” for college football to be in accordance on a plan moving forward, but not necessarily required.
“The hope is we all move along together, and to date that’s been the conversation and collective thinking about how we may have to adjust,” Sankey told radio station 1010 XL in Jacksonville, Fla. “But it’s a very different situation when compared to a pro league.”
Meaning conferences in the NCAA can act (and play) independently of one another unlike, say, the NBA, with its rigid schedule and playoffs system ultimately pitting the Western Conference
vs. the Eastern Conference.
For instance, should the Pac-12 choose not to play football, that would not mean a College Football Playoff is doomed in January.
“If there are a couple of (college) programs that aren’t able (to play), does that stop everyone?” Sankey wondered. “I’m not sure it does. But the ability for us to stay connected will remain important.”
The Aggies are scheduled to open their season Sept. 5 at Kyle against Abilene Christian. A&M then plays home games against North Texas and Colorado before opening SEC competition Sept. 26 against Arkansas in AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
“Our priorities at this time are the health and safety of our fans, our players, our workers, our society,” Bjork said last week. “The second thing would be we want to play 12 (regular season) games – we want a full schedule of games. If that means we need to delay (the season) a little bit, we would.
“The third thing is we want full stadiums. That’s the experience our studentathletes signed up for, and that’s what the fan expectation is. That’s what our communities expect and really rely upon from an economic standpoint. That’s how we’ve prioritized how we’re looking at the college football season.”