More policies released as conferences adjust
Schools must test and obtain results for COVID-19 within 72 hours of competition for “high contact risk sports,” according to the latest guidelines released by the NCAA on Thursday, but any hope of playing in the fall will depend on a decline in positive cases across the country.
The NCAA guidelines include daily self-health checks, the use of face coverings and social distancing during training, competition and outside of athletics and test strategies for all athletic activities, including preseason, regular season and postseason. All individuals with a “high risk of exposure” must be quarantined for 14 days.
“This document lays out the advice of health care professionals as to how to resume college sports if we can achieve an environment where COVID-19 rates are manageable,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said. “Today, sadly, the data point in the wrong direction. If there is to be college sports in the fall, we need to get a much better handle on the pandemic.”
The recommendations were developed in collaboration with the NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Pan
el, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) COVID-19 Working Group, Autonomy-5 Medical Advisory Group, which represents the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC, and other medical groups. The guidance also takes into consideration recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Earlier Thursday, the American Athletic Conference — of which the University of Houston is a member — said it plans to meet or exceed the NCAA guidelines.
Holding out hope for a college football season comes at a time when COVID-19 cases have spiked across the country, including record numbers in Texas and Florida. On Thursday, Texas reported 10,291 new positive tests.
“Any recommendation on a pathway toward a safe return to sport will depend on the national trajectory of COVID-19 spread,” NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline said. “The idea of sport resocialization is predicated on a scenario of reduced or flattened infection rates.”
According to the NCAA guidelines,
schools will be responsible for securing the resources necessary to perform tests. If PCR testing cannot be performed within 72 hours of competition, the competition should be postponed or canceled, according to ESPN.
With the regular season set to begin around Labor Day weekend, the clock is ticking on a decision by conferences. The Big Ten and Pac-12 announced last week that they would play conferenceonly games in fall sports, including football, and were joined Thursday by the basketball-centric Big East.
Three Division I conferences — Mid-Eastern Athletic, Ivy League and Patriot League — have announced they do not plan to play any sports in the fall. The Colonial Athletic Association canceled its 2020 football season.
The three other Power Five leagues — ACC, Big 12 and SEC — have yet to decide on scheduling formats. AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said the league is discussing a hybrid scheduling format that would include eight conference games and two nonconference games. He added that moving the season to the spring would be “problematic.”
“It’s a last resort,” Aresco said during an interview with Sports Talk 790 AM. “What you don’t want to do is jeopardize the 2021 season in any way. If you play in the spring what happens to the practices in the summer … this is not that simple a situation. If we lost the 2020 and 2021 seasons, that would be utterly catastrophic.”
Aresco said an initial decision whether to push back the start of the season or postpone will need to be made in the next couple weeks. Teams began mandatory team activities this week, and training camps are scheduled to begin in early August.
“I don’t know what our ultimate decision is going to be,” Aresco said. “The virus will have a big impact. In the end, what we want to do is make rational decisions. Let’s think about this rationally. We don’t want to engage in any hysteria. There are still some things we don’t know clearly. But we do know a lot more than we did four months ago.”
He added: “Right now we’d like to buy as much time as possible.”
Also Thursday, the University of Houston informed season ticket holders it will host reduced-capacity crowds at home games this season. Although there has been no announcement, capacity at TDECU Stadium is expected to be 20,000, or 50 percent capacity, for the six scheduled home games. The Cougars open the season Sept. 3 against Rice at home.
“As of today, current indications are that all home games will be played as planned this fall,” the school said in an email sent to season ticket holders.
Fans that renew season tickets by Aug. 1 and opt-in for the 2020 season will participate in a TDECU Stadium online seat selection process from August 10-14 to determine seat locations. All renewed season ticket holders will be ranked and assigned a specific date and time to select seats via the Cougar Pride priority point system.
Based on the most current reduced-capacity guideline projections, the school said, it’s unlikely single-game tickets will be available.