Getting bowl season ready amid COVID-19 pandemic
Bry Patton was like everybody else in early August, wondering if there would be a college football amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association Chairman, Patton sat on executive meetings and board meetings asking the same questions as every other fan about the status of the season and the 85th annual Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.
“We’re sitting there having meetings and we don’t know if there’ll be a season,” Patton told the Star-telegram this week. “It’s been a strange year. Obviously there’s been a lot of bowl games canceled. We feel really bad for those games who had to cancel. I don’t know all the specifics they had, but we’re incredibly fortunate to have the venue and have the protocols and everything set up. But it has been an interesting year.”
An interesting year that will close with an intriguing Cotton Bowl matchup between two storied programs in Oklahoma and Florida on Dec. 30. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
It’ll be an unusual buildup to the game without the normal weeklong festivities. Oklahoma and Florida are expected to arrive next Monday, go through a walkthrough on Tuesday and play the game on Wednesday.
The teams will be staying at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas as the Cotton Bowl has essentially created a “bubble” environment.
“Nobody else can stay there. It’s just the two teams,” Patton said. “Every exit has a security person on it, so we’re going to do everything we can
[to ensure proper safety measures]. Our week has been reduced. It’s not the same but the enthusiasm of our staff and everything we’re trying to do with the administrations is still the same. We’re going to have a great game.
“The good news is after all of this stuff, we get to the end of the year and have a real positive exit to the year when it probably hasn’t been real positive to a lot of folks during the course of the year.”
The same sort of setup is going to be in place for the Rose Bowl being held on New Year’s Day at AT&T Stadium, a College Football Playoff semifinal between Alabama and Notre Dame. That game is still being run by the Pasadena Tournament of Roses but the Cotton Bowl folks are helping in every possible way.
A determination is expected to be made this week if that game will carry the official “Rose Bowl Game” title or simply be called the “CFP semifinal presented by Capital One.” The Rose Bowl naming rights are co-owned by the city of Pasadena and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses.
Either way, the Cotton Bowl folks will play an integral part of conducting that CFP semifinal.
“It’s their game, but the logistics of it being here, we’ve essentially told them we can be very helpful and want to be very helpful,” Patton said. “We want to take the template of the Cotton Bowl and allow the Tournament of Roses committee and staff to have the same kind of environment.
We’ll be focused a lot on operations, on media relations, on a lot of things we do in concert with all the people at AT&T Stadium.
“We’re going to be an integral part of it, but it’s certainly their game. We feel horrible for them. They’re friends of ours and this came about and here we are.”
Patton touched on a number of other topics as well going into the game:
— On the Ou-florida matchup: “We knew we were going to get two top10 teams, but to get No. 6 OU and No. 7 Florida is just outstanding. Both teams are electric, both teams have a lot of skill on both sides. Florida came close to beating Alabama in the SEC Championship, one touchdown and they win. We had a great call with [Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley] and [Florida coach Dan Mullen].
They’re both fired up about coming here. OU has been here, they understand what the Cotton Bowl is all about. Florida has never been here, so that’s kind of cool to have a team that we’ve never had in the Cotton Bowl. Both seem very excited about getting into the competitive arena again and being able to go at it. I’m thrilled with the matchup. I think everybody is.”
— On attendance: “It’ll be 25%. It’s essentially the same configuration that the Cowboys do.
That’s the beauty of our game — we have the good fortune of being able to ride the coattails of what the Cowboys and AT&T Stadium have done as far as the guidelines and all the COVID protocols have been in place for a while. I was at the Big 12 championship game as a fan and it was comfortable with the spacing and the pods. It’s a fantastic way to keep everybody safe. Obviously our highest priority is to keep the players, coaches, fans, as safe as possible. We’re fortunate to have a venue like AT&T Stadium.”
— On the Cotton Bowl’s philanthropic endeavors amid the pandemic:
“That’s something we’re really excited about is this is not quelling any of our activities on the philanthropic side of helping all those who are really struggling with the pandemic.”