UW football faces uncertainty
MADISON – The COVID-19 pandemic has left athletic directors wondering whether college football will be played in 2020.
The pandemic has already shut down spring practice for every Big Ten school and the start of preseason camps appears to be in jeopardy.
That leads to this question: How much time would coaches and players require to prepare for the first game of the season, whenever that is?
“I’ve seen coaches and others speculate as to what the right number is,” said Chris McIntosh, Wisconsin’s deputy athletic director. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking what that number is because that should be determined by the medical professionals.
“The No. 1 priority is keeping athletes safe. That is going to be at the guidance of medical professionals.” Holding a normal spring practice appears to be out of the question.
UW was scheduled to begin spring practice March 22 and finish April 18. The Big Ten announced March 13 that all organized team activities were suspended until April 6 and recently extended that suspension through May 4.
It is unclear when UW students will resume in-person classes. Last month UW officials suspended inperson classes through the end of the spring semester.
The return of in-person classes will be a clear signal school officials believe re-opening the campus is safe. Only then, it appears, will athletes be able to return to campus and begin preparing for football and other fall sports.
“We’ll figure out, with the guidance of public health experts, what is appropriate at the University of Wisconsin and in Madison at the right time,” McIntosh said. “And that has the potential to be different than some other universities, some other markets. We are already seeing that. New York is different than Madison today. …
“We’ve become much smarter in how we approach safety and welfare of players, student-athletes.”
Another potential question: Will fans be allowed to attend games? If school officials aren’t comfortable packing more than 70,000 fans into stadiums each weekend, will players enjoy playing in quiet venues?
“I don’t think we should underestimate how resilient our young people are and our student-athletes are,” McIntosh said. “They tend to be more resilient than many of us are. I would have confidence in our student-athletes being able to adapt to just about any circumstance – no fans, modified timelines.
“If we all agreed or felt confident that they were safe, I would have a lot of confidence in our studentathletes – not just those at Wisconsin – to be able to adapt to that.”