How schools survived another difficult football season

The recent cancellation of the Hawaii, Military, Fenway and Holiday bowls shows that despite playing much of the regular season without significant interruptions, COVID-19 remains a constant challenge facing much of the college football landscape.

Athletic conferences have readjusted their cancellation and forfeiture policies due to increased positivity numbers across the country. The College Football Playoff management committee tweaked its COVID policies anticipating a worst-case scenario that could include no teams healthy enough to play for the national championship.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented its own set of challenges for many of the schools in Florida, but nothing like it had in 2020 and with many of the programs finished with their seasons, the holidays arrived with a sense of relief.

“The last two years have been challenging for a lot of our players,” said UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir. “We always have to be cautious and we’ve hit on it with our guys and be careful and be smart.”

Miami, however, announced Sunday evening it was unable to participate in the Sun Bowl due to COVID-19 protocols.

Fans return in droves

Stadiums once empty as cavernous reminders of the COVID-19 pandemic were at near capacity this season, a sure sign of a return to normalcy as college football moved on from one of the most challenging seasons in its 152-year existence.

After limiting attendance in 2020 to provide proper social distancing, schools welcomed back fans with open arms in 2021.

Attendance figures returned to pre-pandemic norms, with Florida (85,175) and Florida State (58,679) recording higher numbers than in 2019 while UCF (40,427) was at 91% capacity. Attendance for Miami (43,698) and USF (28,566) was the lowest since 2006 and 2015, respectively.

While not mandated, the expectations were for fans to wear masks on campus, including at sporting events. Other than supplying hand washing stations, there was little the schools offered in terms of actual protection during the pandemic.

Reversal centered on vaccinations

None of the state teams saw their seasons adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and there were no cancellations or postponement of games like there were in 2020. But that’s not to say schools completely put the global tragedy out of their minds.

Conferences like the ACC, SEC and American dictated protocols for their member schools regarding vaccinated versus non-vaccinated personnel.

Fully vaccinated athletes, staff and officials resumed activities within athletic facilities during the season without masks or physical distancing. Non-vaccinated personnel remained masked when entering athletic facilities.

“To a great extent we were back to normal thanks in particular to the efforts to vaccinate,” David Hansen, UCF senior executive associate athletics director and chief operating officer, told the Orlando Sentinel.

The ACC and SEC pushed their member schools for a vaccination threshold among its players.

Teams with an 85% vaccination rate had to apply a minimum of one PCR test per week for unvaccinated individuals. Teams with less than an 85% vaccination rate had to use a minimum of three PCR tests per week for unvaccinated individuals.

While specific threshold numbers were hard to come by, FSU coach Mike Norvell said more than 90% of his team had started the vaccination process when the season began in September. Florida crossed the 90% threshold midway through October, and UCF coach Gus Malzahn said close to 70% of his team had received the vaccine by Sept. 1.

“We have an extremely high vaccination rate of both student-athletes and staff that has not only prevented severe illness but also prevented quarantines of close contacts in the event of an isolated illness,” Florida conveyed in a statement. “This is due in large part to the support of our administration and the amazing buy-in of our student-athletes, coaches, and support staff on the importance of vaccinations. We will continue to work with UF Health and campus leadership to follow best practices to combat COVID.”

Conferences also put forfeiture policies in place in case of a COVID outbreak among teams.

The ACC had one of the harshest policies on forfeitures due to COVID. If a football team could not play a game because of an insufficient number of available players, that team was to forfeit the game with the loss assigned to the team unable to play and a win given to the other team.

Fortunately, this policy didn’t come into play among the teams here in the state of Florida. However, Cal had to reschedule a game with USC due to several players testing positive for COVID.

Teams adhere to strict protocols

Most programs followed strict protocol to avoid large gatherings at once.

For example, UCF used three different locker rooms for practice — the UCF gameday one, the visiting team game-day one and the regular practice one in Wayne Densch Sports Center.

UCF said it tested twice a week for anyone who was not vaccinated — not just players but coaches and some 50 staff who have close contact with players.

Additionally, the team followed Federal Aviation Administration rules and wore face coverings while flying on charter planes to road games.

Hansen said the Knights did a “really good job” of following protocols, not only in the football facilities but elsewhere, too.

“Once they leave our facilities, it’s up to them,” Hansen said. “They obviously did an excellent job of maintaining healthy habits because we were able to play without interruption.

“We also had great support from Gus who promoted on a daily basis the importance of everyone doing the right things.”