Aresco sees no reason to alter schedule
The American Athletic Conference is sticking with its plans to play football in the fall despite the Big Ten and Pac-12 opting to postpone fall sports due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve decided it would be premature to make any kind of decision at this point on such an important matter,” AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco told the Orlando Sentinel late Tuesday night following a busy day of meetings. “We’re continuing to gather information, and there is more information coming out.
“We certainly want to know what was behind the Big Ten and Pac-12 situation because our own doctors have been tracking the heart issues and they’ve been out there, but we want to know what’s changed.”
Concerns over a possible link between coronavirus and myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, reportedly convinced Big Ten and Pac-12 presidents and chancellors to call off fall sports and attempt to play football in the spring.
Big Ten officials were aware of at least 10 players who have developed the rare heart disease that is associated with COVID-19, according to The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach.
Aresco said the AAC is taking more precautions as a result of the heart-related concerns. If a player tests positive for COVID-19 at an AAC school, he receives a full medical evaluation that includes an electrocardiogram. The athletes all are monitored by medical teams that must follow AAC coronavirus requirements.
Aresco said he met with 40 athletes from around the league Tuesday to discuss any concerns they may have about playing football in the fall. He said many of those in attendance asked questions about safety, and their concerns were addressed by the league’s medical advisory group.
“They seemed very satisfied that we’re doing what we’re doing,” Aresco said of the players. “They have every incentive not to do the things that college kids typically do. They’re not bad things, but things you can’t do in a pandemic because they want to play.
“Our student-athletes want to play. That’s been overwhelming in our conference [and] we want to give these student-athletes the opportunity to play.”
While the league remains confident in its plan, Aresco said officials continue to gather information from medical professionals.
“We’re going to digest and find more information, and that will help inform our thinking,” he said. “We have a great medical group, and they’ve studied all of this and they feel that ultimately our student-athletes would be safer in the controlled environment that we have.
“We think there is potentially a safe way to proceed; our medical advisory group feels that way And I understand now the Big 12 is still willing to try moving ahead and that would mean three [autonomous] conferences are saying that, with the ACC, SEC and Big 12.
“We’ll see what happens. Right now, there isn’t a need to make any decision.”
Aresco said the league could delay the start of the 2020 season if it runs into issues as it follows its current schedule.
“If we had to move back for any reason, we would certainly consider that, but right now we’re comfortable because the number of cases [of COVID-19] are down,” he said. “Six of the 11 schools have had zero positive tests, and we think things have been moving in the right direction.”
Aresco checks the daily numbers for each of the counties among his member schools, and the number of positive tests has dropped significantly in some places. If the trend continues, he said the league would be cautiously optimistic about the season.
“If things change or we get new information, we don’t think competition is causing this,” he said. “We think we’ve got a good chance to certainly contain it and not have an issue. If we have an issue, then we can certainly move to close it down if we had to.”
AAC presidents and athletics directors aren’t scheduled to meet again this week as the league’s medical group moves forward with gathering information relevant to player safety during the upcoming season. There is no timeline for another league meeting, but if new information develops, the officials can meet again.
“We’re moving ahead, cautiously one step at a time,” Aresco said.