Football to start weekend of Oct. 23
Terps resume training after conference reverses course
Just a month after postponing its fall sports season to the spring, the Big Ten Conference onWednesday announced that it will indeed play football this fall, with the season set to begin theweekend of Oct. 23.
The Big Ten Council of Presidents and
Chancellors voted unanimously to play the season in the fall, citing “significant medical protocols including daily antigen testing, enhanced cardiac screening and an enhanced data-driven approach when making decisions about practice/competition.”
It’s a stunning reversal after the conference received pressure from players, coaches, parents, fans and even President Donald Trump to change its decision. And while the number of new protocols put in place is reassuring to medical experts, others believe the conference caved under
such pressure and after watching other conferences kick off their seasons.
Whenthe BigTen initially postponed the season Aug. 13, becoming the first Power 5 conference to do so, it cited health concerns — particularly myocarditis, a heart condition linked to COVID-19 — and a lack of rapid testing it thought would hamper its ability to quickly identify coronavirus cases.
As part of the decision to play this fall, athletes, coaches, trainers and other personnel that are on the field for practice and games will undergo daily antigen testing. Athletes who test positive for COVID-19 through point-of-contact daily testing would require a polymerase chain reaction test to confirm the result of the POC test.
Athletes who test positive will also have to undergo “comprehensive cardiac testing” and receive clearance from a cardiologist designated by the university. Each university will designate a Chief Infection Officer to oversee the collection and reporting of data for the Big Ten.
Scott Jerome, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of sports cardiology, is a sports cardiologist for the University of Maryland, College Park and UMBC. He said that every athlete in College Park who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 must undergo blood tests, EKGs, echocardiograms and cardiac MRIs to get clearance to play.
Jerome said the number of hurdles those athletes have to overcome before playing is reassuring.
“I’m happier that we’re going to test them and that we’re not going to move forward until they’re all tested,” he said. “Now can we test hundreds and hundreds of kids before they start playing? That’s the big question. I was very uncomfortable before. But ifwe can get everyonetested, my comfort level is higher.”
Jerome acknowledged that the still unknown long-term effects of the coronavirus — especially involving myocarditis— are a concern.
“The downside is, we just don’t know enough about this virus and its cardiac effects,” he said. “It’s so new. It’s just six months old. We just don’t have experience with this.… I thinkwe have put in hopefully enough safeguards to lower the risk. If we didn’t do this, if we didn’t put this protocol in place, Iwould be against them playing.”
Ona video conference call withMaryland athletic director Damon Evans and football coach Mike Locksley, Dr. Yvette Rooks, assistant director at the university’s heath center, said that the designated cardiologist will visit the campus once a week to assist the process of conducting echocardiograms and providing consultation.
The earliest an athlete can return to games after a positive test is 21 days. On a panel with the BigTen’sReturn toCompetition Task Force, Ohio State football head physician Dr. James Borchers told The Big Ten Network that this timeline will allow for players who have contracted COVID-19 to undergo all the required tests, as well as conduct a seven-day transition period back to the field. Daily testing will begin Sept. 30 and Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said all fall-sports athleteswill be tested.
Evans noted that the daily testing playeda pivotal role in the decision to play this fall. NootherPower5league is testing its football players more than three times aweek.
On Wednesday, Maryland announced that it tested 449 student-athletes for COVID-19 on Sept. 8 and 35 tested positive, with 19 of those positive cases already in quarantine. After suspending athletic activities Sept. 3 following 46 positive tests, 13 of 20 teams have resumed training, including football, the school said.
In total, Maryland athletics has administered 2,640 tests, with 98 positive results, a positivity rate of 3.7%. Whenasked for exact numbers pertaining to COVID-19 cases within the football team, Rooks declined to give specific figures but said that the team’s positivity rate fell under 5%.
On a campus-wide level, the university confirmed 88 new cases from Sept. 6 to Sept. 12, a positive rate of 3.6% during that week. Cumulatively, the university has registered a positivity rate of 1.14%.
The conference will also monitor team positivity rates and the population positivity rate — which Brochers defined as on a campus, local and state level — to make decisions about a continuation of play. Based on a seven-day rolling average, team activities will be suspended for a minimum of seven days if a team positivity rate rises above 5% and a population positivity rate rises above 7.5%.
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told The Big Ten Network that the conference will announce later this week a nine-game schedule that includes every team playing on championship weekend Dec. 19, the day before the College Football Playoff committee’s selection Dec. 20. Each team will play an eight-game regularseason schedule with no built-in bye week. The ninth game of the season will consist of each school playing the team in the opposite division that finished in the same place as them.
Six Maryland football players, including quarterback Josh Jackson, decided last month to opt out of the season because of coronavirus concerns. Even with more safety protocols in place, Evans said any decision to opt back into the season would be up to the discretion of coaches.
“What I’ve found is because of things being so fluid,” Locksley said, “if a guy decided to want to opt back in, we bring those guys in, we talk, we have a conversation and we make sure that for both parties that it’s the best situation for us all moving forward.”
Sandy Barbour, vice president for Intercollegiate Athletics at Penn State, told The BigTenNetwork that fanswon’t be allowed at games and there will be no public sale of tickets, but the conference is working to accommodate families for games.
Evans acknowledged that the prospect of a lost football season could have a severe economicimpactonthe athleticdepartment, one that already has its share of financial concerns. He estimated that the department was projecting a loss in revenue of about $60 million to $65 million without a football season. Salvaging a season will allow the department to recoup some of the revenue, Evans said, but “it’s still going to be a tough financial situation for usmoving forward.”
Ted P. Tatos, an economist at Econ One Research and former adjunct professor of economics at the University of Utah, said money is a big reason why the conference reversed its decision.
“The ultimate driver is money,” said Tatos, who wrote an article in May cautioning a premature return to college football. “I think they’re looking at the SEC and the ACC and their schools continuing to earn money or continuing to offset some of their losses. They putmoneyahead of the long-termwelfare of their athletes.”
Pointing out that universities are eager to recoup revenue from ticket sales and TV contractsandpayemployees anddebt notes on stadiums and other on-campus buildings, Tatos said the Big Ten’s reversal is not shocking.
“In that sense I’m not surprised that they decided to go this route,” he said. “I’m disappointed, but not surprised. To see universities with major football programs placing their own well being over the well being of their athletes is not new at all. It’s sort of par for the course.”