It is rare when one gets the opportunity to declare that a football field may be the safest space for football players to occupy. This is a sport in which ankles, knees and shoulders constantly are in jeopardy, which is to say nothing of the lurking danger to a player’s noggin.
Nebraska coach Scott Frost wants everyone to understand, though — especially the presidents of the Big Ten Conference member universities — that in these extraordinary times his Cornhuskers would be placed at greater risk if denied the opportunity to compete in 2020.
“The virus is going to be here whether we play football or not,” he told reporters Monday. “I feel 100 percent certain that the safest place for our football players, in regards to the coronavirus, is right here, where there is structure, testing, medical supervision.”
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This is what is being missed in the discussion about whether it would be wise for major college football conferences to conduct a season this autumn. If the concern is about athletes being exposed to the virus, it is quite possible that more of them will contract it if there is no season than if they play.
“No doubt,” a Power 5 athletic director told Sporting News. “That’s the paradox of this whole thing.”
We know what happened at Louisville: 29 athletes tested positive after exposure linked to an off-campus party, AD Vince Tyra said.
That’s not an uncommon story. There was a similar circumstance at Rutgers. There was an outbreak at the University of Washington, where 80 students in fraternities tested positive by early July.
Here’s what we also know: Athletes are highly motivated to play their sports, perhaps more so than ever after seeing them disappear for several months this spring and summer. Before the 24 teams that would be competing in the Stanley Cup playoffs left for their “bubble” settings in Toronto and Edmonton, they staged three-week training camps in their home markets. The NHL reported none of those athletes tested positive for COVID-19.
The experiences of the Orlando Pride and Miami Marlins, each of whom wound up with double-figure positive tests after multiple players reportedly visited bars before their competitions began, serve as reminders that no approach is guaranteed to succeed.
But is no plan better than a plan?
"We act like these guys can't get this unless they play football," Alabama coach Nick Saban told ESPN.
If student-athletes cease to be athletes, what would compel them to avoid gatherings and parties and bars where the virus is more likely to be spread? With a season to play, with rules in place from their coaches and athletic departments in order to participate, there would be a strong incentive to avoid such hotspots.
This was Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s point when he issued a statement Monday.
“I’m not advocating for football this fall because of my passion or my players’ desire but because of the facts accumulated over the last eight weeks since our players returned to campus,” he wrote.
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Harbaugh explained there have been 11 positive tests out of 893 taken by players since returning, three of which were upon arrival June 13. There haven’t been any in the past 353 tests, an indication football activity is not the issue. He further said there has been no contract tracing that’s shown the virus was spread anywhere at UM’s football facility: weight room, practice field, locker room.
Frost discussed his players’ obvious “motivation to make smart decisions and stay away from the virus because if they don’t, they’re going to lose what they love: They’re going to lose the opportunity to play football.”
It is not conceivable to construct a “bubble” in which a season’s worth of college football could be staged. Players still would be at risk of exposure in their daily routines were the season to continue. Given the testing available to college programs, the possibility of taking the virus onto the field would be mitigated.
Athletes also would be at risk of exposure in their daily routines were the season to be canceled. And those routines almost certainly would include less structure and discipline than customarily is the case when the season begins. One certainly could argue football players always would be safest not playing football, but if we’re talking strictly about the pandemic, that might not be the case.
