Want to save college football in 2020? Put the players’ safety first

If college football’s plan for coming back were a football play, it would be a broken one. Athletics officials are scrambling, improvising and hoping that the swarming pandemic will part enough to let football go forward.

So far, basic questions are unanswered. How will players be protected and how often will they be tested? Will fans be allowed? Is there a point at which the level of COVID-19 infections would make it too hazardous to play?

Scott Stricklin, the University of Florida athletic director, summed up the situation to ESPN: “Anybody who tells you they think they know right now is making it up.”

College football needs to do better than that. It can start by presenting a clear plan for coming back and establishing what metrics will make a return possible. That plan will require a big switch for big-time college football. For once, it will have to put the players’ welfare ahead of the bottom line.

Players around the nation started returning to campus June 1 for voluntary workouts and the risk was immediately clear. More than 100 football players have tested positive for the coronavirus. More positive tests are inevitable as infections spike in Southern states where football is king.

To their credit, some programs have been open about how the coronavirus is penetrating their teams. Clemson, for instance, announced last week that 23 football players have tested positive. N.C. State plans to announce overall results for athletes and athletic staff, but not specific teams. The University of North Carolina said it will not disclose the numbers. Duke’s disclosure policy has not been announced.

A successful comeback will require transparency. Otherwise, the public will rightly think that big-time programs are hiding COVID-19’s impact on players – and all they come in contact with – as the schools pursue TV dollars.

Professional athletes have insisted that their sports’ comeback plans protect their health, but they have the strength of unions. College football players are relying on protection from the very system that often exploits them. Now some college players are demanding more than “trust us” from athletic officials.

Last week 30 UCLA players signed a letter demanding that a “third-party health official” monitor the program to ensure that COVID-19 safety protocols are followed. They also want an agreement that players who choose not to play won’t lose their scholarships or face other retaliation.

Their letter said: “We feel that as some of the first members of the community to attempt a return to normalcy, we must have assurances that allow us to make informed decisions and be protected regardless of our decision.”

College football may yet pull off a season and capture a share of the revenue that supports major college athletic programs, as well as businesses and economies in many college towns.

But athletics officials, boosters and fans will need more than a hunger for money and entertainment to pull off a season in which COVID-19 will be an opponent in every game.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted last week that the fall could bring a second wave of infections even as a new flu season adds pressure on hospitals.

“Unless players are essentially in a bubble – insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day – it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci said.

If college football wants to go ahead with a season, it will have to build a better plan – and a better bubble – to protect the players.

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