Most college football programs across the country have either postponed their seasons to the spring, or cancelled altogether.
At the FBS level, only the Big 12, SEC, ACC, AAC, Sun Belt, and Conference USA are scheduled to play. That's good news for fans in the metroplex, as SMU, TCU and North Texas are all planning for seasons.
But how did these conferences decide to proceed when others, like the Big Ten, Pac-12, MAC, and Mountain West bowed out?
It wasn't an easy decision.
"I think all of us have spent a lot of time thinking about it, stressing about it, and worrying about it," said UNT Vice President and Athletic Director, Wren Baker.
One of the most important processes was listening to doctors, specifically on the subject of Myocarditis, a heart muscle inflammation disease that has been linked to some COVID-19 patients. Baker outlined what Conference USA officials heard.
"The consensus of the doctors was that there are some unknowns, but most of those unknowns are not going to change between now and the spring," says Baker.
One of the things that is known is that sometimes a bout with COVID-19 causes Myocarditis. If a student-athlete gets COVID-19, they will automatically have a heart screening. If during that screening Myocarditis is discovered, the athlete won't be back on the field until the disease is successfully treated.
So the main problem becomes containing the spread of COVID-19 across the program. Some schools have reported outbreaks of dozens of cases since workouts started this summer. Baker says the doctors recommended testing every 48 hours to lessen the opportunity for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread.
"If you can get to a place where you can test multiple times a week, and we're going to be at three times (a week)...you are greatly limiting the risk of transmission of the disease within your student-athlete population," Baker said.
For some athletes, there are even larger concerns than COVID-19. With the uncertainty of the length of the season, they wanted to know if they would lose a year of eligibility by participating in their sport this year.
Last Friday, the NCAA ruled that fall sports athletes will not lose a year of eligibility in 2020-21, no matter how many games their school plays in the fall (or the spring, for that matter). Baker says that was a big sigh of relief for UNT's athletes.
"There was a lot of stress, anxiety, apprehension (for student-athletes) about that," said Baker. "For a lot of these young people, this has been the driving force behind a lot of their ambition, and a lot of the things they've been able to accomplish academically and socially. They very much want to play. And they want the full experience."
Baker pointed out that, at UNT, it will cost more to play games in fall, then to not play. The added costs of testing and safety protocols, plus limiting attendance to 25%, makes it a less than profitable option.
"It really comes down to: how long are we going to keep everything on pause, and can we do this safely?" Baker said.
For now, Conference USA and North Texas are pressing "play," and keeping the well-being of student-athletes paramount.
