Bowlsby expects testing every couple of days will be a condition that determines whether it is possible to playGETTY IMAGES
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby expects the college football season to be played in part due to the fact that available testing for the coronavirus "is going to go way up" in the coming months. Bowlsby appeared on FS1's "Fox Football Now" last night and said information from the White House Task Force estimates that testing will "probably double for each month from here on out.” He expects testing “every couple of days” will be a “gating condition” that determines whether it is possible to play. However, Bowlsby acknowledged that even with hospital-level sanitation efforts, there likely will be "a Tuesday afternoon where somebody tests positive in a locker room and we’re going to have to quarantine." That could cause that weekend's game "to be delayed, canceled or postponed.” He is preparing to do “matchmaking of games” during the season, but he is not currently planning on preemptively adjusting the schedule to lessen travel. Bowlsby said other conference commissioners are of a similar thought, saying, “Most of us at the present time would like to see us start on time and start with the structure that's on the schedule right now.” While media coverage currently is focusing on football, Bowlsby is concerned about basketball and wrestling season as well. He said, “It’s a little tough to social distance in the sport of wrestling. And if you do it in the sport of basketball, you go to the bench” ("Fox Football Now," FS1, 5/18).
NO DECISION ON RETURN TO CAMPUS: Bowlsby said that there "isn’t a decision yet on the date," but the options for student-athletes' return to campuses are "pretty well-defined." He said, "We’re still in midstream. We have to get back by sometime around the middle of July, because otherwise we’ll have to push the season back." In Dallas, Chuck Carlton notes until "very recently, there had been an all-or-nothing mindset that seemed to surround college athletics." But Bowlsby and others now are "suggesting a middle ground with safeguards." Bowlsby: "I don’t think you end up having one positive test at one university and cancel the whole season. But I think if we got to the point where there was a significant proliferation on multiple campuses, well you have to have someone to play" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 5/19).
LEARNING TO LIVE WITH IT: Bowlsby indicated that learning how to "safely 'co-exist' may be required in order [for] a football season to be held this coming school year, assuming no vaccines is developed in time." He said, "We're going to have to find ways to co-exist with (the virus) and this is likely to be a bumpy road for the next 24 months or so. We should expect that there will be disruptions" (247SPORTS.com, 5/15).
