The big problem has to do with housing students on campuses. In order to put those football players on the field you first have to put them in a dorm. It is where they live and eat, not where they play the game, that the spread happens. And there is a great deal of evidence that housing students on campuses has been a major contributor to the spread of COVID, since students at universities (unless virtual) travel great distances from home to school, making a university a perfect vector.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020...acker.html
No doubt campuses can (and have) created different kinds of living conditions for their athletes than for the rest of their students in an effort to reduce risk. Keeping most students virtual but housing athletes on campus, as Stanford has, is much more successful than what the SEC has done. But even Pac-12 efforts have frequently failed, or else we would have played WSU this weekend, for instance.
But worse, having athletes on campus (so as to keep athletic revenues from cratering) has been a driving force for many universities to reopen their campuses in general, rather than staying completely virtual. So you could say that the effort to keep athletes in competition has contributed to the massive outbreaks of spread (321k cases) at American universities. And the fact that most college students are not badly affected by the disease actually makes their potential for spreading it worse, not better, since they remain active and many are asymptomatic. If they got sicker faster, they would know to isolate sooner.
Stanford has been doing things right. We have had 175 cases. Washington State, by contrast, has had 1,407. I don't know how we pulled off the game with Colorado. They have had 2,236 cases. Oregon 595. Cal 249.
But take a look at those universities that have in-person classes. Just call them the nation's petri dishes. Ohio State 4,665. Alabama 3,219. Georgia 4,387.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020...acker.html
No doubt campuses can (and have) created different kinds of living conditions for their athletes than for the rest of their students in an effort to reduce risk. Keeping most students virtual but housing athletes on campus, as Stanford has, is much more successful than what the SEC has done. But even Pac-12 efforts have frequently failed, or else we would have played WSU this weekend, for instance.
But worse, having athletes on campus (so as to keep athletic revenues from cratering) has been a driving force for many universities to reopen their campuses in general, rather than staying completely virtual. So you could say that the effort to keep athletes in competition has contributed to the massive outbreaks of spread (321k cases) at American universities. And the fact that most college students are not badly affected by the disease actually makes their potential for spreading it worse, not better, since they remain active and many are asymptomatic. If they got sicker faster, they would know to isolate sooner.
Stanford has been doing things right. We have had 175 cases. Washington State, by contrast, has had 1,407. I don't know how we pulled off the game with Colorado. They have had 2,236 cases. Oregon 595. Cal 249.
But take a look at those universities that have in-person classes. Just call them the nation's petri dishes. Ohio State 4,665. Alabama 3,219. Georgia 4,387.