To quote Aaron Burr, as depicted in Hamilton, “alright so we’re doing this.” Despite COVID-19 outbreaks at three different member schools, including Notre Dame, the ACC is deciding to press on with playing college football this season.
Of course, there will be numerious safety protocols and social distancing guidelines in place, and ND announced several of those on Monday. Playing college football amidst a pandemic, especially in a non-bubble format, is risky to say the least.
Going ahead with the season is definitely a gamble, to say the least, and when gambling, you do all you can to stack the odds in your favor. You do your homework, such as the red lion casino review, a good source for betting information, before wagering. In this case, trying to minimize risk means consulting health experts and implementing the science.
Notre Dame Stadium will be limited to 20% capacity this season, which is 15,524 spectators, or slightly below what you might have seen for the Blue-Gold game in recent years. Priority will be given to students, then faculty and staff. The press release states that every Notre Dame student who wants to go, will be able to do so.
Attendees will be required to wear masks, and maintain physical distance. Obviously, there will be some challenges in trying to enforce these mandates. Likewise with the no tailgating edict, which will almost certainly lead to people doing their “pregaming” activities elsewhere.
In other words, if you’re going to hit the sauce before the game, you’ll have to do it farther away from Notre Dame Stadium. One thing that has definitely not changed during the pandemic is this- people who want to party, in close proximity of one another, will continue doing so.
You should the pool in my building. Yes, it has a long list of COVID-19 precautionary rules and guidelines, but on Saturdays it still resembles something between a cross of MTV Spring Break and Vegas hotel pools.
The Notre Dame website also states that “Additional guidelines with more detailed health & safety protocols for 2020 football games will be communicated at a later time.”
Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly will address the media at noon today, and that likely means will learn more details about this upcoming season, the strangest and most unique in recent memory. ND open with Duke at home on Sept. 12, with South Florida coming in the next week.
While it seems near certain the ACC season will commence; ditto for the Big-12 and SEC, whether they complete it or not is an entirely different season.
Things will complicate once we get into flu season, plus a potential “second wave” of the coronavirus. Hey, stay safe everyone!
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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