What did the Pac-12 CEO Group decide on Thursday?
The Pac-12 CEO Group, which is comprised of the conference’s presidents and chancellors, announced Thursday that based upon updated Pac-12 COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee recommendations that take into account material changes to testing capabilities, the prevalence of COVID-19 and cardiac issues, along with updated state and local health official guidance, the Conference will resume its football, basketball and winter sport seasons. The football season may now commence for those teams that have the necessary state and local health approvals on Nov. 6, men's and women's basketball on Nov. 25 consistent with the NCAA's official start date for these sports, and other winter sports consistent with the NCAA season dates for those sports.
Why did the Pac-12 change its decision and vote to resume sports this fall?
In early August, three factors ultimately swayed the decision to postpone sports activities – most regions in the Pac-12 had a high prevalence of the coronavirus, sufficient testing with rapid turnaround was not available and there was uncertainty about the long-term effects, particularly heart health.
Since the initial Pac-12 CEO vote on August 11, much has changed in the Bay Area and throughout the Pac-12, and the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health and Well-being Initiative (SAHWBI) board issued a new report Thursday outlining its reasons to believe that there is a path forward to resuming sports activities:
- Community prevalence and percent of test positivity has improved in most places across the Pac-12 footprint and in the United States (with a few exceptions). In Alameda County, daily case rates have been declining since early August, and the county moved into the “red tier” Tuesday, a state of California designation that allows more businesses to open up.
- All Pac-12 member schools have confirmed the ability to conform to cardiac monitoring recommendations by the Pac-12 SAHWBI and have begun conducting cardiac work-ups on student-athletes with COVID-19. In addition, all Pac-12 members are actively engaged in continuing to collect data in a national COVID-19 cardiac registry. The SAHWBI will continue to monitor cardiac and other outcome information.
- The Pac-12 recently partnered with Quidel for rapid point-of-care antigen testing to begin, allowing for testing of higher-contact sports on a near-daily basis. Lab modeling has indicated that daily antigen testing with rapid turnaround time is expected to reduce infectiousness/spread by 100%.
The Pac-12 SAHWBI believes that the conditions for resumption of contact/competition can be met by the institutions when antigen testing is available on each campus. It believes that access to near-daily rapid point-of-care testing for contact sports will significantly improve the ability to prevent transmission of COVID-19 during higher risk of transmission activities, change the risk of travel, and provide a path for limiting the potential impact of quarantine. The SAHWBI believes this represents a higher standard than is employed elsewhere.
When will schedules be announced?
A seven-game Pac-12-only
football season will begin on Nov. 6, and the Pac-12 Championship Game will be on Dec. 18, enabling Pac-12 teams to be considered for selection by the CFP. The football schedule will be released in the coming days.
In
men's and women's basketball, the season will begin on the NCAA official start date of Nov. 25. Further details regarding basketball schedules will be released in the near future.
For the winter sports of
women's gymnastics, and men's and women's swimming & diving, each university will determine when practice may commence in accordance with local public health official guidance and the situation on campus. Final competition schedules will be released for those sports at a later date. Fall sports for which postseason championships were postponed by the NCAA until the spring will be conducted starting January 2021.
Will fans be able to attend games?
No fans will be permitted at any sporting competition taking place on Pac-12 campuses. The decision to not allow fans at competitions will be revisited by the Pac-12 based upon health and safety considerations in January 2021.
Was the Pac-12 CEO vote purely about football?
This is not a football decision. This is a winter sports decision that includes football. Discussions within the Pac-12 have included scheduling for all conference sports, and earlier this week,
the NCAA approved a plan for fall championships in the spring. We expect that schedules for all sports will be announced in the near future.
Other fall Pac-12 sports that were postponed (cross country, soccer, volleyball, cross country) will align with the new NCAA playing and practice seasons calendar in the winter/spring with NCAA championships in April/May.
How is the University working with Berkeley Public Health?
University Health Services continues to work in concert with local public health authorities to discuss a roadmap that will allow a safe return to full athletic activities. Conversations have been productive, and we are grateful for their leadership and partnership.
With the addition of rapid daily antigen testing for our contact sports, which is expected to be operational in the coming days, we are confident that we can significantly limit the spread of infection during athletic activity. We will be ready to move forward on a path to competition once we have approval to do so.
What does the Berkeley Public Health order allow?
Since the pandemic hit and shelter-in-place order went into effect in the spring, we have planned carefully for the return of athletics. In close collaboration with University Health Services, Cal Athletics has worked with the Pac-12 and medical experts throughout the West Coast to develop protocols for a safe form of physical activity.
The plan we implemented received approval from campus leadership and is consistent with Berkeley Public Health guidelines, which have called for physically-distant, outdoor workouts in cohorts of 12 or fewer with no or limited shared equipment. All participants receive daily temperature checks and verification of a lack of coronavirus symptoms, are required to wear face coverings at all times, and frequently wash hands. We have structured cleaning between cohorts and at specifically scheduled times.
Berkeley Public Health updated its order this week and provided the following guidance:
College sports teams must comply with applicable requirements of the Higher Education Guidance.
Additional City of Berkeley Measure:
College sports teams with an approved, institution-specific “return to play” safety plan may participate in indoor training. The return to play plan must be consistent with the applicable requirements of the Higher Education Guidance and
NCAA Resocialization of College Sports Guidance and include protocols for holding athletes accountable for off-field behavior. The return to play plan must be approved by the Health Officer. The Health Officer may allow college sports teams to participate in additional activities based on a demonstration that measures have been put in place to monitor the transmission of COVID-19 (e.g., daily testing), conduct contact tracing, and control community transmission.
What can you say about the Quidel testing machines?
The Pac-12 announced on Sept. 3 a partnership with Quidel to provide daily antigen testing for student-athletes in close-contact sports. The arrangement with Quidel will provide for frequent testing with rapid results, which had been one of the key concerns in the prior decision by the Pac-12 to postpone sport competition. The testing will also significantly reduce the number of contact traces required and the breadth of contact tracing required, with the goal of relieving some of the burden on local health authorities, as a result of removing or significantly limiting the spread of infection through athletics activity.
The Pac-12/Quidel testing program will be key to research efforts coordinated by the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Initiative (SAHWBI) as well as the Conference’s COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee, which has been advising the Conference on COVID-19 issues. A key focus of the Pac-12 SAHWBI’s independent research initiative will be to document and determine if a testing protocol that involves point-of-care rapid testing immediately prior to practice or competition can decrease or eliminate the risk of infection from sport interaction as has been proposed by some experts.
As of Sept. 24, Cal has received its Quidel machines, with testing expected to begin within a few days following training for staff who will operate them.
Who is paying for the Quidel system?
The costs are shared equally among all Pac-12 schools.
Can student-athletes opt out if they don’t want to play this year?
Any of our student-athletes who want to opt out of athletic activities this year due to concerns about COVID-19 will have their scholarships honored. They will remain in good standing with their teams, and there will be no judgment should a student-athlete not want to play this year.
The NCAA has also announced that all fall sport student-athletes will receive both an additional year of eligibility and an additional year in which to complete it through a blanket waiver.
Is there a concern that student-athletes are receiving special access not available to every student?
This was a decision made at the conference level with a lot of thought, deliberation and consideration of what is happening on our campuses. While classes are remote at Cal, the campus is not closed. We have about 2,000 students living in on-campus housing and a limited amount of research is being conducted in labs. The campus is also considering a phased approached to increase in-person activities that cannot be done remotely.
As Chancellor Christ said in her statement: As a campus, we have carefully monitored local pandemic conditions and have consulted regularly with local public health authorities as we have worked toward a phased re-start of activities that cannot be done remotely. We began with ramping up our on-campus research efforts, then allowed a limited number of students to occupy our residence halls, and now will carefully add in-person competition and practice for our student-athletes. We hope to announce the limited expansion of other on-campus, in-person activities soon. As with the decisions we have made to date, we will proceed deliberately and carefully, as conditions permit and in full compliance with public health orders and guidelines.
