With another athletic season quickly approaching in college sports, the NCAA has announced new COVID-19 guidance for fall sports.
The primary difference is the testing requirements for Tier 1 individuals based on their vaccination status. The NCAA defines Tier 1 individuals as those in college athletics who are at the most risk for exposure to the novel coronavirus, which include student-athletes, coaches and medical staff.
“Despite widespread vaccine availability, current vaccination rates are inadequate to provide community-level immunity and vary significantly state by state and county by county,” the NCAA said in a document released Wednesday outlining the guidelines. “However, because of emerging evidence that the delta variant is highly transmissible, and that fully vaccinated individuals can become infected by the delta variant and transmit COVID-19 to others even when asymptomatic, the concept of community-level immunity becomes less relevant. Instead, prevention strategies become paramount.”
As part of its management considerations for Tier 1 individuals, the NCAA is recommending a PCR test or two antigen tests on non-consecutive days within three to five days of those individuals’ arrival on campus or their return to campus from summer break. Non-vaccinated athletes won’t be able to train or compete until a single PCR test or both antigen tests come back negative.
Once competition starts, testing is being recommended for non-vaccinated individuals during weeks when no games are scheduled. Testing within three days of the first competition of the week (PCR) or within one day of each competition (antigen) is also recommended. The NCAA isn’t requiring vaccinated individuals to be tested unless they’re symptomatic or based on a risk assessment of a documented close contact.
No restrictions are being recommended during training or competition regardless of an individual’s vaccination status. Universal masking for non-vaccinated individuals is recommended during team meetings and other athletic activities while indoor masking is being recommended for vaccinated individuals.
The full guidelines can be found here.
During Clemson football’s media day last month, head coach Dabo Swinney said his team was not fully vaccinated but that the Tigers were “heading in a good direction.” Swinney said he got vaccinated in March and that he and his staff are doing everything possible to educate their players.
Swinney said he’s hopeful the potential on-field consequences of not getting vaccinated will also provide his players more incentive to do the opposite, though the decision to get inoculated or not is ultimately up to them.
“They don’t have to say, ‘OK, we’ll just reschedule this game (like last season),'” Swinney said. “They’ll just forfeit the game. They didn’t reschedule that World Series. So you just miss out on opportunities, but you can mitigate that away this year. There’s a different option. So I think our guys, they get that. They understand that.”