Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith made himself available for the media via teleconference Wednesday and had some pretty encouraging things to say. First and foremost, nothing is a done deal, and there are plenty of things to work out still, but according to the evolving situation, Smith is getting a little more comfortable with having games without fans.
Smith had previously stated that he couldn’t see games occurring without fans. It seemed to be an arrow to the heart of Ohio State football in the fall.
“It seems inconsistent to me that we could say it’s unsafe for the fans to be in the stands but it’s safe for the players, to be in that gathering environment,” Smith said in on a teleconference with media members in April.
Now, however, Smith is starting to at least be open to the idea. Wednesday, he relaxed his stance on the possibility of seeing OSU football in an empty stadium.
“Obviously that’s still a conversation that all of us are having in the Big Ten and across the country — and I struggled with it at the beginning,” Smith said Wednesday. “As I continue to have conversations, I’m becoming more comfortable that if that is where we end up — and I’m optimistic that we won’t — but if we do end up there, then I think we can accommodate it. It’s still, for me, an interesting challenge to think that we could create an environment where our players who are in contact physically can be safe, but we couldn’t come up with a strategy to create a safer environment for X- number of fans. So I still struggle with that concept. However, I could get there if that is ultimately what we do.”
But it didn’t stop there. Smith now says that he believes that accommodations could be made for football games in the fall with fans, and with as many as 22,000-50,000 fans depending on the current government measures in place with social distancing.
“Obviously, we’re fortunate 100,000 seats in the stadium,” Smith reiterated. “So, could we implement the current CDC guidelines, the state guidelines around physical distancing, mask requirements, and all those types of things in an outdoor environment and have obviously significantly less fans than what we are used to? I think it’s possible. I just feel like we have the talent, skill, and space capacity to provide an opportunity for a certain number of fans to have access to our particular stadium. Of course, that wouldn’t be true across the country because of capacity. But I think we can get there.”
That’s not to say that guidelines in the state of Ohio will allow that, but if things are relaxed, He’s optimistic there won’t need to be games without fans at all.
Smith clarified his stance on the number of fans the ‘Shoe and staff could accommodate afterward on Twitter.
Just want to clarify:
The number of fans we could host in Ohio Stadium this fall under physical distance guidelines could be as low as 22k, but also may be as many as 40-50k if guidelines are relaxed. pic.twitter.com/VEUPFPc4V8
— gene smith (@OSU_AD) May 20, 2020
This is some very encouraging news on the heels of the NCAA’s vote to allow football and men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes back on campus to engage in voluntary workouts beginning on June 1. The NCAA’s vote comes after news broke that Ohio State itself is preparing for football athletes to be back on campus as of Monday, June 8.
So, it’s all trending in the right direction, and that’s much further along than probably any of us thought we’d be just a few weeks ago.
Now, that doesn’t mean things won’t revert back the other way around with a rise in COVID-19 cases, or further news to the detriment, but it looks like college football in the fall is starting to become a real possibility.
For now, be optimistic Buckeye Nation. Keep your tolerance high and your expectations low, and more than likely it’ll all work out.