After five months of uncertainty and varying degrees of doubt toward the probability of a college football season this fall, the 2020 season officially started last Saturday with an FCS matchup between Central Arkansas and Austin Peay.
The Bears beat the Governors 24-17, and despite concerns about the game being a vector for the novel coronavirus, 82 Central Arkansas players, coaches and staff were tested the following week with none returning positive results.
UAB opened the FBS season against the Bears on Thursday night, and no one from either team tested positive ahead of the matchup.
This is a welcome good sign after months of bad ones. Of course, it’s still a small sample size, and we still don’t know how feasible a college football season will be once it’s in its full swing, but at the very least, the preliminary result seems to have been a good one.
However, if the season is to run its course, schools must be accountable and transparent, especially when it comes to testing results. And unfortunately, the early returns from the Power Five are mixed, to say the least.
In an ESPN survey of the 65 Power Five programs, nearly half of them refused to disclose information about the number of athletes that have tested positive for COVID-19. Further, a third also withheld information about testing protocols for players.
Lack of transparency on Covid testing results of athletes, per report from @Mark_Schlabach and @pinepaula
Publics have no excuses. Zero. pic.twitter.com/mYN12jvA6f
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) September 3, 2020
Of these schools, 21 are from the SEC, Big 12 and ACC, which are planning to participate in the fall season. Ten are from the SEC, eight are from the ACC (including Florida State and Miami) and the remaining three are from the Big 12.
Florida is one of just four SEC schools to respond to the survey with data on both the number of players who tested positive and the number who received tests overall.
Throughout the entire Gators athletic department, 569 athletes have been tested with only 35, or 6.2 percent, returning positive results.
Natalie Dean, a biostatistician and assistant professor at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, told ESPN that openness about athlete testing results is critical to the viability of the sport.
“These teams are interacting closely. You can’t do socially distanced football. It’s a different set of risks than kids coming back to their classrooms and taking their classes,” she said. “It also informs decisions about whether schools should be playing against each other, because there’s interaction that way. It’s just a different set of considerations.”
Only 10 schools responded to all survey questions, and of those, just four — Clemson, Iowa State, Missouri and Oklahoma — are planning on playing football in the fall.
Greg McGarity, the athletics director at Georgia (which is among the schools to withhold both testing numbers and positive results from ESPN) gave a justification for the school’s actions.
“We’ve just followed our university protocols when we do have positive tests, whether they be staff, student-athletes or what have you,” said Greg McGarity, athletics director at Georgia, one of the schools that declined to answer any of the nine survey questions. “They’re reported through the university channels, and everything is done by the book.”
Though I would certainly like to take McGarity at his word that “everything is done by the book,” without proper accountability, it’s hard to.
Especially when you consider attempts made by public universities to cover up outbreaks within the general student body.
Often, universities cite federal privacy laws such as HIPPA and FERPA to avoid revealing testing information. However, legal experts say this is a misinterpretation of these laws, and it is permissible to disclose positive test results as long as general privacy standards are adhered to.
As for FERPA, @usedgov does offer guidelines: Coronavirus information can be shared with the public if it doesn’t violate students’ privacy or in emergencies including disease outbreaks, according to @usedgov. https://t.co/6LvYyWrhUX
— Meryl Kornfield (@MerylKornfield) September 2, 2020
Essentially, universities are worried about the bad PR that would come from revealing outbreaks, within or without the athletic department. They want to avoid becoming scapegoats.
And this instinct is understandable. But Dean explains here succinctly why it’s harmful.
“Places worry that they’re going to be on the front page of the news. That discourages them from being transparent,” Dean said. “But that’s putting those patrons and employees and athletes at an elevated risk.”
Admittedly, the college football season happening this fall for more than a week or two feels much more likely than it did a month ago, when the Big Ten and Pac-12 canceled their fall seasons.
But a lack of accountability threatens that. And if you want to see players suit up for the fall season, you should demand openness from these institutions.
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