On Friday the 2020 Oregon Ducks donned their practice gear and helmets and officially began their fall camp at the Hatfield Dowlin Complex.
Or, at least something that’s supposed to resemble fall camp.
As much as Coach Mario Cristobal and his staff would like their daily practice sessions and workouts to be normal, that simply isn’t the case in this era of Covid-19.
Oregon, like most college football teams, finds themselves housed in their own bubble. It’s a tightly controlled atmosphere where only coaches, players, and staff are allowed into.
This protective sphere is just that.
It’s the new world that sports teams find themselves in to prevent themselves from contracting the virus that has already killed more than 210,000 Americans.
In order to comply with the Pac-12 conference and local health authorities the Oregon Ducks, and all-conference schools, will be given a daily antigen test.
The antigen test is a rapid testing protocol created by Quidel that searches out specific antigens or proteins produced by the virus.
Results are delivered within minutes.
The hope with this rapid testing technology is to locate those individuals who are pre-symptomatic and remove them from the group to reduce any chance of spread.
It’s a way of locating the virus in its early stages and removing the source or host before it can be spread to others. It’s a protocol that is said to deliver more than 95 percent accuracy.
If a student athlete does test positive for the virus they’re then given a second test to confirm the positive test.
It’s an entirely new world for these student athletes.
Not only do they have to worry about contracting a dangerous virus, but they also have to maintain their educational studies, team meetings, learning offensive and defensive schemes, and their on-field fitness and training workouts.
That’s a huge load for any student athlete.
What’s not clear is what happens if multiple players or coaches test positive in any given week. Will that week’s game be cancelled or played?
There’s no clear direction from the conference if something like that were to occur.
What is known, is this new era, and modification in college football is something that’s never been done before. We’ve seen teams in the previous several weeks play extremely well with little to no change in the way they perform.
That said, there have also been teams who’ve seemed incohesive and inconsistent. Can this be directly tied to this new adaptation of protocols?
Only time will tell.
WHAT ABOUT THE MEDIA
As it stands right now, all media are forbidden from being allowed into the Oregon football bubble during practice and likely during the season.
All post-practice interviews are being delivered virtually through Zoom for the foreseeable future. It’s likely going to be the same during the season in post-game press conferences.
Media will be allowed into the press box, but the logistics of how many is yet to be determined by the Oregon communications department.
While the post-game protocol hasn’t completely been decided yet, it’s likely all members of the media allowed into the press box on game days will also be forced to watch post-game interviews through closed-circuit television, or by some virtual system that allows media to ask questions.
In the past and in a limited setting, members of the media were allowed to not only watch the first 30 minutes of practice, but they were also able to observe players coming and going from the practice fields to the team locker room to get a glimpse of any health issues that might be in play during that specific week.
The media was also able to talk directly and in-person with players for feature interviews or simply to ask questions about their play and that week’s game.
Right now, that’s no longer allowed. And it’s understandable. There’s a lot at stake, including huge amounts of television dollars. If a game were to be canceled that revenue is lost.
Not to mention the personal safety, health and well being of the student-athletes.
It’s certainly a different world and will take some getting used to for all of us that are in the world of college football.