No vote today. They'll meet again next week. The Blade reports that they're considering a 6-8 game schedule possibly beginning Oct 24. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29920009...

I'm not an expert here but this requires thinking well beyond just what it takes to play football. If you treat the football players differently than the rest of the students it complicates future legal arguments that they are employees rather than just students. If they get sick while you are making money off of them and you know you are putting them in a precarious position with their long term health you put yourself in future jeopardy if lawsuits like the NFL did with concussions. It is what separates the Division 1 football and basketball issues form high school and is why the NCAA wanted everyone to wait even if the SEC and ACC were having none of that. It was a no win situation for major college athletics. Nobody argues that most high school players are more employee than student.

In some ways by delaying the Big Ten, Pac 12, MAC, and MWC protected themselves from lawsuits by acknowledging the health issues and showing that they wanted to make it better. But in another way it puts you in more jeopardy as the SEC could claim ignorance (even though I think that argument would probably go nowhere) the Big Ten obviously can't now. So they couldn't start unless there was clear reason to show that things are different now than when the original decision was made. The MAC also, I don't think, can just restart without medical experts satisfying the legal experts that they can make an argument that that have clear reason to believe they can get it under better control than they could a couple of months ago.

The Big Ten is going to spend massively on testing. For the MAC the problem is not only the logistics of this, but in a year with no payout game, maybe no ticket revenue, and probably even less TV revenue than usual if you do play, is also the cost of that.

If there was no decision today I'd bet if they do play before spring it will be starting Oct. 31 with only 6 games. I have always thought that a spring season might only be 6 games as well since there is so little recovery time before fall.

What about the other sports? Lawsuit waiting to happen especially in terms of title IX.

If they can get the rapid tests the big 10 s going to use my understanding that is going to be less then $10 a test.

Anyone have info on how many tests have to be given for a given team?

Does it have some variance from conference to conference etc.?

Just curious how large of a scale the testing is done on.

They probably charge $352 for tests paid for by health insurance and the lower prices for tests that aren't.

I think it's a matter of different test types. The PCR tests require a full lab analysis. Those are the expensive ones, and $352 sounds about right. Then there are the quick result tests. Some of those require a machine, such as those for Athens-based Quidel. They sell a machine for something like $50,000 to places like Urgent Care clinics, plus a variety of tests, including tests for Covid, the flu, etc. The clinic's cost for a test is something in the $10-30 range, I think. What they charge is another story, but an Athletic Department could certainly buy a machine, and then purchase the test kits directly.

I believe the Abbot test may or may not also require a machine. I don't know. I do know that an article said the wholesale test price was $5. Note that that is just for the test, and doesn't include the nurse to take the nasal swabs, nor the handling, nor the machine, nor the facilities, etc. If you are going to be doing hundreds of tests a day, though, it may be cheaper to do your own tests than to pay someone else to do them for you.

Finally, there are some tests in development that are very different from the ones mentioned above. Those are designed to be sold to end users. The end user spits on a strip of paper, puts it in a test tube with some chemical, and shakes it up, and a few minutes later has the result. Those tests are being developed with the hope that they can be sold for $1 each. Note that they are not as sensitive. It takes a higher viral load to get a positive result. Thus, it won't be positive in the first day or two after exposure, and it won't be positive late in the infection. However, it WILL be positive during the time the person has a high enough viral load to be contagious. The goal for these tests is that, for example, all students could be tested every morning, and you could avoid cases spread at school.

It is very difficult to compare costs on tests because there are so many types of tests out there. As an example, one of Quidel's test not only tests for Covid, but with a single test tests for Covid, the flu, and a couple other things. That enables an Urgent Care clinic to do one test, and then be able to diagnose multiple different possible reasons for the patient's symptoms.

Feels like a bargain. How many fall student athletes are there? And any idea how frequent the testing regimen was intended to be?

I doubt very much we'll be able to play this fall. 2-3 schools against it, one for safety reasons, the others for financial reasons. Perhaps this is a wake-up call to core members (Toledo, Miami, Ohio, Ball, Buff, Kent, Western, CMU) that it's time to reconstitute with schools that are committed to FBS.

MWC might go without Hawaii, Fresno, AFA, maybe some others. CUSA is on despite ODU begging off. Any word on whether the MAC might go without some teams?

I have to agree. You can't let the leagues future rest with a few schools that don't have the resources to play football. I say move on without them.

Just read in an ESPN article:

"OK, a lot of people are telling me these announcements have already happened or will happen as soon as Thursday of this week. What, you thought I was referring to the Big Ten and Pac-12? Poppycock! We're waiting on the MAC and Mountain West. Heck, we'd settle for just the MAC East and Mountain West West; or even the MAC West."


ESPN loves the MAC