COLUMBIA - The Missouri football team is scheduled to start its fall camp Monday. Less than a week before the start of practices ramping up to a 10-game Southeastern Conference schedule beginning Sept. 26, the team has not had any players or coaches opt out of the season.
Along with the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences, the SEC has not elected to cancel fall sports competition because of the coronavirus pandemic, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 canceled their fall sports seasons earlier this week because of the pandemic, most notably in football, which sustains college athletic departments through television rights deals.
Both groups have publicly stated their decisions were made in consultation with local and national health officials, and evidence of long-term health effects associated with the coronavirus pandemic, including myocarditis, or heart muscle inflammation, helped sway the Big Ten and Pac-12 on Tuesday.
Smaller conferences and divisions under the NCAA's purview have already canceled fall sports championships and competition because of the virus, but the decision reached two of the college sporting world's biggest and richest conferences this week.
At Missouri, which has not had a widespread outbreak of the virus, the plan is to keep following the plans which allowed the Tigers to get within sight of the fall season despite the unprecedented complications.
"I have no idea what the future is going to hold for college football," Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said Wednesday on a Zoom call. "Every day, it seems like the information is changing, but I'm excited about the stance of (SEC commissioner) Greg Sankey and our leadership in the SEC, I'm grateful to the leadership of the ACC and the Big 12 for allowing us to continue to pursue the plans to have a 2020 season. There's going to be a lot of challenges ahead, I don't think we're all the way through all of them, but we're doing everything we possibly can to try to make this season successful and we're continuing to do that, and our team has been tremendous in doing those things."
The NCAA rules allow for 25 practices starting Monday, spread out across six weeks in preparation for the first game, which for the SEC is Sept. 26.
Missouri lost four players to the transfer portal - wide receivers Kam Scott and Khmari Thompson, running back Anthony Watkins and defensive lineman Antar Thompson - and added four, in wide receivers Keke Chism and Damon Hazelton, offensive lineman Michael Maietti and special teams player Grant McKinnis. Tigers offensive lineman Angel Matute medically retired after a medical redshirt exhausted his eligibility, and defensive end Jatorian Hansford (shoulder surgery) and offensive lineman Mitchell Walters (lower body break) will both miss fall camp.
The conference has not yet released a weekly schedule since announcing the added two opponents for the planned 10-game conference schedule, which for Missouri meant the addition of Alabama at home and LSU in Baton Rouge. The ACC has already released a weekly football schedule, and the Big 12 did so Wednesday morning.
Drinkwitz said the athletic department's commitment to following protocol has not led to any transmissions or outbreaks of the virus at on-campus facilities, and contact tracing has shown all known cases of coronavirus have come from off-campus interactions. He said his team's positivity rate since returning to facilities in June is less than three percent, compared to the state's seven-day average of 11.9 percent and Boone County's seven-day average of nine percent.
Missouri considered putting all players and staffers in a hotel to quarantine during fall camp but decided against it. Symptom checks, including temperature and pulse oxygen levels, are required to get in the building, everyone is wearing masks and socially distancing in the team facilities, and meetings are conducted in 15 minutes or less to reduce the chance of transmission.
"We're doing the very best we can," Drinkwitz said. "I don't think it's realistic to say that there will be zero transmissions of COVID. Again I only point to what I know and what I've read. There's going to be cases. But our guys have had world class care with MU Health. They've been taken care of, their parents have been in the loop, we've all been in loop. We've monitored when they've come back. We've done EKG testing, we've done blood work testing to make sure that these guys are safe, and we've been very fortunate so far."
Drinkwitz mentioned Dr. Stevan Whitt, who is MU Health Care's chief clinical officer and works in critical care, infectious diseases and internal medicine, and is Missouri's representative on the SEC's medical task force and Dr. Tiffany Bohon, the team physician, as medical officials who have overseen the athletic department's and the football team's plans to return to practice and competition. They, along with Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services, would also be the ones to tell Missouri to shut down should an outbreak occur.
Football players nationally have opted to sit out the season because of personal health concerns, including past heart issues and children or parents who could be put at risk. There have also been student-led groups, starting in the Pac-12, calling for better adherence to uniform safety and testing standards across all conference members, and asking for a more formal representation of players, to "ultimately create a college football players association."
So far Missouri has not had any players opt out of the season. A number of players, including star linebacker Nick Bolton and running back Tyler Badie, voiced their support for playing this season on social media.
"I feel very confident in the information that we've gotten, I feel very confident in our plan, I feel very comfortable with the way that we're doing our testing, tracing," Drinkwitz said. "I feel very comfortable with the information that we're putting (out). Look, nothing in life is zero risk.
"Nothing in life is zero risk. I understand that, our team understands that. I've told our team several times, I have your back. If you tell me you want to opt out, I have your back. If you tell me you want to play, I have your back. That's my job. So whatever they want to do, whatever they feel comfortable doing, is what we're going to do. It's an individual choice, and the players that are here have said that they want to play."
Drinkwitz said he is sympathetic to that discussion of risk, as he and his wife, Lindsey, had to make the decision whether to send their three eldest daughters, Addison, Emerson and Ella, to in-person classes this fall. The Columbia school board voted Monday to delay the start of school to Sept. 8, pushed back from Aug. 25, and is offering in-person, online and in-person hybrid classes, the latter of which moves half of the student's weekly class load online.
Missouri's campus started welcoming incoming freshmen Tuesday, and classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 24. For Drinkwitz and his staff, a big concern is how to get players who did not go through a full spring practice session or a normal summer workout session TO be in shape to play football. Drinkwitz credited head trainer Zac Woodfin for making sure the players were as prepared as they could be.
"He did an outstanding job of getting these guys into some sort of shape," Drinkwitz said. "Are we where we would normally be? No, absolutely not. I'm extremely concerned, and I told everybody they have to be ready. We're fixing to play a 10-game SEC schedule, we're only going to get 25 practices over the next 40-something days, so there's not going to be a lot of back-to-back and conditioning, we've got to give them two days off a week."
Drinkwitz also name-dropped the St. Louis Cardinals - maybe as a local touchstone - when making a point about canceling games or seasons out of fear and whether college football would be in a better place if there was a single decision-maker and not a scattered authority at the conference level.
"I can't believe we're looking at our watch on Aug. 12, and we've got people that are saying we're not playing football Sept. 26," he said. "I mean, that's like, that's like the St. Louis Cardinals canceling the doubleheader on Sunday because it's forecasted to rain and we're talking about it being on Wednesday. That's just crazy to me, but I'm a football coach, I don't know, I'm a football coach."
The Cardinals have played five games since the MLB season resumed in July, and have had 17 games postponed or canceled due to a coronavirus outbreak on the team.