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Northwestern AD: ‘It isn’t appropriate for us to play college football without fans’
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The idea of hosting athletic competitions in empty venues has been a topic of discussion for several weeks now. While it seems like a reasonable solution to get professional sports to return, it may not work as well at the collegiate level.
Northwestern Athletic Director Jim Phillips joined the Paul Finebaum Show on SEC Network on Friday to talk about the prospect of potentially playing games inside vacant stadiums. To him, it’s not really a valid option.
“It isn’t appropriate for us to play college football without fans,” Phillips told Finebaum. “If that were the case, it would mean there would be major reservations about group gatherings.”
Recently, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said that he could envision a return to sporting events by summer if stadiums were empty and players could be tested on a weekly basis. With college athletics, however, there are other factors involved. Not only does the atmosphere need to be safe for the student-athletes, but students will likely need to be permitted to be on campus before athletic directors, conference commissioners and the NCAA begin talking about restarting programs.
Whether or not that will be a possibility for the fall semester remains to be seen.
There are still several months until the start of the college football season, but many are expecting some sort of decision to be made by late May. At that time, we might know whether or not the COVID-19 pandemic will impede the start of the college football season or not.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB