ACC Medical Expert Believes Fall Football Can Be Conducted Safely
After the Big Ten and the PAC-12 made the decision to cancel the college football season for their respective conferences, the SEC, Big 12, and ACC all elected to stay the course and press forward in hopes of playing football this fall.
The ACC released a statement on Tuesday afternoon relaying that they would continue to listen to the advice of their medical advisory group in order to make the best decision possible for athletes across the conference this fall.
The chair of the ACC medical advisory group, Dr. Cameron Wolfe, is an infectious disease expert at Duke. Dr. Wolfe told Sports Business Daily on Tuesday that the conference believes it can effectively manage the risk of pressing forward during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We believe we can mitigate it down to a level that makes everyone safe. Can we safely have two teams meet on the field? I would say yes. Will it be tough? Yes. Will it be expensive and hard and lots of work? For sure. But I do believe you can sufficiently mitigate the risk of bringing COVID onto the football field or into the training room at a level that's no different than living as a student on campus," Dr. Wolfe explained.
It is clear it will be a long and tenuous road ahead for the ACC, Big 12, and SEC, but with the plans currently in place to play football this fall, all three conferences feel confident that a season can kickoff next month.
Whether or not it will be fully successful is anyone's guess, but conference presidents and medical experts feel as though they can navigate the season in a safe and effective manner.
