COLUMBIA, Mo. — While the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences have made the decision to postpone their football seasons, the other three members of the "power five" are soldiering on.
The SEC, ACC and Big-12 have made it clear they're going to try to play their seasons this fall amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as news seems to break, and plans seem to be altered on an hourly basis.
In Columbia, the University of Missouri has started to welcome students back to town for the fall, and its football program is preparing for a season that as of now, is still happening.
But as we've seen, things are liable to change at a moment's notice. Right now, Mizzou Athletic Director Jim Sterk is is in the middle of that rapidly altering landscape of college football.
"We've tried to take the advice from our medical folks, and some of that best advice we've received is to be patient," Sterk said. "Take time when making decisions because things can change, like I've said monthly... weekly... hourly. And this is all new."
Right now, Sterk is exercising that patience as students return to Columbia.
"I think we have to evaluate where we are in the next two weeks, and part of the reason we backed up was to see what would happen when students returned to campuses, and give us time to evaluate and monitor what was going on with all the students coming back," Sterk said. "So as of this past weekend probably 70% of our students are already here in the Columbia area."
Right now, Mizzou football is practicing, with testing and social distancing measures in place.
Sterk said that so far, the team has not had any positives occur in any athletic facilities. Any exposures have happened either before players came back to school, or out in a social setting.
Mizzou head football coach Eliah Drinkwitz said the team has a less than 3% positivity rate.
Drinkwitz is in his first year leading the Tigers, and is having to deal with quite a bit more than the typical acclimation that comes with a new environment.
The charismatic coach said on Wednesday he has had multiple conversations with his team, and that he supports their individual decisions on whether or not to play this season. But Drinkwitz is gearing up for a season until someone tells him not to.
"Nothing in life is zero risk. So 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 you tell me you want to play, I have your back.' That's my job. And so whatever they feel comfortable doing is what we're going to do." Drinkwitz said. "And it's an individual choice. The players that are here have said that they want to play. And they feel confident in the plans that we have in place and the information that we're giving them, and the testing and protocols."
With the recent conference postponements, some have turned a questionable eye to those conferences who are still planning on a fall season. Drinkwitz reminded everyone on his Zoom call Wednesday that the season was still more than a month away.
"Regardless of how it turns out, I can't believe we're looking at our watch on Aug. 12 and we've got people who say we're not playing football on Sept. 26. That's like the St. Louis Cardinals canceling the double header on Sunday because it's forecasted to rain and we're talking on Wednesday," Drinkwitz said.
When and if Mizzou football does hit the field in 2020, they might not end up being alone inside the stadiums of the SEC.
Sterk said he expects if football goes forward as planned, he expects fans being allowed inside for games will go along with it, in a reduced capacity.
"I think there will be fans, if we have games there will be fans. And I think for us we first started looking 50%, and now we're at about 20% occupancy is what we're kind of modeling," Sterk said, which would put Memorial Stadium at roughly a capacity of roughly 15,000-20,000. "We haven't finalized those numbers until we get closer to the first of September."
So until someone tells them otherwise, Mizzou is gearing up for a 10-game, conference-only schedule unlike any season we've seen before.
