The World's Common Tater

Big 10 football is back The Big 10 has reversed course and has unpostponed the season. Football will start next month. They say they are able to do this because of improvement in testing. They will be able to test players every day with the quick tests and isolate the positives to slow the spread. I love football. I will enjoy watching Kentucky football when it starts next week. I do have questions, though.

My daughter is at a Big 10 school. She lives in an apartment near campus. I wrote about her college and coronavirus here. Every student had to be tested before arriving. They were also required to be tested again once they arrived. After that it was a couple of weeks before they were tested again. My daughter was tested again yesterday. Meantime, in person classes started.

My questions

– why is it OK for the football players to have access to daily testing while the students on campus get tested every couple of weeks?

– why is it OK for the football players to have access to quick tests when the rest of the students have to wait several days for results?

– at my daughter’s school they are telling them they should go home to isolate if they test positive. Will the same hold true for players or will they get special isolation housing with daily access to university health care?

– are we done pretending college sports is really college sports?

– will colleges be more likely to shut down campus to give football a bubble?

The pandemic and the response really highlights what we see as important. Football obviously trumps education in this case.