The Mid-American Conference announced Friday afternoon that teams in the conference will return to play after a unanimous vote by the conference's council of presidents.
The MAC was one of the first leagues to delay or cancel fall sports in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday it became the last to reinstate some semblance of fall sports. A somber commissioner Jon Steinbrecher announced the initial postponement Aug. 8, becoming the first conference to do so. It all changed Friday.
"Our decisions, in August and again today, have been guided by an overriding concern for the well-being of the student athletes, institutions, and the community at large," he said in a news release. "Our medical advisory group, presidents, directors of athletics, and others, have worked hard to develop a plan that provides the opportunity for student athletes to compete."
The conference will play a six-game schedule. Play will begin Wednesday Nov. 4, which logically suggests a nationally televised game announcing the return of MACtion, the league's signature football product.
"We are grateful that the Mid-American Conference, our presidents, athletic directors, and medical teams have re-examined our opportunity to compete and have made the decision to move forward with a fall season," University of Akron head coach Tom Arth said in a release. "If we have learned anything over the last six months, it is how to improvise, adapt, and overcome. Our team has displayed great toughness and resiliency amidst all the uncertainty and to be blessed with the opportunity to play the game we love this fall means so much."
UA football team will return Tuesday. They had been in off-season mode, concentrating primarily on strength and conditioning under the supervision of recently hired director of athletic performance Deonte Mack.
What's changed since UA initially welcome players back in July? Better testing.
UA's medical training staff implemented stringent protocols for the football season's return in July. Not much will change other than being bolstered by four antigen tests per week beginning Oct. 5. If there is a positive test, a player would be given a more accurate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Students testing positive will enter a cardiac screening protocol.
For UA's football team, which will have four weeks to get into shape, it's a matter of whether the program can get up to speed quickly. During a recent interview coach Arth acknowledged that there have been some coronavirus cases since the conference made its initial decision. He said, however, his team could be ready.
"I've done it in two weeks when I was at John Carroll," he said last week. "I've done it in a lot shorter time in the past. If we get anything remotely close to typical number of practices a training camp would be, I think we'd be in great shape."
Football will be the only sport allowed to return, with other fall sports shifting to the spring for this year.
