You may have already heard this by now, but if not, let us fill you in. Last week, the University of Oregon announced plans to have in-person classes in the fall. Much like other colleges and universities, instruction has been virtual since the measures were put in place to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.
We’re still waiting to hear what Ohio State is going to do with fall classes, but this news seemed to give many a glimmer of hope that a certain football game between two likely top ten teams out in Eugene on Septemeber 12 would happen.
So what does it all mean?
Not much really. There’s still so much to figure out with how this is all going to work next week, let alone three to four months from now.
One thing we can say though is that this is better news than Oregon saying there isn’t going to be any in-person classes around this timeframe. However, what we should caution and know by now is that this COVID-19 pandemic is very fluid. What happens if cases spike again after the country tries to slowly open back up? What if testing still isn’t to the point where it needs to be?
All of these things need to be hammered out and there’s simply no way to know the answers to any of them at this point. What we cold guess is that yeah, there could be real, live face-to-face instruction happening in Eugene when it’s time for this anticipated matchup to occur, but it’s very likely that this country won’t be in a position to allow over 50,000 fans to congregate together without putting many at risk.
At this point, that’s probably more probable than the alternative of having a rabid fan base taking in a college football game in close proximity of one another. Now, the game could still go on without fans in attendance, but there’s also a slew of hurdles that have to be cleared before that can occur.
Bottom line — this is a step in the right direction, but only one that begins to get things to a walking pace rather than the sprint that’ll need to occur to have the college football season back to its normally scheduled programming.
Stay tuned …
