Big Ten football: 3 reasons returning this fall is a good move

1. The new testing looks like a game-changer

The emergence of daily, rapid, and reliable testing options is a big development.

So far, it has been generally agreed that players can transmit the coronavirus by playing football. Recent postponements of games involving Memphis, BYU, and Arkansas State raise questions about where their positive cases came from, but regardless, moving forward, the primary concern is making sure nobody contracts the virus during the game.

The Big Ten hopes that daily, rapid-response antigen testing with quicker contact tracing should ensure that nobody plays who is sick.

Sure, in addition to this, the conference has set team and population positivity rates that will determine whether play can go on. While the efficacy of these metrics can be called into question, frankly, it does not really matter as long as testing can identify and isolate the sick individuals. Forget the percentages in the state or on campus or even on the team. If enough players are proven healthy and available to play, then the game should go on.

Keep in mind that in this entire debate, the only variable is playing the game of football itself. Almost everything else is the same. Students are on campus, players are on campus, and teams have been practicing. Therefore, testing the day before taking the field is the key.

However, some might wonder about the safety of antigen testing as opposed to the more accurate PCR tests. After all, positive results from antigen tests are listed as “probable” cases as opposed to “confirmed” cases with PCR tests. Well, the Big Ten announced that all players who test positive using antigen tests will take a PCR test afterward to confirm the result.

That said, antigen tests are less sensitive than PCR tests, which can detect tiny amounts of the virus. Some specialists feel that antigen testing might not catch every infected person. However, PCR testing has been claimed to be “too accurate” by others since some positive PCR tests have identified people who are infected with the virus but are not considered infectious around others. Meanwhile, antigen testing will be able to identify those who pose the greatest risk.

Concerning this, Dr. Jim Borchers, lead team physician at Ohio State and the co-chair of the medical subcommittee of the Big Ten’s return to competition task force has said,

"“We know that if we can test daily with rapid testing in these small populations of teams, we’re very likely to reduce infectiousness inside practice and game competitions to near 100%.”"

Some might also wonder whether it would just be safer for the Big Ten to wait for a vaccine to arrive by the end of this year or early next year. Assuming that the vaccine acts like the seasonal flu shot and every player on every team gets it, the new vaccine can help protect players.

However, people still can get sick with the flu after receiving a shot and daily testing will almost certainly remain a requirement. Besides, this just goes back to my previous point that the only variable here is whether or not to play football, and according to Dr. Borchers, daily testing is the answer.

For a while, we have wondered about a bubble in college football. This is about as close as it gets.