Too really good articles from SI
The first one is on the different medical advisory committees and how they can have largely the same information but make different decisions (it is largely due to 2 factors - timelines and risk-tolerance)
How is it that the Big Ten and Pac-12 deemed it too unsafe to play this fall based on medical experts, but the SEC and Co. are pressing on?
www.si.com
“I can’t tell people, ‘You are doing the wrong thing.’ What I can tell people is, ‘You’re doing a risky thing.’”
If the SEC kicked off the season this weekend, Catherine O’Neal doesn’t know if she’d approve such an endeavor. And that’s O.K., because the SEC does not play a game this weekend. Nor does it play a game next week or even in a month. That’s why the SEC, unlike its western and midwestern brethren, hasn’t shut down athletics. Using a patient and phased approach, the league isn’t skipping steps. Voluntary summer workouts turned into required workouts which became enhanced training and, next week, will arrive at full-contact practice.
The league’s medical panel cleared teams for each one of the steps. It has not yet cleared the conference to play a season.
“I can’t speak for the other medical task forces, but from our perspective, our questions have been very cautious about what is happening today and what’s happening the next couple of weeks,” says O’Neal, an infectious disease physician in Baton Rouge and the leading voice on the league’s medical panel. “We haven’t dared to address what’s happening in a month or two months. We say that every time we meet: ‘Things are going to change so rapidly. Let’s proceed cautiously and re-evaluate.’
The second one is how miserable it is for everyone involved in college athletics on every side
From the college ADs to the coaches to the players, the last few weeks have been mentally exhausting.
www.si.com
As i've said in the past few weeks I still like how the SEC has approached this. They have gone very slowly and cautiously and bought themselves as much time as possible. It may work out, it may not, but they are giving themselves the best chance. The only downside to their approach is that if you eventually get to a stop sign in mid-to-late September the disappointment is going to be even worse since you got so close.