OU is back; mask up, says Joe C.

In what has been one of the most eventful weeks in college football history, there’s almost a sense of normalcy as it pertains to Oklahoma.

The Sooners football team is returning to campus Friday, and the Big 12 conference is full steam ahead in trying to move toward a 2020 season.

After OU began preseason practice July 31, the Sooners took a break last Saturday. There were logistical reasons, for sure, with OU’s game with Missouri State being moved from the Aug. 29 date. However, the mental toll was another reason as the question of there being a season no doubt weighing on everybody’s minds.

We’re still 29 days from the actual season, but OU is ready to start planning as if football time in Oklahoma is indeed coming back.

That starts with another round of coronavirus (COVID-19) testing.

“They will go through the same medical protocols they went through when they came back to campus,” said athletic director Joe Castiglione in a Zoom call Friday. “The same as our teams that are returning to the campus for the first time. They will all be tested and won’t be permitted to practice or come in the facility until those test results are known.

“We’re going to manage it the very same way we have with any of the other testing procedures. I can’t get into speculating what it may or may not be. We’ll just handle it as we previously said and then if there are positive tests and if contact tracing is warranted because they were local, then we’ll follow those protocols in a strict fashion.”

The Big Ten and the Pac-12 conferences announced Tuesday they were postponing their fall seasons, but it’s back to football talk in Norman.

Embrace the mask

And if football is going to go down in Norman, fans must get accustomed to wearing masks and embracing all the safety protocols that will come with attending a game in 2020.

OU’s student-athletes will be wearing masks on campus, whether they’re indoors or outdoors. Castiglione is looking for that same type of cooperation from the fans, which as it stands right now, is expected to be at around a 25 percent capacity.

“The same thing we're going to ask of our fans when they come to a game, if we're able to have fans and have a game, there's going to be a masking requirement (to) come in to the stadium and to stay in the stadium, you'll have to be wearing a mask through the entire experience,” Castiglione said. “That's just the way it's going to be.

“I understand that might not be what people want to do. I respect that. I respect the fact they don't want to go again and wear a mask. But if you're going to come to the game at Oklahoma, it's going to be a requirement.”

Castiglione stressed it’s going to be about discipline. The same type of discipline that saw OU only have one positive COVID-19 test out of 656 tests in the last month will have to be present when the rest of the student body arrives and classes begin.

There’s also a belief because of the additional testing to implemented during the season that OU will be better prepared if anything should happen.

Flexibility still the key

If COVID-19 has taught college administrators anything, it’s about flexibility and adjusting. Nothing is concrete, and contingency plans have to be made as well as contingency plans to those original plans.

It’s normal to want a clear-cut answer as to how many positive COVID-19 cases would be enough to warrant a shut down or delay in the football program, but there’s no way to know because there’s so many variables associated with each case.

Same goes with the capacity numbers within the stadium. Castiglione said they’ve worked with all the medical experts they can to figure out how to get the approximate 25 percent, but if changes have to be made, they certainly will adjust.

Missouri State to be Pay-Per-View?

There’s no question OU and Missouri State have had a tremendous working relationship during the last few months. They were in agreement about moving the game from Sept. 5 to Aug. 29. They found ways to make the current Sept. 12 scheduled date work.

A lot of OU fans assume part of that partnership comes the understanding the game will be on pay-per-view. Castiglione said that’s not 100 percent certain at this juncture.

“That’s a fair question, too,” Castiglione said. “Games like that, one per year, have been pay per view. But that’s still being discussed with the adjustment of our season and the reduction of two games. That’s one of the items being discussed behind the scenes and we’ll have information on that as soon as it becomes available.”

Castiglione said he has been extremely appreciative of Missouri State athletic director Kyle Moats because of his ability to roll with the punches.

One part of the Big 12’s component in deciding to move forward was implementing a three-test process each game week. Missouri State has not fought that and will test for COVID-19 three times in the week leading up to the game.

“In terms of the testing, they have agreed to all of the testing procedures we are doing here at Oklahoma,” Castiglione said. “Exactly the same. They’ll be testing three times the week of the game just like we are. We haven’t worked out all the details, but it’s likely the third test would be performed here in Oklahoma once they’ve arrived. The samples would be collected and would be processed here. All this has been going on since just the other night, so we don’t have all that worked out yet.

Joe C. is human, too

From one extreme to another, that’s been a story about COVID-19 for the last several months. And Castiglione has been right there, in trying to determine if personally he was open toward a 2020 season happening.

I’m human. It’s been the primary thing on my mind,” Castiglione said. “I’m trying to process the best information as it becomes available. I’m no different than anyone else. I’ve tried not to get caught up in too many emotions of the moment because those have swung to extremes since we’ve gotten to this point.”

The doom-and-gloom period of the spring. The optimism in June to things swinging in the wrong direction in July. It has been a roller coaster.

Make no mistake about it, though. Castiglione believes 100 percent in attempting to play, taking the advice of the medical experts they’ve been consulting.

“At every juncture before we make any decisions or continue to go forward, I’ve relied closely and really consistently on the medical experts,” Castiglione said. “It’s not just one or two or three. It’s several that we have access to here in our own state, connected to our campus or what we’ll be able to aggregate through relationships we’ve made from the beginning with outside medical experts in our conference.

“What we’re hearing nationally and triangulating that information to work with our medical experts to provide the safest path forward. I feel confident that we are.”