College football is scheduled to kick off in less than three months, and there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful games will be played Labor Day weekend.
Universities across the country are taking the first cautious, detailed steps toward playing football in a pandemic, attempting to build coronavirus-free bubbles around their teams as players begin voluntary workouts.
Thousands of athletes will be tested for the COVID-19, the disease cause by the novel coronavirus, though not all. Masks will need to be worn – most of the time. Some schools will have players pumping iron this week. Others are waiting a few more weeks.
“There’s an element of this that’s kind of like building an airplane as you fly it in that we’re learning so much more really every week,” Notre Dame football team physician Dr. Matt Leiszler said. “But it’s a moving target at times.”