Why 13 Kansas NAIA schools forge on with football in face of uncertainty in COVID-19
College football in the age of coronavirus kicks off for the first time in Kansas this Saturday, as a handful of schools from around the state decide to forge on during the uncertainty stemming from the pandemic.
Most attention will be directed toward the season-openers for Kansas and Kansas State, the two Division I programs, although they won’t be the only Kansas schools playing football on Saturday.
With the MIAA (Division II) and Jayhawk Conference (NJCAA) waiting until spring to play, the spotlight is on the state’s 13 NAIA schools as the only non-D1 level of college football in Kansas this fall. Despite the NAIA also postponing its football postseason until the spring, the KCAC and Heart of America are determined to play football this fall.
“We are a cohesive group of schools that felt like opening our doors and getting back to normal as quickly as possible was the right thing to do,” said KCAC commissioner Scott Crawford. “We set a plan and we’re in the process of executing that plan. I think it remains to be seen if that was the right decision.”
So what is the plan?
The plan involved several contingencies, ones that are already being tested after a handful of Week 1 games from the two conferences have been postponed due to positive COVID-19 cases: Bethany-Saint Mary in the KCAC and four of the six HOA season openers, including Benedictine against Peru State.
“We expected this, or at least I expected this,” said HOA commissioner Lori Thomas. “After we did our baseline testing, there weren’t many overall positive cases, but there were more asymptomatic than symptomatic. So I think it’s a great thing that we are catching things early. I’m not surprised at all. I figured we would have some delays.”
The baseline testing Thomas referred to was an NAIA mandate for every coach and student-athlete upon their arrival to campuses in August. But due to monetary constraints from its schools and the lack of testing to go around, the NAIA does not require additional testing.
Each school has the autonomy to test however much they like, but only a select few of the 13 Kansas schools plan to test outside of symptomatic cases. Even then, the testing would be sporadic.
Since frequent testing is not possible, the KCAC and HOA are doing the next-best thing: requiring daily screenings with coaches and players taking their temperature and completing a survey of health questions. Results are logged throughout the week by the school for each program and then shared with the conference commissioner to review.
While this method should quickly identify symptomatic cases of COVID-19 to isolate individuals and conduct contact tracing, the stark reality of the situation is that without frequent testing asymptomatic cases could create a cluster.
“Is that a concern? Absolutely,” Crawford said. “But there’s always risks in life and I think we’re doing the very best we can to mitigate the circumstance.”
Why play in the fall at all?
By playing in the fall, the KCAC and HOA have created a longer “runway” to complete the fall season. Since the NAIA postponed football’s postseason until the spring, the conferences feel like they can be more cautious in their approach to postponing games this fall.
The NAIA has stated that no forfeit is required if a team is unable to compete due to COVID-19 concerns.
That’s why so many of the HOA schools did not hesitate to postpone their opening games this weekend. Many were rescheduled to October. And if more postponements happen, teams have the option to keep pushing back to November or even finish their schedule in the spring months.
“That’s why we are going to be extremely cautious,” Thomas said. “We’re always going to take the cautious route.”
In its return-to-play manual, the 11-team KCAC states that games will “cease until further notice” if the conference drops to fewer than six teams competing in a sport.
If the regular season is completed in the fall, then the top teams from the KCAC and HOA would still be eligible to play in the NAIA playoffs in the spring. The two conferences have traditionally combined for at least three of the 16 playoff bids.
Both conference commissioners believe that teams that qualify for the NAIA postseason would have the opportunity to play an additional game, or at the very least a scrimmage, in the spring before the playoffs begin.
“If you push everything to the spring, then you’ve just cornered yourself,” Thomas said. “We can’t anticipate the spring is just going to be open and free for everybody to play.”
What about fans in the stands?
The KCAC and HOA have required schools to cut their seating capacity for football games to 50% bare minimum, but almost every school has opted for more strict measures.
Geography seemingly played a role in how strict schools were.
In the Kansas City area, only Benedictine (22% capacity) is allowing fans at its games; Baker, MidAmerica Nazarene, Ottawa, and Saint Mary are not.
Meanwhile, in South Central Kansas, fans are allowed at every school with a range from 10% capacity at Bethany to 36% capacity at Bethel.
Many schools have implemented priority levels for available tickets with the majority reserved for those affiliated with the student-athletes or the school. Baker, Benedictine, and MidAmerica Nazarene cannot host visiting fans through September, per HOA policy, while Southwestern is the only KCAC school not allowing visiting fans at its games.
Wearing a face covering is mandatory for fans at every NAIA school in the state other than Tabor, where it is strongly encouraged, and Sterling, where it is only required when fans aren’t in their seats.
Benedictine, Bethel, and Kansas Wesleyan are taking extra precautions at their games, requiring fans to complete a temperature check and verbal health screening before entering the stadium.
This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 11:52 AM.
.jpg)