The debate over campus closing and athletes playing is not a fair one.

As Carolina sports teams, and those of other conferences around the country, try to open their seasons after the student bodies have been off-loaded to remote learning, the dispute is raging.

How can we send students away and let the jocks stay and play? That is the question of the moment, the hour, the day, the week and month. Honestly, I think there is a simple answer.

Did Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and his team plan all summer to bring the students back with the best of intentions? Of course, and for various reasons – with responsibility shared – it didn’t work.

So why are Tar Heel teams still in Chapel Hill, practicing and preparing to play games? Because they can safely, for now, and will continue to do so as long as safety rules.

You cannot control the behavior of 20,000 students, and perhaps that was a foolish premise from the start. But mind you, planning for UNC’s Roadmap to Reopening began when the coronavirus numbers were going down across the state and nation, only to hit another surge.

We can get into why Duke, High Point and Wake Forest have pulled it off so far. Much smaller student bodies, more conducive campuses where entrance and exit are more easily monitored and fewer obsolete high-rise dorms that can be super spreaders by nature.

Even with the 100-plus people in the football program, that number is far easier to control than students who can go anywhere, live anywhere and do anything they want. All UNC athletic teams are in pseudo bubbles, meaning they are instructed to take classes online and study at the Loudermilk Center or in their rooms, eat at training tables and go back to their dorms or apartments – and nothing else. Coaches have a chance to control that with the promise that if someone gets infected, the whole team and season are in jeopardy.

When they begin playing games against opponents who have different pathologies and protocols, maybe it will work and maybe it won’t. But like UNC in general has learned, it’s worth the try.

 

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