Being an avid OSU fan, I was quite upset and disappointed when it was announced that the fall season was canceled, as many on this board obviously are. The thing that ticked me off the most was that there seemed to be no logical rhyme or reason to postpone the season to the spring, instead of just playing the full season now, especially when you released a conference schedule for fall seemingly moments before deciding to postpone it. Today while browsing through the fallout of the BIGs decision on the internet, and trying to come to terms with no football being played this season, I came across some interesting information regarding the COVID-19 virus that likely impacted the strategy to postpone the season to the spring.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/87758
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/08/athletes-coronavirus-heart-complications/
Recent studies have revealed that otherwise healthy people who have recovered from the virus, without necessarily even having any symptoms during the virus's initial run through, can develop heart problems at an extremely high rate.
The study of survivors prospectively found lingering myocardial inflammation and other cardiac abnormalities on MRI in 78 out of 100 people
Often, people are getting myocarditis after recovering from the initial virus, which can lead to sudden heart attacks and heart failures.
Fulminant myocarditis was suspected in 7% of patients with lethal outcome.
Inflammation of the heart is exacerbated by physical activity, and doctors often recommend to take it easy for 3-6 months until everything goes back to normal.
Personally I know someone who died of a heart attack out of nowhere back in February. Otherwise perfectly healthy individual, not even 50 years old, no COVID symptoms or anything, and now I suspect this was the cause. As a general PSA, make sure to take any heart abnormalities with an extra grain of salt moving forward.
Now, how does all this play into the BIG canceling football? Well, these studies just came out on July 27th, and more work needs to be done to determine exactly whats going on, as 1 or 2 studies, no matter how well done, do not prove anything. In particular, how will it affect athletes? What if there are more lingering dangers of the virus that we don't know about? Will the schools be liable for player medical costs for years to come? What if a player dies of a heart attack right in the middle of a game? Im sure this is where the "too much uncertainty" comes into play.
To be frank, I don't see how any conference plays football this fall, as their lawyers are probably all screaming at them for just mentioning the idea. Everything the Big 12, SEC, and ACC has been doing just seems like political posturing to me at this point. Can you imagine what would happen if a player gets a heart attack and dies, especially after all these other conferences have canceled or postponed their seasons?
The good news is that we may indeed be able to play football in January. As more data comes out schools may be able to implement additional safety regulations and testing guidelines that protect players from such things, so springtime football may not be just empty talk. I'm certainly hoping that is the case anyway.
