North Carolina athletics still expects to play football this fall

A campus outbreak won’t alter North Carolina football’s plans for the fall season

With very high expectations under second-year coach Mack Brown, UNC football fans will be relieved to hear that an outbreak at the Heels’ Chapel Hill campus will not dramatically impact the team’s plans as they prepare for a fall season.

North Carolina officials announced that 177 students are in isolation with another 349 in quarantine after a number of COVID-19 outbreaks campus-wide. This comes after reports of partying and a lack of social distancing on campus since students arrived. The positive COVID-19 rate, per student health’s reported potential cases, jumped from just 2.8 percent to 13.6 percent.

The severity of the situation has forced students to take classes online, and UNC administration has said it expects students to change housing plans (though that is not required).

So what does this mean for UNC football?

“Our student-athletes will continue to attend online classes, and may choose to remain in their current on- and off-campus residences,” North Carolina said in a statement.

UNC continued to say that practices and workouts will continue as scheduled, and games are still on the schedule for this fall. Brown has been confident of his team’s ability to remain responsible in a difficult time. A comment made as recently as last week expresses optimism in the likelihood of a fall football season.

“We have created a bubble since early, and the guys are understanding if you wear a mask, if you social distance, if you wash your hands, the risk is low, and they’re doing a great job of that,” Brown said at the time.

The difficulty comes with students returning to campus. Even with classes going online and a likely change in housing, football players will still be on a heavily-populated campus. Assuming they’ll be able to stay in isolation seems a bit premature.

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