Four of the five Power Five conferences have announced amended college football schedules. Some fall camps for teams playing in Week 0 start this weekend. So hope for the season is as high as it has been since the COVID-19 pandemic shut sports down in mid-March. Friday brought more promising news on the football front.
Several teams, including LSU and Texas, unveiled guards on the front of football helmets designed to protect players from the droplets that pass the coronavirus from person to person.
LSU and Texas showed off their new splash shields on Twitter. The plastic guard essentially is the normal football visor that is extended to the bottom of the face mask. Check them out:
Adapt. Adjust. Splash shields ready to go. pic.twitter.com/v0SW1xXA4m
— LSU Football Equip (@LSUFBEquipment) July 31, 2020
Masked up. Looking a little different this season. 🤘😷#ThisIsTexas #HookEm pic.twitter.com/XzEHBnKthc
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) July 31, 2020
NCAA released guidelines last week on how teams should manage practices during the pandemic. Players who test positive will be quarantined for 10 days, and others who have been in "high risk contact" with those players must be quarantined for 14 days. The NCAA defines "high risk" contact as being within six feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes in which one or more individuals are not wearing masks. Splash guards will qualify as acceptable face coverings, according to the NCAA, during instances where normal face coverings inhibit the ability to perform. The NCAA also suggests that teams practice in functional units of 5-10 players to limit close contact for prolonged periods of time.
Medical experts have said that wearing a mask can drastically cut down on the spread of COVID-19 if everybody wears them for four-to-six weeks.
