Studio 12: Latest Update from Ross Bjork

Athletics Director Ross Bjork stopped by Studio 12, the department's official radio show and podcast, on Wednesday to provide fans and the public with the latest in the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on not only Texas A&M Athletics but the collegiate landscape in general.
 
Selected topics of discussion are available below and links to the full podcast are available as well.

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Click Here to listen to the full interview.

Is a Decision Looming?

The SEC's leadership has been in almost constant communication throughout the whole crisis, and those efforts have been ramped up even more as seasons loom closer. Bjork and the league's athletics directors will meet at least three times this week alone, and the SEC's presidents and chancellors are also slated to visit this week as well.
 
"There could be decisions this week…I describe it as a 'check-in point' for where we are. Does that mean there may be an intermediate-type decision? A 'hey, we're not making a final decision on the entire season, but here's what we know today and we'll make this decision'? That could happen. Conversations are evolving."
 
Bjork pointed out how they are paying attention to news they're seeing out of the fellow Power 5 leagues who have yet to make any official decisions, the ACC and the Big 12, and that the SEC's power brokers are staying on top of those discussions and watching the evolution of them across the collegiate landscape.
 
And as he has all spring and summer long, Bjork preaches patience.
 
"Let's see where we are at the end of this week. There might be decisions. There might be 'hey, we're still at the yellow light, we're not at the green light and we're not at the red light'. That could happen. Then we get into next week and we start practices and training camp, and volleyball and soccer also start. School starts on August 19. There's just a lot of things, I think and believe, that are coming together where we can make decisions…but perhaps there are intermediate steps along the way here."

Testing, Testing, Testing

Based on what we know from learning from our colleagues around the country, we believe that our testing is as robust and as frequent as anyone in the country, if not more. In fact, right before we started countable required activity on July 13 for football, we actually decided proactively to do another test, the week before. Really just as a status, a 'hey, where are we, what's happening within our football team'? We had a few positives from that testing, but we had less quarantine folks, meaning that there wasn't as much social activity. I think the student-athletes are learning a little bit. But we wanted to do that proactively, and that's how we've approached all this. 
 
"Right now, as we sit here today on July 29, we have just a limited number of active cases across all our student-athletes that are back here training. We think that the education piece has worked. It means our testing protocols have worked. We're checking symptoms on a daily basis. We're doing daily screening as they walk into facilities. We're obviously requiring masks. All the protocols and all of our planning are working, because we are following those protocols when we do have a positive case. We quarantine, we contact trace."
 
Bjork says the cooperation and assistance of the Texas A&M and local communities has been critical in making sure the Athletics Department's plan to return to action has seen success.
 
"I'm really, really proud and lucky to be at Texas A&M because of the campus-wide resources. The University has set up a command center, working with the Brazos County Health Department, around contact tracing. We're plugged in to that. They actually liked the resources we had early on, Brazos County Health (Department) and the (Texas A&M) School of Public Health…we actually became sort of a model in terms of putting more resources on the table. (It was) a real comprehensive approach and we're glad to be in the position that we are."
 
The plan also accepts the realities of the current situation and sets the University up to respond when those appear. 
 
"Look, here's the thing. We expect more positive cases. When more student-athletes return, when we start practicing and competing, we can't just assume that we're not going to have any cases. That's why we have a plan, because we anticipate there will be more positive cases. We've had positive cases, we acknowledge that. The numbers are all reported through Brazos County Health (Dept.). And we know that we're going to have more. 
 
"It's really about how we deal with it. We're not going to mitigate risk entirely, but how do we handle it once we do have positive cases?...Anybody who believes that you can mitigate any risk at 100 percent, that's just not possible. It's what is the safest possible environment and making sure that people are educated. And that's what we've tried to do every step of the way." 

Learning from the Pros 

The topic of the recent outbreak within the Florida Marlins came up, and Bjork says it's a data point—maybe not a positive or a good one, but a data point none the less—that must be followed as the path forward continues to be laid down.
 
"They (MLB) didn't panic. (They said) what's the problem, let's get to the bottom of what the problem is, let's isolate the Marlins…They announced they didn't have any other positive tests except for that one team. So they were able to isolate it and try and determine how it all happened, and then they pivoted from there. 
 
"This is to me what's going to happen in college sports. We may say we're playing 12 games. Or, we're playing 10 games, whatever the number ends up being. You might just get through 10 of those games…maybe not because of us, but because of our opponent. Or, maybe because of us. And our opponent has to sit idle. That's really how I think this thing will probably unfold in a best-case scenario: here's the number of games we're planning on playing, and if we get through 8 out of 10, or 10 out of 12, or 11 out of 12, or 9 out of 10…that might be a best-case scenario."
 
No matter what happens, Bjork says, fear cannot dictate the decision-making.
 
"If you operate out of fear, you get paralyzed. Because then you don't make any decisions. That's where we're at right now…look, we have to protect our student-athletes as safely as possible. But you also can't operate out of fear…because then you get paralyzed, and you might as well shut down for the rest of the year. And that's not going to happen. That's not what society needs. That's not what our young people need…we have to keep believing and we have to use that positive approach…We have to stay positive, we have to stay optimistic, but we have to confront the facts. Whatever the facts are, let's confront them, let's not hide anything, let's be honest about where we are. That allows you to move forward."

Rivalry Renewed?

As tends to happen in the social media space quite often, the topic of a renewed matchup against Texas reared up this week. Bjork put those rumors to rest.

"It's not a conversation over here. We're not talking about it. No one from Texas has approached us in an official capacity to talk about a game or a series. They're booked out through like 2034. We're actually working on a series for like 2030-31, so we're booked out through 2032...there's just not room to play them. So I don't know why it keeps coming up, but it does."
 
 
 

Click Here to listen to the full interview.