6/30/2020 football Edit

Oregon State AD Scott Barnes Talks CW Decision, COVID Testing, and more

Brenden Slaughter • BeaversEdge

Publisher

Oregon State Athletic Director Scott Barnes joined RipCityMornings with Dan & Nigel on Tuesday morning and BeaversEdge.com Managing Editor Brenden Slaughter has the full breakdown.

PROMO: Join BeaversEdge.com and get 30 DAYS FREE!

Q: Can you speak about the Civil War decision? Was this something that had been in the works for a while?

Scott Barnes: "This has been something that's been on Oregon State and Oregon's radar for some time. Whether it be students, faculty, or stakeholders, we've been getting questions about it for a while. With that all being said, it seemed like if we were going to change it, now was the time to do so.

(UO AD) Rob Mullens and I had discussions with all the interested parties and we came to the decision that it was time to move on. When we think forward, we're thinking about how important this rivalry is. Just because the name is changing doesn't mean that we don't see this as one of the best rivalries there is. We will engage our stakeholders and begin the process of renaming.

After the 4th of July, we'll all come back to the table and begin the brainstorming process for selecting a new name. Rest assured, this rivalry is going to last a long long time, and this will only bring more attention to it."

Q: You've recently had one student-athlete test positive, what exactly is the protocol for that?

Scott Barnes: "Obviously we were going to have a positive test and we presume that we'll have more. The protocol for that is isolation after a medical exam right away. That particular student-athlete isn't able to return until they're symptom-free for 72 hours or more than 10 days from symptoms starting.

When it comes to contact tracing, we want to know who that individual has been around and those folks are in a 14-day qurantine.

One thing that we're doing daily is that all the support staff and 200 student-athletes are all wearing wristbands from the daily check-in's. Wearing the wristband signifies that you've gone and checked in to get your temperature checked and answered the questions relating to any potential symptoms.

One step further for the student-athletes is that we have an app that they use to log their daily activities for more precise contact-tracing. They fill it out with how they're feeling, any potential symptoms, and who they've been in close contact with. All that said, we'll have positive cases, but we've got a robust protocol in space.

Q: Is there a point where these workouts would potentially be shut down or are you feeling it out on a day-to-day basis?

Scott Barnes: "All the protocols we've put in place are in coordination with state and local health officials. Along with that, any decision we make won't be our decision, it'll be from the experts. We're in constant contact with them and there's no number that would get us to shut down, it's more their judgment and following their lead. We will take their lead as we always have in this process."

Q: How many models are you looking at as far as fan attendance goes and when might you have to make those decisions?

Scott Barnes: "Generally speaking, we're going to need to finalize those decisions by the end of July for sure. The models are ever-changing, so we're always evaluating and building new ones. There's been some discussion about diving into spring and talking about that too. This whole thing changes on a dime, but our models cover those scenarios. We'll have to make the decision for fan attendance in coordination with local health officials and Pac-12 representatives by the end of the month."

Story continues below

Q: Has there been some thoughts between the Pac-12 schools about keeping all games in-conference?

Scott Barnes: "It certainly has been discussed and modeled. The reason is to make sure we have the safest path forward in place. We're looking for a standard nationally between FBS and FCS schools when it comes to testing. We wouldn't want to put our student-athletes out on the field with an out of conference FBS or FCS program that hasn't yet achieved our level of testing and precautions, so that's why those conference-only models exist."

Q: Is there any concern with other conference schools having their own way of releasing COVID positive tests?

Scott Barnes: "We (all Pac-12 schools) are all following the exact same standards led by the COVID medical advisory board that the PAC-12 put in place with medical experts. We follow their lead the entire way. We're all reporting differently, but there's no concern about schools not being upfront with their positive test numbers."