WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on Thursday pressed college presidents on safely reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic. Murphy has previously questioned CDC and other government officials for guidance on reopening and testing, particularly as it relates to schools. At today’s hearing, Murphy honed in on the safety of college athletics, pressing Purdue University President Mitchell Daniels on how athletes and fans are going to practice proper health precautions in sports arenas.

“…I want [college sports] to come back for the right reasons, and I want it to come back safely. And so I wanted to ask a series of questions on this topic, because I think it's important,” said Murphy.

Murphy continued: “What happens if you've got a scholarship player who doesn't feel comfortable coming back? Let's say they've got a mother at home or a grandfather that's got medical complications, if they decide not to play football this year, because they just don't think it's right for them, do they maintain their scholarship?”

Murphy also expressed his concerns about COVID-19 as Athletic Directors seem adamant about filling their stadiums: “You have the Iowa athletic director on the record—he’s a member of your conference—saying that right now his plan is to let everybody into the football stadium and anybody who wants to come watch…So it worries me that we are contemplating putting hundreds of thousands of adults and students into stadiums, especially when the professional sports leagues don't seem to be entertaining that idea."

Full transcript of Murphy’s questioning is below:

MURPHY: “Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all. This has been incredibly helpful for all of us. Mr. Chairman, I want college sports to come back. I want sports in general to come back. I miss it. For me, it's a release from this job and I can't wait. At the same time, I want it to come back for the right reasons and I want it to come back safely. And so I wanted to ask a series of questions on this topic, because I think it's important.

“Maybe I'll start with you, Mr. Daniels. I think it's interesting that college sports teams are coming back for practices before professional sports leagues are feeling that it's safe enough to come back. And while I've read through what your university is doing to try to protect students that are returning. These are contact sports. There's no way ultimately to have social distancing for a football team or a soccer team.

“And so what happens if you have an outbreak over the course of summer training or in the early fall on your football team or on your women's soccer team? What's your protocol? Do you shut that team down? Do they stop playing the season? Do you just segment off the players who have tested positive? This is a potential for a super spreading environment if you're not careful.”

DANIELS: “I completely agree with you, I think you would shut it down. Somewhere out there. Someone may very well face this hits situation. Our teams are resuming individual workouts later than some but they are coming back to that. They're then group workouts that the conference we belong to as prescribed some guidelines and we will follow them in some cases exceeded them.

“But I think you're quite right. And, and we love sports too, but first things first, and that starts with the safety of people, players, coaches. Don't forget that people who may be at most risk of a spread here are the older folks, coaches and others. So I hope we get back. But if, if it takes longer or if it is subject to interruption, then so be it.”

MURPHY: “Let me ask you one specific question, if I could drill down. What happens if you've got a scholarship player who doesn't feel comfortable coming back? Let's say they've got a mother at home or a grandfather that's got medical complications, if they decide not to play football this year, because they just don't think it's right for them, do they maintain their scholarship?”

DANIELS: “Yes, they would. We've honored scholarships at Purdue for a long time for people who couldn't play for or continue for some reason could be injury or some personal tragedy. So that would not that would be consistent with our policy.

“And I think I can speak with authority for our athletic department, that we would see that as the right thing to do and the thing we were we ought to do.

MURPHY: “I appreciate that. I will note that that is not right now the standard for all NCAA schools, and I think it'd be important for us to make sure it is. And then lastly, and maybe most importantly, what are you going to do about attendance at sporting events this fall? Because that's what I really worry about. You have the Iowa athletic director on the record—he's a member of your conference—saying that right now his plan is to let everybody into the football stadium and anybody who wants to come watch, you can. You know, we had a situation in Westport, Connecticut before this was an epidemic, where 50 people got together for a birthday party. One person had Coronavirus, one of the first in the northeast to have it at the end of that party half of them had it and the virus was often running on the east coast.

“So it worries me that we are contemplating putting hundreds of thousands of adults and students into stadiums, especially when the professional sports leagues don't seem to be entertaining that idea. What's your understanding today? Are we going to have fans in stadiums for events in your conference this fall?”

DANIELS: “I can't speak for any others but we're not looking at going beyond one fourth of the capacity of our 57,000 person Stadium right now. This has been mapped out just as we have mapped out classrooms and in dorm rooms to measure distance and then exceed the requirements. We would be doing that too. So it comes out to about one fourth on the work we’ve done.

“Now we know that outdoors is very different that it's very hard to spread this outdoors, but we're still going to take an abundance of caution approach. I cannot tell you about indoor sports right now, I don't think I see a way that we can proceed on anything like the basis that we've all been familiar with.”

MURPHY: “I appreciate that that's still, you know, 10 to 20,000 people all together for an event. I think that may be a pretty dangerous endeavor. And I think it's interesting compared to professional sports, who have decided to make a different decision. I think it's a topic worth continuing to talk about. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

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