American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco told ESPN on Monday that its three-times-a-week coronavirus testing protocols have worked out "extremely well," and he is encouraged that league teams will be able to make it through conference play and to the end of the season.
Though the Big Ten and Pac-12 have announced plans to move forward with daily antigen testing, Aresco joined ACC commissioner John Swofford in saying there are no current plans for the American to change what it is doing, citing the more reliable PCR tests it is using. The American does PCR testing twice a week and the rapid antigen testing on Fridays.
"We think we've had very good success with it," Aresco said. "We're looking at ways to possibly do daily testing if it makes sense down the road, but right now those two PCR tests are gold standard tests in terms of reliability. The antigen test on Friday is an additional safeguard because that test is not as sensitive yet as the PCR tests, but it can detect someone might fall through the cracks or who could pick up the virus in a very short interim period."
Different medical advice among conferences and disagreement among doctors and those on medical advisory committees is one of the biggest reasons all leagues did not start at the same time. The American, SEC, ACC and Big 12 all moved forward with their seasons believing the three-times-per-week testing protocol would be a good way to identify positive cases and quarantine others who came into close contact in order to play as safely as possible.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 doctors believe daily testing adds another level of safety to being able to practice and play. Big Ten doctors have said daily testing eliminates contact tracing, which has proven to be a major issue with game postponements and cancellations. But that remains an open question in conferences that want to stick with the PCR tests because they are more reliable.
Several teams across the country have had games postponed or canceled, including American member Memphis, which will not play for a second straight weekend because of coronavirus issues. Aresco said Memphis has done contact tracing and "they felt there was interaction with families and friends after the [first] game, some of whom they traced to be positive," leading to positive tests on the football team and contact tracing quarantine.
But Aresco also noted they expected for disruptions to happen before the season began, and made the schedule as flexible as possible to accommodate situations like the one Memphis is dealing with right now.
"We haven't been really fazed by that because we knew that would happen," Aresco said. "You could argue you had X number of games that had to be postponed, but in the end that was expected and we're in good shape to play a reasonable conference season with enough nonconference games to make it representative. That's what we were hoping to do. I do think it's really important to note we postponed these games out of safety; we're not just playing games because we wanted to get the games in -- the health and safety thing is absolutely critical.
"Our medical guys will not sanction a game where they feel there's too high a risk and that's the reason you've seen some of these games get postponed. Could some of the games have been played with teams short-handed? Yes, but health and safety came first. You don't want a situation where you don't have enough depth, and you've got to play young guys who aren't familiar with the situation and you risk injury. We've tried to be really careful, and I think we can do that, continue and get most of the games in. We'll see. I don't know if I'm right or wrong at this point, but I'm more encouraged than I was and pleased that our guys have done a really good job to play as many games as we already have."