The University at Buffalo athletic department has been diligent in its pursuit of limiting the spread of Covid-19.
UB athletic director Mark Alnutt told The News on Wednesday that in 2 1/2 months of baseline testing, there have been only seven positive Covid-19 tests in the athletic department. There have been 1,058 tests among 388 athletes and 110 staff members since June 15.
But as the school year begins and as the NCAA mandates Covid-19 testing for athletes and athletic coaches and staff, those testing procedures and continued prevention methods cost money.
Knowing that – and knowing the financial binds that some stakeholders face – UB launched its “Make it PossiBULL” fundraising campaign, which aims to raise $1 million that will be dedicated to Covid-19 expenses. The year-long campaign is aimed at alumni, UB fans and donors.
People are also reading…
“Losing this revenue, we want to find a way to close the gap,” Alnutt said. “In particular, we have to reach out to the community and to the alumni and to the fans, and have them continue to recognize the Covid-related costs.
“For us, it’s also to continue to provide opportunities to student-athletes, even when they’re not competing. The opportunity to practice, the strength and conditioning aspect, film review. There’s so many guidelines in place we have to follow, and one of those is the testing component. It’s costly, but we understand and recognize that, and we want to continue to be in a position to do this.”
Covid-19-related costs for the UB athletic department could run up to $1 million; Alnutt estimates NCAA-mandated testing for athletes will cost UB at least $650,000. Additionally, UB faces an estimated loss of $8 million in revenue from its athletic budget after the Mid-American Conference postponed fall sports on Aug. 8.
Transparency about UB’s financial situation, Alnutt said, is very important.
“We’re a public institution, and people know and look at how we’re funded and that we rely heavily on state and university assistance, along with student fees," he said. "We need to be a good steward of our monies. We need to be transparent that the money we’re raising is not for the next shiny new toy. The money is to realize the gap we have, and to realize that it is going to help us continue to follow NCAA guidelines in regards to Covid-19, including any testing, PPE (personal protective equipment) and any related Covid-19 costs.”
UB will move from baseline testing, which it used this summer with its athletes and athletic staff, to surveillance testing during the fall semester, up until the start of in-season winter sports competition.
While UB’s fall athletes in football, women’s soccer, volleyball, and men’s and women’s cross country are not in competition, teams are allowed to continue training, conditioning and meetings.
The start dates for winter sports competition are varied by sport. Basketball is scheduled to begin Nov. 10, but CBS Sports reported Tuesday that the Division I men's and women's basketball oversight committees will propose Nov. 25 as a start date to the Division I Council. The MAC has not yet made a determination on the start of winter sports practices or competition.
In surveillance testing, 25 percent of UB’s athletes will be tested for Covid-19 every two weeks, through polymerise chain reaction tests that are done through a nasal swab and directly detect the presence of an antigen.
But with fall sports being postponed, UB faces a potential log jam with the overlap of winter sports and the start of fall and spring sports. That also means a log jam for mandated Covid-19 testing; Alnutt said all athletes will be tested once a week during the spring period of competition.
UB is one of 106 Football Bowl Subdivision athletic programs to register or have reported positive Covid-19 cases since June 1, according to a Buffalo News database.
While UB confirmed Wednesday that it has had 46 cases of Covid-19 in its student and employee population since August 28, UB’s athletic testing numbers were low, particularly in comparison with other FBS athletic programs across the nation.
North Carolina State announced Wednesday that it had 65 positives of 3,247 tests in its athletic program since August 14, less than three weeks after it announced it had eight positives from 1,360 tests since May 29.
Iowa announced Monday that it had paused workouts in all sports until Sept. 7 after it had 93 positive tests of 815 administered in its athletic department for the week of Aug. 24-30. Five days prior, Iowa announced 32 positives of 646 tests in its athletic program.
“We have to be near the top in terms of testing,” Alnutt said. “Knock on wood, and you never know what can happen when we go through this, but leading up to this, give credit to Dr. Brian Bratta (UB’s associate athletic director for sports medicine and wellness services), how he, and our athletic trainers, are working with team doctors and county health officials, putting together a robust plan of education and what you need to do, in terms of entering facilities, screening procedures and temporal checks.
“There’s also an education aspect of this. We are constantly educating athletes on these guidelines, and we need to stay in their ear. So far, they’re getting it. We hope we can maintain adherence to these guidelines.”
