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DAN WETZEL: South Carolina, the
University of South Carolina

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President Bob Caslen, on Monday
announced that the school

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canceled its fall break,
and it's basically

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going to start on
campus classes and run

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straight to Thanksgiving.

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And then they're done.

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It'll be online classes
after Thanksgiving,

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and then final exams
will be online.

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According to the state
newspaper in Columbia,

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South Carolina, the decision
to return to virtual classrooms

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after Thanksgiving was made
because university models

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show a spike in cases of
COVID at the beginning

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of December, which
will be the start

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of the traditional flu season.

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The public health risk
associated with thousands

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of students and faculty
returning to campus

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after days of traveling could
jeopardize the continuation

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of the semester.

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So basically, they're,
obviously, it's not a bubble,

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but they're trying
to keep their kids

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from heading down to
Florida, wherever,

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going home, whatever kind of.

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Seems reasonable.

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What do you, what
are your thoughts

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on this is the state of how
the 2020 college football

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season would play out, Pat?

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PAT FORDE: Yeah, I think
this is really interesting.

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And Jack Swarbrick actually
mentioned this to me last week,

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and said that he thinks a lot
of schools are going to do this.

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And I've heard several ACC
schools are contemplating it.

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I think we're going to see more
and more schools go this route.

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It does make sense, as you
said, Dan, academically,

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public safety-wise.

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But I think it's
really problematic

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from an athletic perspective.

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Here's two things.

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First of all, and I'm thinking
of basketball first here.

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If the basketball season is
supposed to start November 6

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or whenever it usually
does, are you going

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to play till Thanksgiving?

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And then are you
going to keep playing?

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Are those kids going
to stay on campus

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and grind out TV
inventory at a time

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when everybody thinks that
nobody should be on campus?

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That's going to be a
pretty bad optic situation.

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From a football
standpoint, you've

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got conference
championship games

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in first weeks of December.

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That's, those things fall
into the same category of, eh,

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are we doing this or not?

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Same with the bowl games.

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I mean, there are some problems
from an athletic standpoint

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with what could be a
good academic slash

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public safety solution.

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PETE THAMEL: So I
just think that it

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will be fascinating, like Pat
said, with basketball season.

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You almost have to start
basketball season with no fans,

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and just keep the players there.

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And grind out inventory was
a great way to phrase it,

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because that's what
they'd be doing.

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They'd be going to the Bahamas
to play in an empty gym

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to have like, so
on Thanksgiving you

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can watch a game at
noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00,

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et cetera, on and on and on.

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But it is all going
to look different.

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And I think college
basketball should just say,

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we're not start until
second semester.

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That way you avoid
this stuff, and then

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you just push it all back.

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And then you have a better
chance to have fans.

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You have better
chance that there's

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enough science help to help
you have an NCAA tournament.

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You are giving yourself time.

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And you can have
policies in place.

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You can see what happens
when someone tests positive.

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You can see what
doesn't work when

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people have to stop and start.

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Like, there's just
a lot to learn

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from Major League Baseball,
from the NBA, from the NFL

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as we go on here.

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DAN WETZEL: I would
think with bowl games,

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bowl games are in
trouble, I would think.

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Now maybe not the Rose Bowl,
but like, how you getting two

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schools to sit
there and say, you

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want to go to the Quick
Lane Bowls, Detroit, the day

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after Christmas?

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Like on a bowl game you
lose money on, all of that.

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I think that's going to
be a really interesting.

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I just, I think we're going
to have a 2020 season.

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I think it's going to start.

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I don't know how it finishes.

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I don't think it's going to look
like the 2019 season though.

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PAT FORDE: No.

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DAN WETZEL: But I found that,
that plan from South Carolina

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is pretty interesting 'cause
I'm guessing that'll be

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a basis for a lot of things.

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