Decisions about College Football during Covid-19: An Ethical Analysis

Abstract This manuscript uses competitive college football as a lens into the complexities of decision-making amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Pulling together what is known about the decision-makers, the decision-making processes, the social and political context, the risks and benefits, and the underlying obligations of institutions to these athletes, we conduct an ethical analysis of the decisions surrounding the 2020 fall football season. Based on this ethical analysis, we provide key recommendations to improve similar decision processes moving forward.

[1]  Kwanghyuk Yoo.  SCOTUS Analysis: National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston , 2021 .

[2]  Allen K. Sills,et al.  Prevalence of Inflammatory Heart Disease Among Professional Athletes With Prior COVID-19 Infection Who Received Systematic Return-to-Play Cardiac Screening. , 2021, JAMA cardiology.

[3]  A. Pettifor,et al.  Multiple COVID-19 Clusters on a University Campus — North Carolina, August 2020 , 2020, MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report.

[4]  A. Winquist,et al.  Racial and Ethnic Disparities Among COVID-19 Cases in Workplace Outbreaks by Industry Sector — Utah, March 6–June 5, 2020 , 2020, MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report.

[5]  C. Blackmore,et al.  Disparities in Incidence of COVID-19 Among Underrepresented Racial/Ethnic Groups in Counties Identified as Hotspots During June 5–18, 2020 — 22 States, February–June 2020 , 2020, MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report.

[6]  Craig L. Garthwaite,et al.  Who Profits from Amateurism? Rent-Sharing in Modern College Sports , 2020, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[7]  Jay S. Steingrub,et al.  Symptom Duration and Risk Factors for Delayed Return to Usual Health Among Outpatients with COVID-19 in a Multistate Health Care Systems Network — United States, March–June 2020 , 2020, MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report.

[8]  Paolo Fusar-Poli,et al.  Psychiatric and neuropsychiatric presentations associated with severe coronavirus infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis with comparison to the COVID-19 pandemic , 2020, The Lancet Psychiatry.

[9]  T. Abe.  The NCAA's Special Relationship with Student-Athletes as a Theory of Liability for Concussion-Related Injuries , 2020 .

[10]  Brad Partridge.  Dazed and Confused: Sports Medicine, Conflicts of Interest, and Concussion Management , 2014, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry.

[11]  M. Roderick,et al.  Management of medical confidentiality in English professional football clubs: some ethical problems and issues , 2002, British journal of sports medicine.

[12]  President Palmer E. Pierce,et al.  The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) , 2018, The Grants Register 2019.

[13]  M. Granberg.  Uncertainty in decision making , 2008 .