Will there be a college football season in 2020?

"I bet our opinion on whether or not there's going to be football has changed two dozen times," said Frost, the third-year Nebraska head coach, who was basically relaying the mindset of university leaders. "I would say recently we feel like there's going to be football. We're just not sure what that's going to look like, what schedules are going to look like, what stadiums are going to look like.

"I feel very confident that the decision-makers in Nebraska are going to push to have us play football. I feel good about Nebraska football." 

I'm guessing the large majority of Husker fans regard those words as good news. Haltingly good news, but good news all the same. Even so, it's a complicated and layered discussion. Will Nebraska play its full schedule? Will it play only Big Ten teams? Will fans be allowed in stadiums? If so, how many? Could it come down to NU officials scrambling at the last minute to piece together a schedule of opponents from mostly within the region (think 500-mile radius)? A regional schedule definitely looms as a possibility. 

"I hope football can just go off as normal," Frost said. "But we need to be ready, to be quick on the uptake and solve problems as they arise to make sure that if we have an opportunity to play, we can."

Frost thinks a couple of adjustments in people’s mindsets about the coronavirus pandemic may be needed in order for the season to take place. Make no mistake, he understands the topic at a high level. And he made a key point Monday that you simply don't hear from media or really anyone else: Even if players don't get to play in games this fall, there's still a sizable risk of many of them getting the virus. 

It seems media tend to fixate on practices and games as the main ways for players to be infected. It's flawed thinking. Think of it this way: By removing football from players' lives, it largely eliminates the structure and safeguards that Nebraska (and presumably other universities) provides at a high level. Players will still be attending classes, going to packed parties, going to public places to eat and hang out, and traveling out of town. Do people really think removing football from the equation will make players significantly more safe?

Being able to play football serves as strong motivation for players to be as safe and responsible as possible, for their own good and for the good of others. If you remove that motivation from their lives, they may alter their behavior accordingly, said Gerrod Lambrecht, Frost's chief of staff, who's played a lead role in establishing Nebraska's guidelines and protocols in managing the virus since it took the world by storm in mid-March. 

Frost makes another key point that you don't hear much elsewhere: Although much of the focus in college football is on regular testing as the principal mechanism for managing COVID-19, it shouldn't be regarded as the be-all and end-all in the discussion, he said, especially as it applies to game weeks. 

"I don't want to say there should be no emphasis on testing," he said. "But to think that we're going to keep every kid from acquiring COVID by testing for football games -- it's not just unrealistic, it's dishonest."

Based on expertise gleaned from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the coach said, the incubation period for the virus is 72 hours before a person would test positive, then it generally takes 24 hours to get back test results. So if Nebraska tested its players on Wednesday of a game week, the school might know who picked up the virus during the previous week's game. But it's obviously not foolproof. 

“If a player got the virus on Monday or Tuesday, (the test) isn't going to come up positive (on Wednesday),” Frost said. “You might get it back Thursday. But they’re still going to class Thursday, they’re going to class Friday morning, and if you have an away game, they’re going to be around bus drivers, flight attendants, hotel people preparing food. To think that testing is going to keep our kids safe is probably a very flawed way of looking at it."

Frost listens closely to UNMC experts, and they say to focus on players who are symptomatic. 

"Anybody who has a sore throat, has a fever spike, and be really cautious with anybody who has shortness of breath because those could be symptoms that mean they might not be handling it as well," the coach said. "We need to turn our focus to kids who are really getting sick from it." 

What Frost essentially suggests is a change of people's mindset. It's partly a matter of folks not gasping in shock every time they see a headline that shows positive tests on a sports team. If you shut down sports, a certain number of athletes are still going to get the virus. It's inevitable. Science tells us that. 

"If we don't get to a point where we're able to just play football and take care of kids who are symptomatic — pull them and isolate them and isolate people in direct contact with them, and let everyone else go — I think football's unlikely unless we get there."

It sounds ominous. Big decisions regarding the season will occur within the next three weeks.

All things considered, I'm optimistic Nebraska will play some sort of season. Yes, haltingly optimistic.

"Hope is what I think everybody really needs right now, especially in the state of Nebraska — hope that there is going to be football this fall," Lambrecht said. "We're doing everything we possibly can to put ourselves in position to compete in the fall. 

"I think it's very necessary for the state." 

Seems like an understatement.