Pac-12 partnering with Quidel to bring rapid-results testing to league
Competition in the Pac-12 might not be as far off as originally planned. Thursday the conference announced a partnership with Quidel Corporation that will bring daily rapid-results testing to the league potentially clearing the way for a return to field and court earlier than January.
Quidel’s Sofia 2 machines will allow each college athletic department to test for COVID-19 and have results returned in around 15 minutes with the quick turnaround time potentially helping to slow the spread of the virus among teams in close-contact sports.
The lack of rapid-results testing across the conference played a big role in the Pac-12 CEO Group's decision last month to postpone the fall sports season until 2021. However, the addition of Quidel's machine helps eliminate that hurdle. It also comes much earlier than expected as commissioner Larry Scott said Thursday that the league was not expecting to have the machines available until late November when the decision was made to postpone competition in all sports for the remainder of the year.
Now the Pac-12 is expecting to have the machines on all 12 campuses by the end of September with the ability to put them in use by early October.
“This is a major step toward the safe resumption of Pac-12 sport competitions,” Scott said in a statement released by the conference. “The availability of a reliable test that can be administered daily, with almost immediate results, addresses one of the key concerns that was expressed by our medical advisory committee, as well as by student-athletes, coaches and others.
At the same time, our partnership with Quidel, the industry leader in point-of-care antigen testing, will provide crucial research data that will benefit our members’ communities as well as the entire country.”
Daily testing could be a major component in helping to get college programs back on the field. Teams in other conferences are testing as many as three times per week as they prepare to move ahead with the fall sports season, but having daily testing could help provide an even clearer picture of the spread of the coronavirus among athletes.
The Pac-12 says rapid results will also help lessen the burden of contact tracing efforts of local health authorities and help remove or "significantly" limit the spread of COVD-19 among college athletes.
“This is an opportunity to get our athletes back to activity in a careful and controlled manner while monitoring outcomes," Dr. Kimberly Harmon, section head of sports medicine at the University of Washington, said. "It is win-win for athletics and to better our understanding of strategies to prevent spread during sports."
Leaders in the Pac-12 will now look at the new information resulting from Thursday's announcement and evaluate what it could mean for the return to competition in the conference.
Six of the 12 teams in the league are still not allowed to have contact practices because of local health restrictions, but Scott said Thursday's news could create a "pathway" to a return to competition for basketball programs in the Pac-12 earlier than January.
It was reported Wednesday that the NCAA has focused in on a start date of Nov. 25 for the upcoming basketball season.
The Pac-12 is the first conference to enter an agreement with Quidel.
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