Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said colleges should continue trying to find ways to have a college football season that would protect player health in the coronavirus pandemic.
"I defer to the position of the college football players. What I see from the college football players, they really want to play," Abbott said Monday night. "It's their careers, it's their health."
Texas is home to five Power Five conference schools in the Big 12 and SEC, and several other major college programs.
"I think schools should work with (players) on protocols to make sure their health can be maintained and secured and allow them to play. Once they are able to establish that, we can work out how many people to let in the stands to watch."
A Republican, Abbott pushed Texas toward one of the nation's quickest reopenings of the state economy in May, only to dial it back when COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths rapidly increased. New cases and hospitalizations have stabilized and decreased, but coronavirus deaths in Texas have reached nearly 8,500.
The state's rolling positivity rate has rapidly increased to nearly 20 percent, nearly double its rate of just over a week ago.
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The Mountain West has become the second FBS conference to postpone its football season, punting on the fall with an eye toward playing in the spring.