ARLINGTON, Texas — Sooners and Cyclones, PPE and protocols: This is how college football looked in the time of COVID-19, as Oklahoma took on Iowa State in front of a limited-capacity crowd at AT&T Stadium Saturday.
“All the seats were distanced and everyone was wearing their mask," OU fan Tracy Coker said. “You just follow the rules and you deal with it.”
It might not have been the Big 12 championship game they were hoping for, but Coker and many others said the safety measures didn’t dampen their game day.
“I don’t think it stopped anything,” said Colleen Stoss, Iowa State fan.
Stoss and her husband Jerald flew into Dallas Friday night, and said they felt safe the entire trip.
“It was fine,” Stoss said. “It was a breeze walking through the airport.”
When they got to the stadium, the concern was the atmosphere either wouldn’t be safe enough, or wouldn't be fun enough, but they learned socially-distant doesn’t have to equate to a boring crowd.
“It still was loud,” Colleen Stoss said. “Everyone was seated several feet apart from each other but still the atmosphere was really, really wild.”
Oklahoma won the game 27-21, despite a late rally by Iowa State.
“The outcome isn’t what I wanted but overall, it was an incredible experience,” said Jerald Stoss.
Even though the Sooners took home the championship, the Cyclones got their first trip to the big game and the Stoss’ got their first trip to AT&T Stadium, all at the end of a year in which there almost weren’t any games at all.
“I was just ecstatic obviously that we were able to play college football, that we were able to play as many games," Jerald Stoss said. "I had to be here."