It was a three word tweet from WMU Football: "We. Are. Back."

Three more words: "Never say never". In the face of a spate of season cancellations, it appeared there might not be college football played in Michigan this year. But, first, it was the Big Ten, helped by some contentious arm-twisting, then on Thursday, the Pac-12 and the Mountain West, and finally, today, the MAC joined them, voting to play football late this fall.

The league also announced there will be no fans allowed and no tailgating. The MAC is taking a wait and see attitude on whether marching band will be allowed to participate.

The official statement made Friday afternoon:

The Mid-American Conference Council of Presidents, on the recommendation of the Medical Advisory Panel, today voted unanimously to resume the fall football season. A six-game Conference only schedule will begin on Wednesday, November 4, and the season will conclude on December 18 or 19 with the MAC Football Championship game. A full schedule will be released at a later date. - Mid-American Conference

ESPN reports the shortened MAC schedule which will begin on weeknights in November, will then transition to Saturday games to finish the season, in December.

"The conference will implement a COVID-19 testing program requiring four antigen tests per week with all positive tests needing confirmation with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Any student-athlete with a positive test will enter a cardiac screening protocol. The MAC's approved COVID-19 testing protocols will begin Oct. 5. The complete set of protocols will be released next week." - ESPN

Coincidentally, the MAC was the first major conference to cancel football, in August, and today became the last to vote to play. If there hadn't been a pandemic, this past Saturday would've seen WMU playing at Notre Dame.

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