The 2020 college football season will not feature full-capacity stadiums, but several programs across the country are having limited fan attendance.
SMU is one of those programs, though the Mustangs crowd got significantly smaller as today’s game went on.
The Mustangs are taking on No. 25 Memphis at home on Saturday afternoon. SMU’s student section did not make it through the game.
SMU’s student section was reportedly kicked out at the end of the first half. The Dallas Morning News had more on the situation:
Police kicked out the entire student section late in the first half of its game against Memphis. The crowd on the left side of the end zone hill at Gerald J. Ford Stadium had become very large. The vast majority of students were not wearing masks, and social distancing wasn’t being followed.
Late in the first half, police officers went to the perimeter of the crowd and started instructing people to leave. It is unclear what police department was in charge of the situation, and if the police were working at the direction of SMU.
The newspaper’s photo sums it up best, though.
Yeah, that’s not going to work in the middle of a pandemic.
Those students missed quite a second half, too. SMU and Memphis are currently tied, 27-27, with less than a minute to play.