How many positive tests cancel a football game? Big 12, SEC closing in on answers
Many key details have already been decided about the upcoming college football season. From kickoff times to TV information to ticket plans and top 25 polls, it’s beginning to feel like fans will be able to enjoy something resembling a traditional cycle of college sports in the fall, even as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.
But one large question remains: How many positive COVID-19 tests will it take to cancel or postpone a football game once the season begins?
That remains a mystery as the first games involving power-conference teams are less than two weeks away. In the ACC, a game between North Carolina State and Virginia Tech has been delayed because of an outbreak on the NC State campus. In the American, East Carolina postponed its season opener against Marshall for similar reasons.
In the SEC, Auburn was forced to cancel a string of practices because of the coronavirus. But in the Big 12, three teams — Oklahoma (9), Kansas State (10) and Texas Tech (21) — have kept right on practicing with spikes of positive cases on their rosters. Meanwhile the Big Ten, Pac-12, MAC and Mountain West have decided to postpone all of their games until the spring.
Uniformity is not their strong suit.
No conference has formally announced the procedures they will follow when it comes to decide whether a football game needs to be canceled this season, but the Big 12 appears to be leading the pack.
Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor said leaders from across the conference has been talking about those plans for the past two weeks and they are close to settling on an official policy.
He expects it to look something like this: Each week leading up to a game, every Big 12 team will submit a 53-man lineup of players that are expected to play the following Saturday to the conference office. He said that roster will likely be turned in on Sunday and then updated on Wednesday for injuries and other reasons that might require a replacement player.
As student-athletes undergo three rounds of testing throughout the week, per Big 12 policy, the conference will monitor those results and potentially make a decision on each game every Friday.
“If there is a percentage of those players that are positive, and we really haven’t come up with a number yet, that would lead to a cancellation,” Taylor said. “That number could be 10%, it could be 15%, it could be 20% it could be 25% or they might look at each section of your roster. If you lost your entire offensive line, that could cause a cancellation. We aren’t fully there yet, but we are looking at options.”
High COVID-19 numbers outside of a team’s weekly 53-man roster might not hurt a team’s chances of playing each Saturday.
Division I teams are allowed to roster 85 scholarship players each year, but most Big 12 teams feature closer to 150 players after you include walk-ons. It’s possible the Big 12 will allow teams to dip into those reserves to produce a healthy 53-man roster that features a required minimum of players at each position, such as two quarterbacks and eight offensive linemen, but that could make for some interesting conversations through the season.
Much like with standard injuries, not all roster losses are created equal. A team will be much more willing to play without its third-string linebackers than it will be its starting wide receivers.
“As long as you have at least 53 players certified to play and you have the minimum number at every one of those positions comprising the 53, then you have to play,” Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard told reporters this week. “If you’re less than that 53, then you can have a no-contest. And the first step would be to try and reschedule during one of the bye dates.
“But if not, it doesn’t technically count against the team that ends up with the no contest. But it was a uniform policy that we wanted to adopt to, in essence, take some gamesmanship out of what could happen potentially later in the year.”
All Big 12 teams have three off weeks built into their schedules this season. The conference championship game can also be delayed if make-up games are required. So it’s certainly possible games that can’t be played as scheduled will be postponed instead of canceled.
Taylor said Big 12 teams were scheduled to begin ramping up COVID-19 testing this week in preparation of their season-opening games on Sept. 12. Taylor said K-State players will undergo testing every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday throughout the year. Some of those will be PCR tests, but the Friday tests will be of the antigen variety for quick results.
Schools won’t be required to announce their testing numbers publicly, but they will report them to the Big 12 office and local health departments.
“There are a lot of ways you can go at it,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said earlier this month. “You can draw a bright line and say if you’ve got 10 positive tests, you’re going to have to forfeit or it’s going to have to be rescheduled. There are ways to draw softer lines than that. We haven’t come to closure on it, but we will before the season starts.”
Taylor said the Big 12 won’t try to “mirror” the testing and postponement policies of other power conferences, but they have been in contact with each other to make them as similar as possible.
The SEC is one conference that has time to decide on an official policy, as its teams won’t begin play until Sept. 26. It chose to delay the start of its season to help teams manage coronavirus spikes at the beginning of the fall semester as students return to campus.
Initially, the SEC planned to test its players twice during the season but later increased that number to three like in the Big 12.
At Missouri, five football players were in isolation last week after the team experienced two positive COVID-19 cases and sidelined three others through contact tracing. At LSU, the Tigers have reportedly had to get creative during practice, as the coronavirus has left them with only a handful of healthy offensive linemen.
But no games have been postponed in the SEC, as there is no set policy for delaying games in that conference.
Perhaps the SEC will monitor how the Big 12 uses its working plan early in the season before developing one of its own.