Welcome to Before The Snap, For The Win’s college football show where we’ll break down the sport’s trending storylines, examine each week’s biggest matchups and track the College Football Playoff and Heisman Trophy races.
When For The Win began shooting its college football series, Before The Snap, on Wednesday, three SEC games this week had been postponed. When we finished shooting, the conference was up to four postponed games.
As of now, there are eight FBS games originally schedule for this weekend that are either postponed or canceled because of COVID-19.
From positive tests and subsequent contact tracing to full-on outbreaks, the coronavirus has the 2020 college football season in shambles, and that’s mostly because the powers that be decided to have a season at all in the middle of a global pandemic.
As The Wall Street Journal‘s Jason Gay put it: “This year’s college football schedule looks like a restaurant menu that keeps 86’ing appetizers.”
Here’s a look at the canceled or postponed Week 11 games and why:
- Alabama-LSU: Positive tests and contact tracing within LSU’s program.
- Texas A&M-Tennessee: Positive tests and contact tracing within Texas A&M’s program.
- Georgia-Missouri: Positive tests and contact tracing in Missouri’s program.
- Auburn-Mississippi State: Positive tests and contact tracing within Mississippi State’s program; nine players and three staff members at Auburn also tested positive during the bye week.
- Ohio State-Maryland: Eight Maryland players tested positive over the last seven days.
- Memphis-Navy: Positive tests and contact tracing within Navy’s program.
- Air Force-Wyoming: An “upward trend of COVID-19 cases at the Academy” and in the program.
- Louisiana-Monroe-Arkansas State: Positive tests and contact tracing within UL Monroe’s program.
So, what are we doing here?
It’s no secret college athletics departments prioritize money over anything else, including their so-called “student-athletes,” who already take the biggest risks on the field while everyone except them earns a paycheck from it. So it’s not particularly surprising that COVID-19 didn’t stop schools and conferences from trying to make their millions off the backs of unpaid players. But it’s dangerous and irresponsible.
As coronavirus cases in the U.S. continue to break records and COVID-related hospitalizations hit an all-time high this week, college football games are being canceled and postponed left and right. So before more teams, and the people may come into contact with, suffer outbreaks, perhaps it’s time to shut down the mess that is 2020 college football.
“I have to acknowledge (we’re) troubled by what’s happened this week,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Wednesday, while pointing out the conference is still looking ahead to its championship game December 19. Sankey and everyone else should be troubled, not only by how COVID-19 is hitting and impacting programs, but also by the current national spikes.
College football — for as much as people love it and live for it — just isn’t worth the risk.
We still don’t know all that much about the novel virus. But we do know that the outcomes of contracting it are not limited to dying or not dying. “Recovered” doesn’t always mean 100 percent healthy, and less than a year out from the first COVID case, we don’t know all of the longterm effects.
This week, the U.S. surpassed 10 million coronavirus cases and reported more than 241,800 deaths, as USA TODAY noted, referencing Johns Hopkins University data. And, as the New York Times reported, new daily cases have now passed 139,000 for the first time.
Technically, it’s Week 11 of the season. Wisconsin has played just one game since the Big Ten’s delayed start, the Pac-12 is only in its second week, LSU just had its second game of the season postponed and the projected No. 1 NFL Draft pick, Trevor Lawrence, tested positive for COVID-19 in October. The list of COVID-related issues in college football this season seems endless.
And with players not burning a year of eligibility whether they play this season or opt out, why not just label this a failed (and reckless) experiment and call the season before more people — particularly vulnerable or not — become ill?
Everyone wants college football: Players, coaches, parents, fans, everyone. But there are countless things we want right now but can’t have because COVID-19 is ravaging the country after the federal government’s failed, year-long response.
It’s devastating, particularly for the players, who understandably want to take the field. There are a lot of things people everywhere want to do but can’t, and the consequences of the deadly virus are fair to no one. But this is the reality of it all.
So as we continue to postpone and cancel games and pretend like that’s a normal occurrence each season, again, what are we doing here?
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