We begin this column with a statement which — though not an ironclad truth — points to a very likely scenario if we do start the 2020 college football season in a pandemic: An outbreak on a college football roster will happen.
Outbreaks of at least 10 people have occurred on several different teams, including Clemson, Texas, LSU, North Carolina, Michigan State, and others. Colorado State and Rutgers had to halt workouts over the past week. Once we try to play games in September (or for the Big 12, possibly as early as August 29), there will probably be an outbreak of at least 10 players on a roster.
We saw what happened with the Miami Marlins in Major League Baseball, and we have seen the domino effect the Marlins’ outbreak has had on games and other teams. The Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore Orioles, and Toronto Blue Jays have all had to endure postponed games for reasons that have nothing to do with the weather. The structure of MLB’s 60-game season is already buckling and could soon collapse.
The sport didn’t have a plan… or at least, it was unable or unwilling to execute it.
Major League Baseball created 60-man player pools for this adjusted season. The obvious (or so it seemed) reason was to have a set-aside “taxi squad” of replacement players available if the main team (the starters) suffered an outbreak.
This made sense as a backup plan which could respond to any significant outbreak on a team. That team of starters would isolate for two weeks whenever and wherever the outbreak occurred. The taxi squad would fill in for the next two weeks. After the two weeks of isolation, with every player presumably testing negative for COVID-19, the starters on the roster would resume playing, flying to the site of the next series on the schedule.
This conceptually could have happened with the Marlins, who learned of the flood of positive COVID-19 tests in Philadelphia. The Marlins starters would stay in Philadelphia, isolating for two weeks. The taxi squad would have flown to Baltimore for midweek games earlier this week, and carried on with the team’s schedule for two weeks. The Marlins’ regulars — after two weeks of isolation and negative COVID-19 tests — would resume their season Friday, Aug. 14 for a weekend series against the Atlanta Braves.
Problem solved… or at least, that’s the way it should have worked.
Major League Baseball — being clueless (hi, Rob Manfred!) — wasn’t prepared.
College football, however, CAN be prepared. More specifically, college football head coaches can think ahead.
If I was coaching a team, this is what I would do right now:
I would take my roster and create three mixed groups of 22 players (11 offense, 11 defense). By “mixed groups,” I mean mixing first-string, second-string, and third-string players, such that I could keep important players in each group and give younger players a chance to compete with the better players, as a tool for development for the future.
If an outbreak occurred among one of those 22-player groups, the other two groups could still conceivably travel to and play in games. I could still field a team with significant first-string representation. Without this division of groups on a roster, it is possible that most of the first string for a team could be unavailable for a game, which not only reduces my team’s chances of winning; far more importantly, it might reduce the appetite for college football to want to continue playing games.
If star players are replaced by scrubs, will the public buy into playing games the same way it would if significant numbers of starter-quality players are regularly able to play this fall?
That’s why I would segment my roster into groups of 22, and put first-stringers in the separate groups. I would also quarantine my punters and kickers in a separate, smaller group.
It’s time to plan ahead, college football… unlike Major League Baseball.