The Major League Baseball season began on Thursday and became the first of the four major sports to return to action during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Included among the safety protocols are an altered regional schedule which limits travel, no fans in attendance, daily testing and required masks in the clubhouse.
The beginning of the season seemed to begin without a hitch, as positive tests were few and far between and outbreaks between the teams were avoided.
Well, today that changed as the Miami Marlins reported that upwards of 40 percent of their active players returned positive tests.
Updating the Miami Marlins’ outbreak: The total number of infected players is 11 of the 33 who have been traveling with the team and two coaches, sources tell ESPN.
The Marlins-Orioles and Yankees-Phillies games tonight have been postponed. For now, the rest may be played.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 27, 2020
The outbreak within the Marlins team and staff led to the postponement of their game tonight against the Baltimore Orioles as well as the postponement of the Philadelphia Phillies’, the Marlins’ weekend opponent, game tonight against the New York Yankees.
Here is the MLB’s statement:
Statement from MLB pic.twitter.com/nP1xvOe8hU
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 27, 2020
Now, there are obviously a lot of question marks surrounding the MLB season and what’s to come with both the Marlins and around the rest of the league. While it isn’t necessarily directly related to the Wisconsin Badgers and the college football season, this outbreak and how it’s dealt with can tell us a lot about what is to come this fall–were a season to happen.
Here are four main takeaways:
1. The NBA is happening in a bubble, college football and the MLB are not. Whether this outbreak stays within the Marlins’ team and doesn’t spread to the Phillies will go far towards determining in what capacity the college football season can happen
The Big Ten Conference will hold a similar regional format, though obviously only with one game per week instead of six or seven. If a team in the Big Ten returns a large number of positive tests but it stays within that team, a quarantine would be possible and allow for the season to continue given the extra weeks of flexibility.
If it spreads to other teams, though, that is when a season cancellation would become likely.
How the MLB deals with this recent news will give college football a clear path towards what it would take to safely continue their season or cancel it all together if a situation like this arises.
2. The Marlins played on Sunday after three players returned positive tests–with those players obviously not taking the field. There will need to be language in college football’s safety protocol which addresses that
As Matt Breen put well in the tweet below, the Marlins held a meeting after three tests were positive and they decided to play. The MLB did not have language in their return-to-play manual that addressed what happens with the team if a few players test positive.
The Marlins learned before Sunday’s game that three players had tested positive for COVID-19. So they held a player’s meeting to decide if they should play against the Phillies. Can’t find that protocol in MLB’s 101-page manual.
— Matt Breen (@matt_breen) July 27, 2020
College football obviously doesn’t have a singular governing body. What the Big Ten can do, though, is look at the MLB’s shortcomings and create a clear course of action if players test positive.
3. Lets say the season starts on time with weeks of flexibility in the case of positive tests cancelling games, the fact that the MLB, NFL and NBA are all professional leagues while college football is not creates a grey area around what happens when tests return positive
The MLB has a players union. The NFL has a players union. The NBA has a players union. And all of the athletes are paid and were–or will be–given the chance to opt out of the season without losing their job.
College football is far, far from that.
Players will have a chance to not play, but will it cost them a year of eligibility or their scholarship? How would it get dealt with if programs return positive tests and players then don’t want to play?
The lack of a union-like structure, a commissioner and the athletes getting paid for playing will create a challenging situation if players and staff test positive.
4. Question marks aside, watch how the MLB both handles this situation and the remainder of their season. If it gets cancelled, college football will heavily be in doubt. If they’re able to continue safely, there will be a framework towards safely playing a season
As I said in No. 1, how MLB deals with this specific situation–and whether the virus spread to the Phillies during competition–will give the Big Ten and college football a framework to work with.
But more big picture, how the MLB goes about running their season and if they are able to at all will have a profound effect on if college football can happen.
If this recent outbreak leads to a season cancellation I see a scenario where conferences follow the Ivy League and others in cancelling or postponing their fall competition.
If it is dealt with safely and the league is able to continue play, it is good news for the likelihood of football this fall.
In total, the MLB and other non-bubble leagues restarted their season knowing the inevitability of at least a few players and staff members contracting the virus. The safety protocols in place were created to limit the spread and hopefully restrict it completely.
How the next few weeks go will determine what college football will need to do in order to operate safely–or even completely determine whether the sport can happen at all.