That could put a heavy burden on the CFP committee when it’s time to pick four playoff teams. The Big Ten, which didn’t begin play until October 24 and adopted an eight-game schedule (no bye weeks), has already lost three games, including Saturday’s Ohio State-Maryland contest. The wiggle room for every contending Power 5 program is evaporating. 1, no Power 5 conference is going to risk sending one of its team to the playoffs on just five days rest. If SEC commissioner Greg Sankey made one thing abundantly clear Wednesday, it’s that he wants no part of his league moving its championship game back one week. Here’s something else to consider: how much complaining will UF coach Dan Mullen be doing if the Gators face ‘Bama in the December 19 SEC title game and the Crimson Tide, as of now, would be coming off a bye week? In the interest of fair play, the LSU home game might have to be canceled to not put Florida at a competitive disadvantage. A lot more scheduling headaches are coming if the virus maintains its current disruption. 12 open date to make up the Florida game cancellation. Since the NCAA quarantine time is nine days longer than the NFL model - which permits contacts to test out of quarantine on Day 5 if they have five consecutive negative tests - it’s going to be near impossible for many teams to play a complete schedule.Īt the moment, there’s no opening to play the LSU-Alabama game since the Tigers are using the Dec. Florida saw its October 17 game with LSU get moved to December 12 following an outbreak during the Texas A&M road trip.Ī reported 30-plus players combined are in quarantine at five different SEC schools, leading to Saturday games of Auburn-Mississippi State and Texas A&M-Tennessee also being scrapped. Many believe the culprit at LSU, which has no makeup date yet for the canceled Alabama game, was a Halloween party. But all it takes is one or two positives to force a game cancellation, providing those infected have close contact with enough players to take a team below the mandatory minimum of 53 scholarship players.
In most instances, the amount of players testing positive for COVID-19 within the SEC and other places is small. “The nature of contact tracing as prescribed by public health can be pretty disruptive.” “The competition appears relatively safe, it’s the human interactions outside of competition that are problematic,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin told the Times-Union.
It’s a virtual certainty more schedule adjusting will have to be done just to get enough games in for the College Football Playoff selection committee to properly judge which four teams merit an invitation. More than at any point, with over half of Saturday’s SEC schedule gone by the wayside, the gatekeepers of college football should be getting antsy about the 2020 season reaching the finish line.įifty-five games have already been forced to be moved, canceled or left in limbo, including 20 involving Power 5 schools. With spikes happening in 43 states last week and flu season coming, the 21 games already impacted in the first two weeks of November is more than what we saw in the entire months of September (20) and October (17). It was one of four Southeastern Conference games derailed this week by COVID-19, which is suddenly infiltrating the SEC with the same regularity as everywhere else in college football.Įvery week, it’s become a guessing game as to which football programs will join a long list of 2020 cancellations. Georgia-Missouri became the latest coronavirus-related game postponement. Kirby Smart and his Georgia coaching staff was close to finishing its game plan for Saturday’s matchup against Missouri when the bad news came down Wednesday: The Bulldogs would have to wait two weeks to wash away the bad taste from losing control of the SEC East after a 44-28 defeat to rival Florida.
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