Will All College and University Athletic Programs Survive COVID-19?

[VetteMan]

Multiple Penn State Athletic Programs have been put on pause after 48 student athletes tested positive for Covid-19. The positive results came out of 920 tests administered between August 31st and September 4th, good for a 5% positivity rate. Penn State did not specify which programs were paused in it's announcement, but according to reports the Nittany Lions football and men's basketball teams are not among the afflicted programs.

[Omega]

University of Minnesota announced three mens sports to be cut due to projected financial deficits brought about by the contagion.

https://www.twincities.com/2020/09/10/g ... s-in-2021/

[VetteMan]

An Ohio State study of 26 athletes who had tested positive for Covid-19, discovered that 4 of those athletes showed signs of myocarditis. The study published Friday was done as there are concerns that myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, can be a longer term effect of Covid-19. The 14 Male and 12 Female players at the school in the study came from multiple sports, including football, and none of the athletes had to be hospitalized or received specific treatment for their coronavirus infections. Doctors ran cardiac magnetic resonance imaging on the athletes in June through Aug to check the health of their hearts. And while 4 athletes did have findings suggestive of myocarditis, the study notes that Covid-19 related myocardial injury in competitive athletes and sports participation remains unclear.

[VetteMan]

The Memphis Tigers have suspended all football activities after a number of individuals associated with the team have tested positive for Covid-19. The Tigers September 18th game against the University of Houston is in jeopardy. There were reports that at least 20 people within the program have tested positive for the coronavirus pandemic, and at least 20 more are in quarantine due to the contact tracing.

[VetteMan]

The ACC is willing to call off it's 2020 football season if more than 50% of it's teams are unable to finish out their schedules as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The conference has postponed two games as a result of the virus, both involving Virginia Tech. The ACC has a list of considerations that would warrant cancelling the season. Among them are either the Big 12 or the SEC discontinuing their respective seasons, which would result in the cancellation of the CFP Playoffs, as well as restrictions enacted by public officials and the inability of teams to safely travel for road games.

[VetteMan]

The Pandemic disrupted college sports again Saturday with Virginia and Virginia Tech postponing their Sept 19th football opener because of Covid-19 issues at Virginia Tech. The schools said this was a mutual agreement. No make-up date was announced for the game that had been set for Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium. Virginia Tech also will not hold football practice for four days. The postponement is the second for the Hokies since the Atlantic Coast Conference released it's revised schedule.

[VetteMan]

Head Coach Gus Malzahn of No-11 Auburn, said they had 5 starters out of practice this week because of Covid-19 related issues. Malzahn said Saturday the Tigers had two new positive tests this week, and 10 total players are sidelined from practice because of the virus or close contact. He didn't identity the players and declined to say if a particular position group had been hit hardest.

[VetteMan]

Texas Tech announced on Monday that five more football players have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases on the team to 75 since the testing started in June. Six of the cases are active, with 69 players having been cleared from the initial bout with the coronavirus pandemic. The 75 cases on the football team account for nearly two-thirds of the 116 cases among all student athletes at Texas Tech.

[VetteMan]

Another week-3 college football game has been wiped off the slate. Charlotte announced Thursday that it's game against North Carolina scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill, has been canceled due to the impact of Covid-19 on it's offensive line group. Several members of the offensive line have been put into quarantine, effectively depleting that unit. Three Charlotte football players have tested positive for Covid-19 over the past two weeks, those who came into contact with the infected individuals are required by University contact tracing, to quarantine for 14 days. The players who tested positive for the virus are in isolation.

[VetteMan]

Baylor's season opener against Houston, scheduled less than a week ago, was one of two Bowl Subdivision games postponed Friday, the day before they were supposed to play. Florida Atlantic's opener against Georgia Southern was postponed earlier in the day, following the results of FAC Covid-19 testing Thursday. In both cases, the schools involved said they would try to find make-up dates.

[VetteMan]

Notre Dame and Wake Forest will not be playing each other this coming Saturday, September 26th. Notre Dame announced the postponement Tuesday, because seven players on the team had tested positive for coronavirus, and others needed to quarantine as part of the schools contact tracing program. In consultation with the St. Joseph County Department of Health, The Notre Dame football program has decided to pause all football related activities until additional testing is completed, the team said in a statement. Combined with last week's testing results, a total of 13 players are currently in isolation, with 10 in quarantine.

[Omega]

Ohio State announces budget cuts in its athletic department but does not reduce the number of sports being offered:

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-sta ... -36-sports

[VetteMan]

Three more games have been canceled this coming Saturday due to Covid-19. University Of Houston has now lost 5 games, including 4 season opener's, from their schedule: Washington State, Rice, Memphis, Baylor and now North Texas. Shortly after the Houston-North Texas news came down, Arkansas State announced that it's home game against Tulsa had also been canceled. A third game between South Florida and Florida Atlantic soon followed suit, and canceled their game as well.

[VetteMan]

Georgia State vs Charlotte game mistakenly postponed because of "errors in reading" Covid-19 test results. The game was postponed on Friday because Georgia State said it had Covid-19 positive tests and contact tracing within it's program. However, the school said Sunday that a mistake had been made in the reading of those test results, where as now, it has been determined that a "human error" on Friday morning, "caused the error in test results." What gets me is it took from Friday morning till Sunday afternoon to discover a human error had occurred. Unbelievable!

[VetteMan]

Notre Dame said it had 39 football players in isolation or quarantine on Monday, as it deals with a Covid-19 outbreak that forced the Fighting Irish to postpone last week's game at Wake Forest. The Irish already had an open-date scheduled for this week, and are not slated to play again until October 10th when Florida State travels to South Bend. Notre Dame said 18 players tested positive last week, seven of which had already been quarantined. A total of 25 players were in isolation after testing positive, ands another 14 were being quarantined.

[VetteMan]

On the day the Big Ten began requiring teams to administer daily rapid Covid-19 testing, the Big Ten announced it's partership's to make it's plan a reality. The 14-Team Conference enlisted Quidel Corporation to supply coronavirus antigen tests, which will be administered daily to all athletes, coaches and other staffers working in the facilities, and Biodesix to run the testing operations on all campuses where it will "distribute and manage' each of the tests.

[VetteMan]

Baylor University said Thursday that it had stopped all football activities because of positive coronavirus tests within the program. The school didn't reveal the number of positive tests. It said that the suspension of practices and workouts was for contact tracing to be done in the wake of those positive tests.

[VetteMan]

For the first time in the 2020, an SEC game is being postponed due to issues with Covid-19. The Vanderbilt vs Missouri game scheduled for Saturday in Columbia will not be played due to coronavirus cases on the Commodores football team. The game has been tentatively rescheduled for December 12th. Over the weekend, Vanderbilt was down to just 56 scholarship players during it's game against South Carolina, a 41-7 loss.

[VetteMan]

The Big 12 said that the football game between Baylor and No-7 Oklahoma State will not be played on Saturday night. The Big 12 said the game had been rescheduled for December 12th. Baylor is suspending football operations temporarily after multiple (28) positive Covid-19 test results.

[VetteMan]

Florida has suspended all football activities after multiple members of the football team tested positive for coronavirus. Florida said Tuesday that five players had tested positive for Covid-19. Athletic Director Scott Stricklin said that the team would stop workouts and practice due to contact tracing for those positive tests. Head coach Dan Mullen has been in communication with the football players and their parents, and I have had conversations with the Southeastern Conference Office, last week's opponent Texas A@M, and this week's opponent LSU, Stricklin said in a statement.