If football is a great teacher of life’s many lessons, then the message this week is to wash your hands and stay away from holiday parties.
Also — and this should be obvious to anyone who watched Alabama 41, Mississippi State 0 — people with less to lose might be willing to take more chances. Harsh but true.
Mississippi State has an outbreak of COVID-19, so its game with Auburn is canceled for Saturday. The Bulldogs are a mess this season in more ways than one, but they did knock off LSU. Obviously, that’s a lead-in to our next bit of bad news. Alabama’s game in Baton Rouge is iffy, too, after LSU players tested positive for the coronavirus coming out of an off week.
Coaches have been trying their best to manage the coronavirus and keep their teams bubbled away from girlfriends and campus life, but LSU coach Ed Orgeron isn’t really to blame here. Turns out scheduling an off week for LSU beginning with Halloween night was a poor decision by the SEC. If anyone has been to New Orleans or Baton Rouge on Halloween, then you know it’s impossible for young people to stay away from the fun.
But let’s not pile on LSU. Auburn ended up pausing football activities on Tuesday as well. This season started out so well for the SEC, relatively speaking, but now the second wave of COVID-19 looks like it’s here and the season is getting dicey.
We’ll know more about LSU and Alabama after additional testing this week, but it’s not looking good for the Tigers either way. They’re without quarterback Myles Brennan for perhaps the remainder of the season (abdominal injury), and the last time we saw backup TJ Finley he was benched against Auburn after throwing two interceptions. Alabama opened as a 22-point favorite against LSU, according to the oddsmakers, but now the betting line is up to 28 points.
Alabama might as well start game-planning for Florida and quarterback Kyle Trask. (And I’m pretty sure that job is going to fall to Charlie Strong.)
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Elsewhere in the SEC, Texas A&M has COVID-19 cases after its trip to South Carolina, and Arkansas coach Sam Pittman tested positive after the Razorbacks’ come-from-behind victory against Tennessee. Scary stuff.
Outside of the SEC, UAB’s home game on Saturday against North Texas is now in question after UNT players tested positive. The Blazers’ game against UTEP, originally scheduled for Saturday, Nov.21, has been moved to 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov.20, in Midland, Texas. For those not familiar with West Texas geography, Midland is 300 miles east of El Paso. The border town has been hit hard by COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin has missed two consecutive games in the Big Ten that cannot be made up. There are many more examples of disruptions throughout college football due to, you know, trying to play games during a pandemic.
We always knew this was going to happen, so let’s not act shocked now and start pointing fingers. No, instead, it’s time to take a different perspective. This season in college football is more like an exhibition than something we can take seriously. For example, the best player in college football (Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence) couldn’t play in the Tigers’ biggest game of the season last weekend because he tested positive. Clemson then lost to Notre Dame 47-40 in overtime.
Clearly, if we’re being fair and unbiased, Clemson should not be penalized by the College Football Playoff committee for that loss.
Is Notre Dame now the favorite to represent the ACC in the CFP? If that’s the question you’re asking yourself, then you just don’t get it. Notre Dame is an independent, and the only reason they’re playing in the ACC this season is because it doesn’t really matter in the end.
Doesn’t make me love it any less. In fact, it makes me appreciate college football a little more.
But nothing about this season should be overanalyzed or criticized except for maybe the decision to have it at all. At Georgia, Kirby Smart has been playing the season with a former backup quarterback after his original starter opted out. Naturally, Georgia lost big to Alabama and Florida, but still crushed Auburn.
This season is about the money, above everything else, and let’s not forget it. Teams are playing during a raging pandemic to avoid major financial hits to athletic departments, universities, television networks and everyone else tied to college football.
Mississippi State coach Mike Leach, God bless him, said something a little bizarre on Monday when asked about the protocols in place by the SEC to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Leach isn’t happy about the league’s contact-tracing rule that requires a person be quarantined for 14 days if they come in contact with someone who tested positive.
“Our country has quickly become less free than it used to be,” Leach said. “I’m not going to share my thoughts on that, but I definitely do have some thoughts. I know a lot of people probably have the same thoughts as I do, but I’m going to keep them to myself.”
Is it possible to fashion a pirate hat out of tin foil?
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I love Leach and his personality, and he is a welcomed addition to the SEC West, but maybe he should consider the big picture on this one. That might be tough for a guy who makes $5 million a year, and after Saturday’s victory against Vanderbilt told “impatient” Mississippi State fans to maybe go find another team, but we can always hope.
The big picture is this: This whole season is free. All of it. Every game. And nothing has been taken away.
The NCAA knew this was coming. It’s why the governing body of intercollegiate athletics froze the eligibility of every single player in college football and gave all schools the options of extending scholarships an extra year.
The only thing freer than that, Mike, is your schedule this week.
*Editor’s note: This column was updated to reflect developing news.
Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.
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