Alabama has begun conducting coronavirus testing on football players who have returned to campus in anticipation of the resumption of on-campus athletic activities this coming Monday. According to a report by BamaInsider, five have tested positive. According to The Athletic, those five are currently quarantined, as are other players who were in proximity to those with the positive tests. There have been reports that all five positive tests came from asymptomatic players. I’ve seen no reports regarding Alabama’s plan for the upcoming athletic activities.
The positive tests are a reminder that COVID-19 is still infecting. They’re also a reminder that any return to college sports is going to be tricky. As of now, there don’t seem to be any public plans or protocols on what to do when athletes test positive. The athletes, as you may have heard, are amateurs, complicating liability and ethics issues. It’s a messy situation, and because of its newness, there don’t appear to be many rules, which makes what happens next rather unpredictable. Could entire teams be quarantined? How long will each quarantine last? How accurate are the tests? How frequently are tests administered? Could entire teams gain immunity?
We’ll see what comes of the positive tests at Alabama. We’ll see how many other schools see similar results in their preliminary, return-to-campus testing. Most tellingly, we’ll see how schools react to such tests. Those reactions will tell us a lot about when and how college sports will actually return to competition.
