When the 2020 college football season kicks off -- if there is a 2020 college football season -- Michigan State could find itself lagging behind when it comes to prep work.
Wednesday, Michigan State announced it was suspending football workouts after one staffer tested positive for COVID-19. Two days later, MSU announced that a second staffer and a player have tested positive as well. As a result, the program has decided to quartine or isolate the entire football team for a period of 14 days.
Two weeks from today is Aug. 7, the date in which the NCAA is allowing summer camps to kick off. Today, however, was the date in which The Association allows meetings and walk-throughs to commence. In this latest phase, coaches are permitted to work directly with their players.
Suffice to say, Michigan State will be behind the other Big Ten football teams when camp opens early next month.
“As part of the athletic department’s return-to-campus policy, student-athletes quarantine when coming into close contact with an individual who tests positive for COVID-19,” the school stated. “The university has designated areas available to house individuals in quarantine as needed base upon the living arrangements for student-athletes.”
Michigan State is the latest football program impacted by the virus.
Two weeks ago, Indiana hit the pause button. In the span of a week prior to that, Ohio State , Maryland and North Carolina confirmed they were putting a temporary halt to voluntary workouts because of the results of recent COVID-19 testing among its student-athletes. July 3, Kansas became yet another FBS program to pause voluntary workouts after 12 players tested positive for COVID-19. Earlier in that same week, Arizona announced that it was pausing its phased return of student-athletes to campus. Prior to that, eight individuals connected to the Boise State football program tested positive, forcing the school to temporarily scuttle workouts. June 20, K-State announced that it is pausing all voluntary workouts as well. The reason? “[A] total of 14 student-athletes have tested positive for active COVID-19 following PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing of more than 130 student-athletes.” The weekend before that, Houston decided to put a halt to voluntary on-campus workouts after six symptomatic UH student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19.
All told, more than a dozen FBS schools have hit the coronavirus-related pause button.
Other programs had seen a high number of players test positive but continued workouts. Among those are Clemson (37 players tested positive), LSU (30 players quarantined), Texas (13 confirmed positives for football players) and Texas Tech (23 positives for players/staffers).
Oklahoma, meanwhile, is down to zero active cases.