As college football players returned to campus for voluntary practice this month, we saw a parade of announcements from athletic departments on the number of athletes who tested positive for COVID-19 upon returning to school.
Although some people might interpret this data as indicating when positive tests appear, the reality is that schools are making these announcements public because it shows that their testing procedures are working.
“It gives us a great baseline moving forward,” said an athletic director who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the topic.
But the question of whether these testing revelations will continue – including the frequency, specificity and implications for the season if players and staff are forced to miss games – has yet to be fully resolved at the national or even national level. conference level. although the implications this fall range from campus/public health information to sports gambling.
“I don’t believe universities will necessarily take the approach of doing a daily debrief or periodically updating their case counts,” said Tory Lindley, president of the National Athletic Trainers Association and head of the coaching department. Northwestern Sportsman.
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And it appears they won’t have to, because injury and illness disclosure is an issue that the NCAA and conference offices have generally avoided any type of standardization of.
But unlike the inconsistency from school to school in announcing ankle sprains or hip flexors, COVID-19 is a new and sensitive topic. This is also potentially a competition problem.
Although statistics suggest that the vast majority of players will be asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, we don’t really know how easy or difficult it will be to contain an outbreak on a team once training begins and players will be in close contact with each other. Administrators fear the most likely spread will be through a position group. So if a defensive lineman tests positive, would a significant number of players at that same position be at risk of not playing in the next game this weekend?
And if so, is it unfair to opponents, fans and players if one team announces every Wednesday that it has four positive tests and another has positive tests but announces nothing?
During this time, schools will need to operate in this environment while adhering to strict medical privacy laws, but also knowing that any player or coach who is not on the sidelines or practicing will likely be presumed positive for COVID -19 if there is no test. other reason given to justify their absence. And given the potential stigma around this new virus and the implications of contact tracing, is it fair for the public to assume a player has COVID-19 if they really only have the flu?
“Some of this goes back to common practices (of programs) in the past regarding what they disclose and when they disclose it,” Lindley said. “It comes down to availability and you may not know why, but you will know if someone is not available to participate and there will be differences from facility to facility in how much is shared and to the extent to which it’s just about protecting the student-athlete.” There’s a lot of reasons. Perhaps an undisclosed illness, problem or injury – or they are simply listed as absent and no reason given. “
Given all the issues athletic departments have faced over the past few months, how they will handle the disclosure of positive tests once the season begins is not a priority. During a Zoom call with reporters earlier this week, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly suggested he hadn’t even thought about it at all and escalated the issue to his director of sports information.
Arkansas State athletic director Terry Mohajir, whose school was one of the first to announce that the athletes had tested positive during their re-entry protocol (there have been seven positives across all sports), said it’s possible they’ll continue to announce the number of positive tests. He added, however, that he did not anticipate that many schools would release significant amounts of information beyond that required to local health authorities and campus emergency management teams.
“I never anticipate that we as an institution will specifically speak publicly about someone who has tested positive for COVID,” Mohajir said.
Another athletic director, who asked not to be publicly identified because the school’s policy was not yet set in stone, said he plans to simply release a weekly report on the number of positive tests , for the sake of consistency and not to arouse suspicion. I try to hide the numbers, whether they are good or bad.
This has already been a problem in Alabama, for example, where the publication BamaInsider reported “as many as five” positive cases within the football team. The school later released a statement that neither confirmed nor denied the report, citing privacy laws.
While individual conferences formulate their in-season policies for testing during game weeks, at least three identified by USA TODAY Sports are discussing some type of procedure under which teams would inquire before the game if players do not are not available due to COVID-19.
But there is an obvious downside to this: once information is exchanged, it is almost certain to leak. This will also fuel rumors, whether true or not.
Such information could even be used as a weapon during recruitment. Let’s say, hypothetically, a player is planning a visit for a Saturday game against another school that is recruiting him. If the visiting team learns that the home team has multiple positive cases, would that staff be above suggesting to the recruit that maybe it’s not a good weekend to be on that campus?
These are some of the issues and unintended consequences of COVID-19 that college athletics has yet to reckon with as the countdown to the season begins in earnest. And yet, unless the NCAA steps in and provides guidelines on how much information schools are supposed to disclose regarding positive tests, this risks turning into a veritable Wild West.
Follow columnist Dan Wolken on Twitter @DanWolken.
