In the week leading up to a Power Five conference game last November, a featured program hit the road with a plane full of flu-infected players.
“We didn’t tell him [the opponent] who was sick and who was not, “that school’s athletic director told CBS Sports.” It just doesn’t do that. I don’t even know if we publish it [publicly]”
So what will compel programs or coaches to disclose information on what players they have available in the COVID-19 era?
“You would like to know who is not playing,” said AD. “I don’t know if there is anything morally compelling that compels us to do that. Not playing people you know are sick is the morally compelling part.”
That’s where part of the 2020 college football season could turn into an ethical mess. Coaches by nature are not sources of information. The ability to play with respect to who is playing generally precedes games.
This is very different. This (possibly) is co-opting the coronavirus knowledge to win.
“My concern is that what is going to drive this is not science, but, as Mike Gundy said, they need to manage money,” said Ted Tatos, an economist at the University of Utah.
No one says the coaches will play with athletes who have tested positive for COVID-19. However, the example above is puzzling.
Programs across the country opened for volunteer training this month. With an outbreak of positive evidence, it’s time to ask if college football started too early.
Unlike the NFL, college coaches are not required to share weekly injury reports. Some do it for simple transparency. Others protect the player’s availability as if it were a state secret.
“That’s why more people will be closing the practice,” said a veteran Power Five coach.
Half of the 66 FBS schools that responded to a Associated Press This month’s investigation said they would not reveal how many of their players test positive.
Suddenly, the information being trafficked is not just a bad knee or a sore arm. Your impactful information can draw a hotline to more than 120,000 deaths in the United States. The most important information for the game week may be who has contracted and how long an individual player has been recovering from the coronavirus.
“We are not telling anyone who, or how many, UNC soccer players test positive,” said a North Carolina athletic official. “We’d just say they’re out right before the game starts.”
Imagine coaches exchange what would amount to lineup cards on a Friday night, similar to how baseball managers do at home plate before games. That would be a major change in philosophy for the likes of Jim Harbaugh of Michigan. The Wolverines coach will not allow his two-depth card to be distributed to the media in the press box on game days.
When the subject of national injury reports came up a few years ago, coaches quickly brought him down. From 2010-17, ACC coaches released injury reports two days before games. That practice was suspended two years ago.
Looking at the barrel of the global pandemic, should coaches everywhere reconsider? It is unknown if the NCAA could be involved in cases like this with respect to possible competitive advantages.
“We are not going to play [opponents] if they don’t tell us [about COVID-19 positives]”TCU coach Gary Patterson said.” We are not putting anyone at our side or anyone else in danger. ”
Privacy laws prevent schools from releasing the names of infected people. The 24-Year Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prohibits doctors from sharing your medical records. HIPAA includes public entities like universities.
Any individual names you read at this time are likely to come from media reports or from the athletes themselves.
Before reaching that point, programs must be accountable to their universities, conferences, and local health officials for reporting the positive aspects of COVID-19. Beyond that, it will be up to individual schools to publish numbers. In addition to North Carolina, Missouri, TCU and others have already said they will not publish the amount of positive evidence.
“Do you think when you ask me what we will do on the third attempts, I will tell you exactly what the plays are?” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz recently asked reporters.
Bottom line: Coaches are paid to win, even during a pandemic.
“Let’s be honest, this is the type of year that will need any advantage that can [get]”TCU AD Jeremiah Donati said.” You may run out of people, but if you can shoot your opponent, ‘Hey, we’re playing second chain quarterback that you’ve never seen who is a runner and not a pitcher,’ it has no impact on health. or security.
“I imagine a coach saying he wants to keep that information proprietary.”
Hiding a flu outbreak is one thing. Playing alignment games with the coronavirus requires another level of ethics.
“[Reporting positives is] even bigger than an injury report, right? “said Jeff Hafley, the new coach of Boston College.” It’s not like we’re hiding a quarterback who might have a hamstring or a catcher who can’t play until the last minute. “
Hafley is waiting for the guidelines to report the positives. So is the rest of the country.
The implications go beyond mere player availability. Las Vegas bookmakers always seem to know who is out when setting the line. Will the same information be available to your spies when players test positive?
Should it be available?
“I’m not saying that someone is not messing with the system,” said an AD. “… If you don’t have your starting running back or starting quarterback for a game or two, that will be part of that.”
There are dozens of different COVID-19 tests. The response time for results is approximately 1-3 days. FBS conferences still determine whether they will all align with the frequency of the tests.
Complicating the problem are games without a conference against FCS teams. It is doubtful whether the schools in the lower divisions can afford to take the test. Kansas State AD Gene Taylor has speculated that some FBS schools could subtract the cost of testing the game guarantee that week for an FCS opponent.
“We have not been testing for coronaviruses,” said Justin Sell, AD of the state of South Dakota. “That has not been part of our agreement. If testing is to be part of that gaming ability, we have to work within our state … and uncover the financial impacts of that.”
The Jackrabbits play in Nebraska in Week 3.
“The coaches are as nervous about this as anyone,” said Kansas State AD Gene Taylor.
They should be. It is not just about those who test positive. It is also about those whom they infect. Kansas State is in the middle of a two-week hiatus in practice after 13 players tested positive for COVID-19.
“This problem will not be if you have positives,” Donati said. “It will be how many and if you will be able to manage or control an outbreak.”
