How many players can South Carolina be down and still play? What Muschamp says
How many players on one team would have to be unavailable due to COVID-19 for individual college football games to be canceled this fall?
It’s a question without an exact answer facing the sport, the SEC and South Carolina as preseason workouts are set to begin and schedules are shifted in hopes of preserving at least some form of a season.
But on Wednesday, Gamecock coach Will Muschamp said he has offered his own estimate of what number he’d consider too high to play a game in the course of conversations with the league office.
“We did have one discussion about (it) and in my mind, you know, I said 30,” Muschamp said. “From the standpoint of, you have 85 scholarship guys — and obviously depending on position, and quarterback and center are two major issues you can have — but if you’re down to 55, well there’s 45 active on game day in the National Football League and 53 travel on the roster. So you’re taking yourself down to a 55-man roster, which should be doable. Anything more than that I don’t think can be doable.”
Thirty out of 85 players would equate to roughly 35% of scholarship players being unavailable due to an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Currently the SEC allows for 70 players on a team’s travel roster.
Since the return of professional sports during the pandemic, Major League Baseball has been forced to cancel and postpone games due to outbreaks of the virus on two different teams. The Miami Marlins had 18 total players test positive for COVID-19, out of a roster between 26 and 30. The St. Louis Cardinals reported seven players testing positive, as well as six staff members.
In Major League Soccer, FC Dallas and Nashville SC were forced to withdraw from the league’s “MLS Is Back” tournament after 10 and nine players tested positive for the virus, respectively. MLS rosters were expanded to 23 for the tournament.
Of course, the goal is prevent any outbreaks from happening in the first place. To that end, Muschamp said Wednesday that he’s encouraging players to live “boring lives” and avoid situations that are high risk for contracting the virus.
In addition, meeting rooms have been changed and expanded to allow for social distancing, and masks are mandatory in the weight room of the Long Family Football Operations Center.
Addressing the possibility of roommates or position mates having to quarantine if someone tests positive, Muschamp said measures such as mask wearing and social distancing will be crucial to minimize the number of people who have to self-isolate.
As of Wednesday, Muschamp said the number of tests that have come back positive among players is under 5%, with two of those cases in July occurring among individuals who had been out of town and were tested immediately upon return.
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 5:10 AM with the headline "How many players can South Carolina be down and still play? What Muschamp says."
