The SEC released their COVID-19 requirements for fall sports today.
While many of the requirements outlined are expected to be widely used across the conferences still opting to play football this fall, there was also some important clarity provided on perhaps the most important question of football during the COVID era.
What would it take to cancel games?
To answer that, the SEC document details five "Game Discontinuation Considerations" that read:
- Inability to isolate new positive cases, or quarantine high risk contacts of cases of university students.
- Unavailability or inability to perform symptomatic, surveillance or pre-competition testing when warranted.
- Campus-wide or local community positivity test rates that are considered unsafe by local public health officials.
- Inability to perform adequate contact tracing consistent with local, state or federal requirements or recommendations.
- Local public health officials indicate an inability for the hospital infrastructure to accommodate a surge in COVID-19 related hospitalizations.
Like so many COVID decisions, the local health department will play a vital role in determining in if games will be determined based on the current landscape and data.
The document also outlines testing procedures, the use of third-party testing, and how coaches and support staff will be tested, the introduction of a COVID-19 protocol oversight officer for each school, as well as the definition of that "essential personnel" term we initially heard a few weeks back.
Head here to read the full release.