The COVID-19 pandemic may have hit the University of Alabama’s school population hard, but it’s hit Auburn and LSU’s teams harder.

Auburn hasn’t been able to practice since Tuesday, because positive COVID-19 tests meant practice was cancelled on Thursday. Wednesday’s practice may have been due to the virus, but also due to social justice issues, but Auburn hasn’t been transparent about it.

And when they do step on the practice field in the burning, humid heat, the team will only have 16 players due to positive tests and worries about exposure to the virus.

“We are learning as we go here,” Malzahn said, according to 247Sports. “Every day and every week is a different challenge, and we talk about the teams that can be adaptable. It is a learning process, I think, for everyone and I think for us.”

As for LSU – according to The Advocate – Ed Orgeron’s offensive line has also been decimated, with ALL BUT FOUR (sorry for the caps, but you see what I’m getting at) players in that position tested positive for the virus or were deemed ‘high risk for exposure’.

SEC guidelines dictate that a player with symptoms have to see those symptoms lessen for at least 24 hours without medication before they can return for practice, and those deemed to have ‘high-risk exposure’ must quarantine for 14 days.

In LSU’s case, this could be particularly problematic going forward as they not only are replacing quarterback Joe Burrow, but also they have to replace starting LT Saahiq Charles and center Lloyd Cushenberry, as well as tons of other changes to the roster.

LSU wide receiving star Ja’Marr Chase is going to opt out of the 2020 season, according to reports.

Apparently this is not COVID-19 related, but so Chase can concentrate on getting prepared for the 2021 Draft. CBS said that it was “agents may have simply convinced Chase to leave before his third collegiate season”.

And although it’s claimed that it’s not related to the virus, here’s the deal: If Chase had had a bad case of COVID-19, it would have exhausted him. The virus has been linked with heart conditions, lung conditions and left tons of tons of victims utterly exhausted. Imagine if that happened to Chase during his junior year.

As for Chase, he really didn’t have anything to prove after a 2019 where he posted gaudy numbers, catching 20 TDs for 1,780 yards on 84 receptions.

This is a massive blow for LSU’s defense of its National Championship. The school is already struggling with an offensive line unit which had 14 out of its’ 18 players removed from practice with COVID-19 worries, and this will make matters worse.

The news will put pressure on Terrace Marshall to lead the way, but the cupboard’s hardly bare for the Tigers. There will also be a lot of eyes on freshman Kayshon Boutte, a five-star out of New Iberia, LA. He was considred the 2nd best wide receiver in the country, the best receiver in Lousiana, and the 24th best player all-around. He can run a 60-meter dash in 6.96, by the way. Trey Palmer, a former four-star high school player who had some roles as a punt returner, will also come in more to the fore, as well as senior Racey McMath, who had 285 yards and 3 TDs last year and caught just 10 balls. And you can expect redshirt sophomore Jaray Jenkins to make a stir.

But the news will make the secondaries of Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M breathe a little easier.

The SEC has updated their testing practices.

The league will now require three tests per week instead of the updated two, with a third rapid diagnostic test coming nearer the game.

“We remain vigilant in monitoring the trends and effects of COVID-19 as we learn more about the virus, and this cardiac evaluation enhances the effectiveness of the protocols already in place,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. He added: “We are confident in our institutions’ ability to provide a healthy environment supported by rigorous testing and surveillance. Our student-athletes have indicated their desire to compete and it is our responsibility to make every effort to deliver a healthy and medically sound environment for providing that opportunity.”

In our view, the SEC is doing this for two reasons:

•  Things are getting markedly worse at campuses. If you haven’t been ‘tuned in’ to social media (and if you are one of those people, then congratulations!), campuses across the country are suddenly moving their classes online in an effort to stop massive spreads on campus. It would be a shock if ANY SEC school is open for in-person classes in the next two weeks – especially as a lot of SEC schools’ social lives revolve around the Greek systems. Fraternities and sororities seem to be major focuses of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is hardly surprising bearing in mind how close together everyone else is (as well as how ****ing arrogant they all tend to be).
• It’s going to keep the media, the athletic departments, and, oh, the players happy. If I’m a player, I would find it difficult NOT to be disconcerted by the news that Vanderbilt and other schools around the country have had to cancel their practices because of outbreaks. But you can be sure that the athletic departments sure as hell are. Football’s a big business, and the SEC is trying everything to protect its investments.

If there’s one thing that differentiates us from other football conferences, it’s tailgating.

The regalia of The Grove. The boats below Neyland. The whole LSU scene.

We are legendary.

Most schools are going to ban tailgating this season. After all, they don’t want a reduced stadium to spurn a party of 100,000 outside (we see you, Baton Rouge!).

That could lead to some innovative tailgating spots in parks with big screens getting put up for people to watch games like you would for play-off games in different professional sports cities, but most sensible people will walk away. Georgia is not yet decided on this. 

The stadiums themselves – schools have announced – will be reduced by around 20-25%.

According to Alabama’s 24-7 Sports people, this is what the reduced capacity will look like for schools who have announced their ticket plans:

• Alabama – 20,364 (20% reduction from 101,281).
• Arkansas – 17,000 (23% reduction from 72,000).
• Auburn – 17, 490  (20% reduction from 87,451)
• Georgia – 23,000 (20% reduction from 92,746)
• Ole Miss – 16,010 (25% reduction from 64,038)
• Mississippi State – 15,334 (25% reduction from 61,337)
• Missouri – 16,655 (25% reduction from 62,621)
• Tennessee – 25,614 (25% reduction from 102,455)
• Texas A&M – 25,683 (25% reduction from 102,733)

OK, but here are my biggest questions for the schools: How are you going to keep fans socially distanced? Especially if the game’s gone down to the wire and everyone leaves at the same time? How are  you going to keep fans from the gantries or the toilets? Will there be a temperature check to get in before games? Will seats be reassigned to ensure the 6ft apart distance? Will fans have to wear masks – and what consequences will there be if they don’t? 

And that’s just off the top of my head. I have thought of more, which include fan transportation, luxury box amounts, and many other things, but it would take me writing the book of James.

But if we think about it, there are simply too many damned questions that aren’t being answered.

And what’s more schools not only are asking people to work out whether they are ‘opting in’ or ‘opting out’, but they are also charging fans more to get in. And this during a recession, the fact that the players aren’t getting paid anything, and they get over $240 million in TV rights per year.

If SEC schools REALLY cared about their fans and their fans’ health, then they would ban everyone from the stadiums – or if they really needed schools to reduce their capacities to 10%.

I’m sure the fanbases would grouse, but they would understand.

The NCAA Division 1 Council has voted to allow players in any fall sports to play ANY amount of competition and it not to count towards their eligibility.

In essence a player can opt-in for a game or two, and then opt-out if he or she feels uncomfortable about the environment.

Also, this means that should the College Football season close down during the season, players won’t lose eligbility.

This should assuage a lot of fears that the NCAA would take off years of people’s scholarships for opting-out, but it was predictable bearing in mind how badly the organising body has handled the whole COVID-19 situation.

SO WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THE SCHOLARSHIP HEADACHE?

With the new rules in place, there are going to be 85 scholarships and if there isn’t a rush of players to go to the NFL, we could have another group of commitments come in again. This creates some sort of ‘clusterf***k’ for coaches for the year to come.

The NCAA will not want – going forward – to increase the amount of scholarships to 100-120 each season, because that will allow college football superpowers like Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Clemson etc to hoover up everybody and create much more of a monopoly than they already do.

So why not have a two year 100-scholarship limit for 2021 and 2021, to let the class of 2020 and 2021 essentially cycle through?

Week 1 (Sept. 26)

Actually a pretty boring week here, with the favorites for the leagues almost guaranteed to go 1-0. Florida’s trip to Ole Miss will be interesting because of Lane Kiffin, and the standout game will be, er, Tennessee’s trip to South Carolina. A lot has been talked about of the Vols in this gruelling offseason, so we’ll see if they pick themselves up. 
Alabama at Missouri
Florida at Ole Miss
Georgia at Arkansas
Kentucky at Auburn
Mississippi State at LSU
Tennessee at South Carolina
Vanderbilt at Texas A&M

Week 2 (Oct. 3)

An absolute monster of a Saturday with Auburn going to Georgia and Texas A&M rolling into Bryant-Denney Stadium. There’s also the battle of Spurrier between South Carolina and Florida. 

Texas A&M at Alabama
Arkansas at Mississippi State
Auburn at Georgia
South Carolina at Florida
Ole Miss at Kentucky
LSU at Vanderbilt
Missouri at Tennessee

Week 3 (Oct. 10)

Florida will get its first test of the season when it goes to Texas A&M, while Eli Drinkwitz’ offensive scheme might fully get into place against LSU. We don’t see the Tigers winning, but it at least should be competition-ready by Week 3. Oh, and there’s also Alabama going to Ole Miss. We can only hope Katy Perry will show up again.

Alabama at Ole Miss
Arkansas at Auburn
Tennessee at Georgia
Florida at Texas A&M
Mississippi State at Kentucky
Missouri at LSU
South Carolina at Vanderbilt

Week 4 (Oct. 17)

Georgia at Alabama and then LSU vs Florida. Yep, that’s going to be the afternoon, right there. 

Georgia at Alabama
Ole Miss at Arkansas
Auburn at South Carolina
LSU at Florida
Kentucky at Tennessee
Texas A&M at Mississippi State
Vanderbilt at Missouri

Week 5 (Oct. 24)

A lot of ‘could be’ in Week 5. Like: Alabama’s trip to Tennesssee ‘could be’ pretty tricky and Georgia’s trip to Kentucky ‘could be’ tricky. We definitely expect South Carolina’s trip to LSU to be tricky.

Alabama at Tennessee
Auburn at Ole Miss
Missouri at Florida
Georgia at Kentucky
South Carolina at LSU

OFF: Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas

Week 6 (Oct. 31)

One of the nuttier games of the year is always LSU vs Auburn, so that makes it utterly watchable. Sneaky great under-the-radar game: Arkansas and Texas A&M. Gone to overtime 3 out of the last 6 years, and only one blowout during that time. 
Mississippi State at Alabama
Arkansas at Texas A&M
LSU at Auburn
Kentucky at Missouri
Ole Miss at Vanderbilt

OFF: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee

Week 7 (Nov 7) 

The World’s Largest Socially-Distanced Cocktail Party is going to Jacksonville again (unless the game is moved), but this time we don’t expect a sea or red or blue. This SEC East decider should be a lot of fun.

Tennessee at Arkansas
Florida vs. Georgia (Jacksonville, FL)
Vanderbilt at Mississippi State
Texas A&M at South Carolina

OFF: Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Missouri

Week 8 (Nov. 14)

Alabama vs LSU will definitely be the night game for CBS on November 14th, because it’s Masters Weekend and CBS makes a boatload of advertising cash on the Saturday. In that light Texas A&M’s trip to Tennessee is an underrated one, with the prospect of two Top 10-15 teams playing each other.

Alabama at LSU
Arkansas at Florida
Auburn at Mississippi State
Georgia at Missouri
Vanderbilt at Kentucky
South Carolina at Ole Miss
Texas A&M at Tennessee

Week 9 (Nov. 21)

Tennessee’s trip to Auburn is the funnest game on this schedule. And even that’s a bit of a stretch.
Kentucky at Alabama
LSU at Arkansas
Tennessee at Auburn
Florida at Vanderbilt
Mississippi State at Georgia
Ole Miss at Texas A&M
Missouri at South Carolina

Week 10 (Nov. 28)

Thanksgiving Week in College Football is always one of the greatest weeks for rivalries, and it’s sad that we’re not going to see South Carolina vs Clemson or Georgia vs Georgia Tech. Still, South Carolina can comfort itself with a home game against Georgia (lucky them!). Oh yeah, and Auburn and Alabama are playing each other, as well as this suddenly-bitter rivalry between LSU and Texas A&M.

Auburn at Alabama
Arkansas at Missouri
Kentucky at Florida
Georgia at South Carolina
LSU at Texas A&M
Mississippi State at Ole Miss
Tennessee at Vanderbilt

Week 11 (Dec. 5)

Here’s how bad Tennessee has been against Florida. Since 2005, they have only one once. Once. If things on the Pru-Train are clicking, this will be their best chance in years to make it a second. And we’ve talked about Texas A&M’s schedule ad nauseum (because it’s terrible, and the Aggies aren’t Missouri or Arkansas), so why not bring up their season-ending trip to Auburn?
Alabama at Arkansas
Texas A&M at Auburn
Florida at Tennessee
Vanderbilt at Georgia
South Carolina at Kentucky
Ole Miss at LSU
Missouri at Mississippi State

Right, so keeping players in the bubble’s going to be tough.

It’s pretty obvious that the kids who are going back to school think that just because they passed a COVID test between March and now that they aren’t ever gonna get the plague, so they are gonna hang out, drink and do dumb stuff, because they are students.

Football players aren’t different, particularly with all the distractions. And no, we ain’t talking about studies, since a lot of college football players wouldn’t be in college if it wasn’t for football. Hell, it’s a miracle most of them got through high school. A great friend of mine was pursuing the sort of lifestyle that would have made Hunter S Thompson proud when he was at Alabama, and he ‘attended’ classes with some of the football players. “It was like being around people with middle school comprehension,” he said. “All they know is football.”

That’s not entirely true, Hunter. Football players also are 18-24 year-olds. They know about being treated like the Lord God Almighty. They know about getting everything they ask for. They know about getting their asses kissed from Los Angeles to Miami to Columbus, and their visits to campus are the type of events that a Vegas mobster would be proud of.

So what are you gonna do? Tell these players: “Thanks for coming. Now keep away from the booze and the ladies and play some football!”

So we came up with an alternative sources of ways to keep players in the bubble:

1. Install video games: Football players like playing video games. Cool. Couple up with the local electronics retailer and install state-of-the-art gaming facilities. I mean, the players have been playing Call Of Duty for the last five months anyway, so what changes? Ask for daily scores and updates for each players, to make sure that people are competing non-stop like hamsters on the wheel.
2. Free weed dispensary: Dang it, every school in the SEC has had a player or two busted for weed, and there are definitely alums who fit the bill, too. Call them, get the number of their dealers and get your own bubble hot-boxed. Of course that might need legislation to make sure that this will work, but you’re in SEC country. You make the laws. If players need stronger stuff, Mr Manziel from Kerrville, Texas would be pleased to supply.
3. Free food: And we don’t mean your normal shitty college food, we meet Michelen-starred restaurants every damned night.
4. Free booze on a Saturday! And we’re not talking Milwaukee Best crap either, we’re talking top shelf liquor as well as good beer. After drinking this stuff, why in the hell would they want to go to a frat party?
5. Bring in the strip show: Give your players the taste of the future NFL life by bringing in ladies from your local club de strip-tease on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. If any of those strippers happen to want to earn some money for something more ‘personal’, then that’s OK. Hell, everyone wants to play football here. And they are probably better dancers than Lizzie from the Phi Gamma Delta sorority house, anyway.

Otherwise, this whole “Hey kids. Please don’t go to those parties with the pretty sorority girls. We know that you were promised play in all ways, but sorry. Not this year. Sorry. We can’t” stuff simply ain’t going work.

And we ain’t gonna have football.

P.S. Nick Saban was actually looking to make a real bubble facility for the players, and put armed security guards and dogs around the facility to stop players going out, but we had to draw a line.

The SEC and ACC have both said that they have no plans to quash their college football plans after the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences said that they are cancelling fall football. B

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement: “I look forward to learning more about the factors that led the Big Ten and Pac-12 leadership to take these actions today. I remain comfortable with the thorough and deliberate approach that the SEC and our 14 members are taking to support a healthy environment for our student-athletes. We will continue to further refine our policies and protocols for a safe return to sports as we monitor developments around COVID-19 in a continued effort to support, educate and care for our student-athletes every day.”

Note that fact that he show any compassion for players in the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences.

The ACC said: ‘We are pleased with the protocols being administrated on our 15 campuses. We will continue to follow our process that has been in place for months and has served us well. We understand the need to stay flexible and be prepared to adjust as medical information and the landscape evolves.”

Again, not the fact that they failed to show any compassion for players in the B1G or Pac-12.

The ACC is apparently very comfortable with pushing college football forward is that despite a bunch of tests at the start of the season – with Clemson being very high on that list – there haven’t been any COVID-19 cases on their campuses in a month.

Of course, it’s easy to proclaim how wonderfully you’ve been doing in a month. Students only start coming back to school in the next few weeks, and that is where it will be problematic to keep players in a ‘bubble’ format – especially with parties starting up.

August 11, 2020, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 fired the first missiles.

After arguing as to whether the fall college football season should be delayed or not, the conference decided that that was it: They were cancelling fall football.

There were words of players practicing at Nebraska and Iowa. There was a sense of hope that everything could get sorted with a player-pushed protest. News of all but Iowa and Nebraska deciding to resist came through yesterday, but they had said there wasn’t a vote.

There was. And the red button was pushed.

But now, there will be no Game. There will be no bitter battles for weird jugs, trophies and helmets. We won’t be able to jump around, white out, wave at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, a Rose Bowl, make fun of Rutgers or any of the other things that we love about Big Ten Football.

Out west there won’t be the smiles from second hand smoke from a Buffalos hangout, a Civil War, Song Girls, evil looks up and down the State of Arizona and the Almighty Duck.

And now, the cities are gone. It’s gone the way of the MAC, the Moutain-West, and other schools and conferences out there. Nuked. All that is left is hope, tears, and what will become dust on gym doors.

We can only wonder if the players’ resistance on Twitter helped with the plutonium in the missile. After all, schools don’t want to ‘bubble’ football players. It would be admitting to themselves – and the outside world – that football players were in fact professional athletes. They didn’t want to accept liability if all hell broke loose, and they couldn’t stop hundreds of 18-22 year-olds behaving like college students. Schools also would pull out evidence from Major League Baseball, when two St Louis Cardinals players opted to go out into a casino and have shut down the operation for the last two weeks, and the Marlins who did it to themselves by not taking it seriously. I mean, if you can’t rely on people who get paid proper money to not take a measures seriously, then how you can rely on 18-22 year-olds, a lot of them who won’t even see NFL riches and go unthanked in practice game in, game out?

Over with our friends Tobacco Land, there is talk of a resistance. Doctor Advocates in General Swofford’s War Room have said that the league should go ‘full steam ahead’ because deaths from the plague might hit anyone, anywhere and football won’t be different.

We know about the stronghold of the SEC. General Sankey is starting the season late to buy himself time from pressing the button. He wants to go. We all want to go.

in the ACC and the SEC are still looking strong, and the Big-12 is wavering. General Sankey’s decision to delay the SEC until the end of September looks a strong one.

And how about General Bowlsby in Big 12 Country? Despite being laughed at by many over the conference’s incompetence at Play-Off level, his decision not to release schedules and the suchlike and keeping his head below the parapet now seems genius. He is on the fence. He has pressures from some of the biggest districts in his City to play, but he’s waiting, watching.

We have to be watchful, wait, wear masks, and be intelligent in our fight.

We might give up the battle until the Spring. Some of our soldiers might retire from the fight. Some might stay.

But we all need to be united. Stay safe.

And wear a mask as a sign of resistance.

The Southeastern Conference released the two new non-conference opponents for the ‘oncoming’ college football season.

ALABAMA

Previously scheduled: vs Georgia, at Tennessee
Added opponents: vs. Kentucky, at Missouri

ARKANSAS
Previously scheduled: vs. Tennessee, at Missouri
Added opponents: vs. Georgia, at Florida

AUBURN
Previously scheduled: vs. Kentucky, at Georgia
Added opponents: vs. Tennessee, at South Carolina

FLORIDA
Previously scheduled: vs. LSU, at Ole Miss
Added opponents: vs. Arkansas, at Texas A&M

GEORGIA
Previously scheduled: vs. Auburn, at Alabama
Added opponents: vs. Mississippi State, at Arkansas

KENTUCKY
Previously scheduled: vs. Mississippi State, at Auburn
Added opponents: vs. Ole Miss, at Alabama

LSU
Previously scheduled: vs. South Carolina, at Florida
Added opponents: vs. Missouri, at Vanderbilt

OLE MISS
Previously scheduled: vs. Florida, at Vanderbilt
Added opponents: vs. South Carolina, at Kentucky

MISSISSIPPI STATE
Previously scheduled: vs. Missouri, at Kentucky
Added opponents: vs. Vanderbilt, at Georgia

MISSOURI
Previously scheduled: vs. Arkansas, at Mississippi State
Added opponents: vs. Alabama, at LSU

SOUTH CAROLINA
Previously scheduled: vs. Texas A&M, at LSU
Added opponents: vs. Auburn, at Ole Miss

TENNESSEE
Previously scheduled: vs. Alabama, at Arkansas
Added opponents: vs. Texas A&M, at Auburn

TEXAS A&M
Previously scheduled: vs. Vanderbilt, at South Carolina
Added opponents: vs. Florida, at Tennessee

VANDERBILT
Previously scheduled: vs. Ole Miss, at Texas A&M
Added opponents: vs. LSU, at Mississippi State

In terms of getting royally screwed, you can’t get closer than Missouri, who saw Alabama and LSU added.