Year of the Virus

If COVID were an SEC football program, I’d have to rank it in the top two in my Power Poll.

Auburn-Mississippi State (22) was postponed due to an outbreak with the Bulldogs. The Athletic reported that the Bulldogs were down to the mid-40s in terms of available players, after barely having enough to play Vanderbilt Saturday. (Teams are allowed 85 scholarship players.) But some of the attrition is due to factors beyond the virus—injuries and players who have left the program, which always happens during a coaching change. Mike Leach is in his first season at Mississippi State.

(That game has been rescheduled for the SEC’s “COVID Weekend” of Dec. 12, alongside LSU-Florida and Vanderbilt-Missouri. If you want to give players a great reason to opt out en masse and not play, tell the Commodores — who are currently winless and might still be at that point — that they must travel to the coldest town in the SEC in mid-December to play at the tail end of finals week. The Dash would vote Hell No to that assignment.)

The LSU-Alabama game (23) is in jeopardy due to the Tigers’ COVID numbers. While that may save the Tigers from a trip to the wood chipper, it also makes coach Ed Orgeron’s preseason boast about his team’s virus situation look all the more silly. “Not all of our players, but most of our players have caught it,” Orgeron said in mid-September. “I think that hopefully they won’t catch it again, and hopefully they’re not out for games.” The Athletic reported that LSU currently has one available scholarship quarterback, no tight ends and no long snappers. The Crimson Tide would like to play the game for the chance to smash a rival, but also to further integrate its young receivers into the offense in the absence of injured star Jaylen Waddle.

… Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman (26), the landslide leading candidate for SEC Coach of the Year, is out Saturday after testing positive. He will turn over leadership of the team against No. 6 Florida to defensive coordinator and former Missouri head coach Barry Odom. Other head coaches who have missed games this year include Mike Norvell (Florida State), Jeff Brohm (Purdue) and Les Miles (Kansas).

Texas A&M (27) has paused its football workouts after a player and a staffer tested positive in the wake of the Aggies’ game against South Carolina. They are scheduled to play at Tennessee Saturday.

If LSU-‘Bama gets postponed, there’s no place to move it, since the LSU-Florida game has already been switched to 12/12, so either the conference extends the season to accommodate the teams (which would mean the first round of the CFP would take place six days after the SECCG, something that would cause Nick Saban’s head to explode), the division winners are allowed to play an unequal number of games or LSU’s season is cut mercifully short to keep things in balance.

My guess is that Sankey will choose whichever option loses the least amount of money.  It just means more, after all.