3 Auburn football players tested positive for the coronavirus

Three Auburn football players tested positive for the coronavirus.

For the first time in almost three full months, SEC football players will be able to partake in voluntary workouts this week. That would seem to be an indication that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is behind us as it pertains to the premier class of college football.

Unfortunately, the consequences of this transition have revealed themselves in short order. On the heels that a number of Alabama players tested positive for COVID-19, the Auburn Tigers now have three players of their own who contracted the coronavirus.

Auburn players testing positive for COVID-19 is a concerning sign

The good news (if you can consider such a thing in this circumstance)? These three players are all asymptomatic, and the university is ensuring that each will be quarantined, and the whole team is due to be isolated as workouts resume.

“I think the challenge will be, as we move forward and trying to get back to some kind of normal, you know, everything that goes with that, but we feel very good about our plan, especially the first seven days,” head coach Gus Malzahn said, per The Montgomery Advertiser.

Unfortunately, that optimism may ultimately ring hollow as football activities gear up again.

Football teams are gigantic. They possess innumerable moving parts. They present a dizzying challenge in terms of contact tracing, to say nothing of the scale of testing and quarantine infrastructure necessary to ensure health and safety. The SEC routinely finds itself leading college football from the front; if they can’t stick the landing in this regard, it’s hard to imagine holding out much hope for the rest of the sport across the nation.

Given the current frequency of confirmed cases, the state of Alabama has work to do in order to demonstrate a sustainable future in terms of reopening. Mississippi, likewise home to two SEC schools, must do the same. College football Saturdays will be a key component to feeling a quantum of normalcy this fall, but as of right now, fans wouldn’t be wrong to be a bit skeptical.

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