Florida football experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases

COVID-19 continues to affect college football programs throughout the country with Florida football being hit hard by the novel virus recently. 

The coronavirus is going to make things interesting for sports for the unforeseeable future and Florida football is figuring that out the hard way.

According to Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel, six new positive tests have come through for the Gators. Florida athletics as a whole have been hit hard by the virus, as Thompson noted that both the lacrosse team and baseball team had 45 total cases between the two. Women’s soccer was forced to cancel their season opener due to positive tests.

“In all, UF athletes had 61 new positive tests, signaling a major rise in infections among the school’s hundreds of athletes that coincided with the start of classes in Gainesville.”

“No one in the football program had tested positive for the virus since mandatory workouts began July 14. Last week, the clean bill of health ended with UF reporting one football player infected.”

The  football program had been doing a nice job prior to this, but as Thompson noted above, that ended with one positive test and now six more have followed in recent days.

It was only a matter of time before someone in the Florida football program became infected.

The state of Florida has been a hot spot for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. It’s a popular tourist destination and with the pandemic starting around the time of spring break, we saw how people vacationing in the Sunshine State were treating the virus, which wasn’t a good look.

While a lot has changed since those viral videos were released, the NCAA is doing all that it can to prevent further outbreaks from occurring. When positive cases arise, a game is postponed a few weeks and moved to a date down the road and that’s something we’ll have to get used to in sports this year.

Florida football is slated to kick off their 2020 season on Sept. 26 against the Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford. It won’t be shocking if the game is moved, but if these seven total cases clear up quickly and no new cases emerge, perhaps the game can continue as scheduled.