- The Georgia vs. Missouri college football game set for Saturday has been postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the Tigers’ program.
- It becomes the fourth SEC contest postponed this week.
- The SEC is now considering using December 19 for rescheduled games.
The onslaught of the COVID-19 virus on the SEC continues. On Wednesday, the upcoming game between Missouri and Georgia was postponed due to COVID-19 issues in the Tigers’ football program. The SEC announced a combination of positive tests within the Missouri program along with the subsequent contact tracing and quarantining forced the postponement.
A spokesman for the University of Missouri told the media that there isn’t a significant outbreak within the football program. According to this source there has been one positive test but the requisite contact tracing forced the isolation of a larger group of players. The SEC requires that a team must have at least 1 quarterback, 7 offensive linemen, 4 defensive linemen and a total of 53 scholarship players in order to play a game. Based on the characterization of the Missouri spokesman the most likely position group affected is the offensive or defensive line.
The SEC has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic this week. The Georgia-Missouri game is the fourth SEC contest postponed since Monday. Mississippi State vs. Auburn was the first contest forced to be rescheduled due to multiple positive COVID-19 tests within the Bulldogs’ program. The situation further deteriorated on Tuesday when two SEC games were cancelled including one of the marquee matchups of the season: Texas A&M vs. Tennessee and the traditional rivalry matchup between LSU and Alabama.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey reemphasized the importance of continued vigilance within the football programs in his conference:
“While it is unfortunate to have multiple postponements in the same week, we began the season with the understanding interruptions to the schedule were possible and we have remained focused throughout the season on the health of everyone around our programs. We must remain vigilant, within our programs and in our communities, to prevent the spread of the virus and to manage activities that contribute to these interruptions.”
Sankey also admitted the reality is such that some of the postponed games might not end up being rescheduled:
“We knew that the potential — in fact, the likelihood — of disruption was real and we built in some opportunities to manage that. As we go later in the season, those opportunities are minimized.”
“We’re going to keep moving forward. We don’t get to just throw up our hands and not stop trying, but we’ll have to come together depending on how much disruption occurs and we’ll have to react to it. It’s hard to predict. It’s one of the lessons from the last few months.”
In addition to the SEC postponements there was another power conference forced to cancel a game. Saturday’s game between #3 ranked Ohio State and Maryland has been cancelled after eight Terp players tested positive for COVID-19.
