Is Alabama’s opener with Missouri in jeopardy?

This College Football season has already had a few highlights.

We’ve had the return of Miami’s Turnover Chain, revamped and restudded (Miami’s also 2-0, so people are already saying: “IS MIAMI BACK?” (Clue: Yes, until they play Clemson and get beat by 40). There’s the laughter at the Big 12, who seem to be embarrassing themselves at every opportunity. There’s the Big Ten, who have managed to put the train back on the tracks, and frankly, we can’t wait until their match-ups start at the end of October, because More College Football.

But there have also been the cancellations or postponements. There’s COVID-19 cases and contact tracing and schools scurrying to make sure that all hell doesn’t break loose. Baylor and Houston recently fell by the wayside – and Houston’s bus was the sorriest sight in Texas – sitting outside McClane Stadium with nothing to play for an star-laden tweet from the school. And it wasn’t Houston’s fault, it was Baylor’s (Let’s be honest, if you’re catching COVID-19 as a football player right now, it’s probably your fault).

The Big Ten has put its foot foward, and put in some pretty strict guidelines for getting games together, with one of the strictest being “Any player who tests positive cannot play for three weeks”. Sounds harsh, but it forces players to effectively ‘bubble’ themselves.

So the SEC decided to instal its own policies. Firstly, the minimum amount of scholarship players on the field was 53. At a minimum, the position groups had to include 7 offensive linesmen (including one center), one quarterback, and four defensive linesmen. And the institution has the option to play with the 53 players or lower, but it would be sent off to the Commissioner’s office, who would either reschedule the game (probably) or cancel it (won’t happen, too much money).

It added: “Should an institution determine there are compelling reasons why it cannot begin a contest regardless of the scholarship and position minimums above, the institution may request to have the game rescheduled or, if the game cannot be rescheduled, for the game to be considered a no contest by presenting data (including total number of players not available to participate) outlining reasons why the game should not be played as scheduled”.

The move of 53 scholarship players is more focussed that the ACC’s effort, which simply says that an adequate number of players have to available to play a game, although it did add that at least seven offensive linesmen would have to be available.

The Big 12 has said that teams have to have 53 scholarship players, including 7 O-Linemen, four available interior D-Linemen, and one QB. They also have the same cancellation protocols as the SEC, too.

SO HOW WILL IT AFFECT ALABAMA VS MISSOURI?

Missouri, who’s already going to be heavy underdogs going into the Alabama game, said that 12 of its players will be missing the Alabama game. Added to this that two of its scholarship players – DT Chris Daniels and WR Maurice Massey – Missouri could probably turn around the SEC and say that their team was “significantly weakened” by COVID-19.

“Out is out,” Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “Whether they got it or whether they contact trace, out is out. They can’t be around us, so there’s no reason to get into the numbers game and hype. It’s just we’re down 12 guys. It is what it is.”

And if the 12 continues to increase, Missouri may have to go to the SEC office and say: “We’re going to have to postpone the game due to COVID-19 testing”. And it’s not like that there hasn’t been precedent, either. Virginia’s game with Virginia Tech has had to be postponed because of positive cases…..and that was one of the crown jewels in the ACC’s season. A number of Big 12 versus ____ have had to be moved (The ACC has said that a minimum of eight ACC teams need to move forward with games in a week, or the season will be postponed).

Alabama head coach Nick Saban isn’t giving anything away regarding COVID-19 and simply said that Alabama was doing daily tests on players. It will be expect that Bama goes the route of Oklahoma and not releasing the amount of players out with positive tests, so it once again will be up to the Alabama insiders before game-time to release a true ‘injury list’.

But the bottom line is this: If things get worse in Columbia, MO, then Eli Drinkwitz’ opening SEC salvo may be silenced just days before the Crimson blitzkrieg commences. After all, why play Alabama when any area of your team is significantly weakened?