College football will look a bit like Major League Baseball this fall with periodic stoppages due to COVID-19 positives, the dean of UAB's medical school told CBS Sports. Selwyn Vickers said there was "better than a probably 80% chance" the ACC, Big 12 and SEC will play this fall limited by those interruptions.
"I think it will look a little bit like Major League Baseball," Vickers said. "You're invariably going to have a team that will be quarantined for some reason or not."
MLB's 60-game season has been interrupted most significantly by COVID-19 breakouts among the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals. The Marlins didn't play for eight days in July and August. The Cardinals had to stop for 15. Other smaller outbreaks among other teams have caused other games to be postponed.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has continually warned that there could be what calls "disruptions" that will occur in the fall season due to COVID-19. Next to having to cancel the season altogether, having to postpone or interrupt it is the next-highest concern of the stakeholders.
Those stakeholders are aware that not all teams from all conferences will play the same amount of games. Especially as there are still 40,000 new COVID-19 cases and 1,000 new COVID-19 deaths per day across the United States.
"I think they'll have enough pressure after a couple of teams have to quarantine," Vickers said. "I would say there's not a great chance that you'll have transmission on the field because people will be tested 24 hours before a game, and they'll be in a hotel.
"I think it's just the surrounding atmosphere outside of practice that puts the risk [into play]. But I honestly think it looks like Major League Baseball, which gets its stride after a couple of teams realize, 'You know what, we have to shut the whole team down. Cancel a game or take one of our bye weeks in order for some people to recover.'"
UAB has the largest public academic medical center in the Southeast. Vickers has been dean of the medical school since 2013. His university's team plays in Conference USA. While UAB advises the University of Alabama in its coronavirus protocols, Vickers stressed that -- in terms of sports -- each SEC school has its own medical team.
Periodic disruptions would be the next hurdle for a game that his hoping to fit a season in amid the pandemic. The ACC and Big 12 have built in three bye weeks for their teams to make up games before the conference championship game. The SEC has two possible bye weeks but is starting two weeks after their aforementioned Power Five counterparts.
The Big Ten is in the process of deciding when it will play football again. Last month, the Big Ten and Pac-12 said they would attempt to play a spring 2021 schedule. The Big Ten is reportedly considering a late November that would stretch the season over both semesters. The Pac-12 is mulling a late 2020 start but aims to play sports again around Jan. 1, 2021.
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren has come under fire for overseeing the process that postponed the 2020 season on Aug. 11, six days after the conference released a fall schedule.
