No filled house because of COVID-19
Dan Mullen isn’t going to be with 90,000 people inside at Gainesville, Florida stadium watching the University of Florida and Louisiana State University play football. Mullen, the Florida Gators coach, said last Saturday he hoped to have 90,000 people or so inside the Florida facility to watch the game and cheer on his team. But something happened on the way to the game. First, the University of Florida Athletic Director Steve Stricklin said no to Mullen’s wish. Then came a COVID-19 outbreak on Mullen’s squad. The Florida-Louisiana State University game was postponed. Both schools are members of the Southeast Conference, a group of schools that pushed to get the college football season going. The Florida-Louisiana State contest is not the only SEC game that won’t be played. The Vanderbilt-Missouri game is also off the board. The Big 12 has lost a game as Baylor has a COVID-19 outbreak and cannot play Oklahoma State.
The school presidents want college football to resume and have decreed the COVID-19 pandemic is not all that bad and with proper protocols why not let the kids have a little fun and play some football despite COVID-19 being around. It is just another risk factor when playing football such as concussions and the possibility of eventually not functioning knees, shoulders and other body parts. Just the price of playing football at a high level. There may or may not be customers in the stands spending money to support school athletic programs but that is fine as long as television and marketing partners’ money flows in. This despite the fact that college and universities are COVID-19 hotspots because the school presidents and chancellors have not shown any ability to stop campus parties which have become super spreader events. College football is back, COVID-19? It is out there but so is money.
