Report: Power 5 Conferences Set to Deliver Universal, Minimum Test Protocols

According to an exclusive Sports Illustrated report from Ross Dellenger, the Power 5 conferences are set to deliver universal, minimum testing protocols for student-athletes as it pertains to the coronavirus pandemic along with fall athletics.

Dellenger and Sports Illustrated was able to obtain a copy of the drafted universal protocols document, which outlines several key components in dealing with COVID-19 and student-athletes from the Power 5 institutions. Some of the requirements include the need for any athlete which tests positive to miss at least 10 days of competition, if an athlete comes in contact with a person who tests positive, they must miss at least 14 days.

"College teams will be required to test football players within 72 hours of games using the standard PCR test. Game officials in football and basketball should also be tested weekly, because of their close contact with athletes, the document says.

"The document, however, does not require tests for coaches, though staff members must wear a mask on the sideline if they are not tested in the same way athletes are. As for other high-risk sports, athletes should be tested within 72 hours of the first game of a week’s set of games," writes Dellenger.

The protocols also all for "once a week" testing, something that will be important to track just how many student-athletes are positive on a week-to-week basis.

The standardization of testing has been one of the top priorities for universities as they work to maintain stability and the season. The issues which are presented for universities and universal, standardized testing comes with resources given to any given program. This includes the University of Florida which boasts one of the best health institutes in the nation - UF Health.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Gators athletic director Scott Stricklin spoke candidly for the necessity of uniform protocols within the SEC.

"That's going to be really important," Sankey said when asked about universal testing. "How are we all going test? What's that protocol going to look like? But then the other challenge is what access do people have to the testing it would take to be able to fulfill those protocols.

"We're really fortunate because of UF Health that we have good access to testing, and not only testing, but we get our results back in a pretty timely manner. I'm not sure everyone has that, and so that's something that we've all got to figure out at some point once we do get back to playing games. Or before we get back to playing games."

Standardized testing is just one step in a lot of hurdles the college football realm will have to jump over in order to conduct a season in as safely as humanly possible. Because of that, there has already been plenty of other contingencies drawn out if schools will not be able to adhere to the protocols, including cancellation of the season or games if they fall short.

Dellenger lists the conditions in which a season could fall be impacted:

1) lack of ability to isolate new positive cases or quarantine high-contact risk cases on campus; 2) inability to perform weekly testing; 3) campus-wide or local community test rates that are considered unsafe by local public health officials; 4) inability to perform adequate contact tracing; 5) local public health officials state that there is an inability for the hospital infrastructure to accommodate a surge in COVID-related hospitalizations.

Over the coming weeks, as it pertains to college football within the SEC, determinations will be made on an adjusted or abbreviated schedule, if there is to be one. For now, they'll continue to work together in order to ensure the safest and most effective way to conduct the season this fall.