More Positive Tests for Vanderbilt Football, More Opt-Outs Coming?

While there have been few details on Wednesday's report that more Vanderbilt football players have tested positive, could this lead to more opt-outs?

Journalism is about reporting facts and information in a fair and unbiased manner, so it's with a bit of trepidation that I write in speculation. Still, during this uncertain time, that has become an unwelcome part of our lives in this pandemic. 

Here's what we know as fact. On Wednesday, Simon Gibbs of The Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper published a report that indicated some members of the Vanderbilt football and soccer teams had tested positive for COVID-19. Further details have not been shared so that those numbers could be anywhere from two to one-hundred. 

While it is purely speculative on my part, head football coach Derek Mason was scheduled for a media Zoom conference call that was postponed shortly before the Gibbs report on the newest positive tests. As of yet, the session has not been rescheduled. 

This could be a total coincidence, but the same scenario happened during the previous postponement of football practice where a media call was scrubbed on the same day the information became public. 

What we do know is that this is not good timing, to say the least for a football team trying to prepare for what will be likely the most challenging single-season schedule in team history. 

But could there be more trouble to come? 

Opt-outs have become an almost daily occurrence around the college football landscape, including Georgia standout quarterback Jamie Newman, who pulled the plug on his Bulldog career Wednesday. 

In the face of the second round of positive results for Vanderbilt, could some of these young men decide that it's not worth it to them, and it's time to say "see ya next season?"

Nothing has been reported to suggest this is even a consideration by any individual players. Still, the thought has to be somewhere in the backs of their minds if they have had friends or family members suffer from this virus. 

While the degree of difficulty of those who contract the virus ranges from very mild to severe sickness and hospitalization, none of us want to be sick. 

For those who have planted themselves in the mindset to play, that likely won't change, but for anyone who was on the fence, this could be a push to the negative. 

Of course, we will have to wait and see what transpires, but this is not something a team picked last in their league needs to be encountering at this time. 

Unfortunately, that's life in the pandemic and 2020. 

Follow Greg on Twitter @GregAriasSports and @SIVanderbilt or Facebook at Vanderbilt Commodores-Maven.