Progress toward having college football season hit a roadblock over the weekend says Paul Finebaum – Saturday Down South

Michael Wayne Bratton | 7 hours ago

After initial doubt regarding the possibility of holding the upcoming college football season was cast following the start of the coronavirus pandemic, things have been trending in the right direction for months when it comes to those rooting for the fall season to take place.

While the fate of the upcoming season remains unknown at this point, SEC Network host Paul Finebaum believes recent events have at least cast some doubt on the positivity when it comes to the fall season.

During his latest weekly appearance on Birmingham-based WJOX 94.5 FM radio program The Roundtable, Finebaum was asked to share his thoughts on all the positive COVID-19 results showing up around college campuses in recent days.

I think college football is literally at a crossroads right now in trying to get the season underway, Finebaum said on the show. Until now, I would say the last six weeks have been amazingly positive and everything has been geared towards the season and that hit a roadblock over the weekend. It was a grim, dark weekend for college football and by the way, for every other sport, too. I mean its not like anyone has figured this thing out but college football has the most challenging road ahead.

And, I mean, weve all hearing the same things, I mean the numbers are are enormous across the country, even in Alabama. Ive heard double digits at Auburn, double digits at Alabama. Should this be expected? I thought they would be handfuls at every school, I didnt think the numbers would be this big. And this is without anyone on campus. These are fairly controlled environments. And I think the big story, it may not be so much about college football but what are the odds of students getting back on campus if this is the circumstance?

College sports can always control things a lot better than the normal population. The only issue here is, unless you quarantine players, which you cant really do on a college campus, this is not going away.

Athletes testing positive for coronavirus now may not be the end of the world, but it is a sign that some procedures currently in place around the country will need to be reworked to prevent outbreaks moving forward.

Thankfully, all reported positive athletes to this point have been either asymptomatic or not resulted in hospitalization.

The fear, according to Finebaum, will come if and when that changes.

But one thing that I think most people feel really comfortable about, not to sound like any of us are experts because were not, young people normally dont get affected as much but they still do get affected, Finebaum added. And I think the danger is that youre going to get that bad case here that you cannot predict. Weve all covered young college athletes dying. And theres no explanation. You say, how can it happen?

But it can happen I dont need to say what were all hoping for, because its obvious, but its a real concern I think that this thing is that you get a bad outcome and what do you say then?