Saturday’s LSU-Bama game in Baton Rouge has been postponed due to a COVID outbreak on LSU’s team.
CBS Sports National College Football Writer Dennis Dodd says it’s not a surprise that we would lose a game of this magnitude because despite team’s best mitigation efforts these college players aren’t living in a bubble.
“It is not a true bubble and it is not even close. Because they are students that are going to class even if they are doing it virtually and they are in contact with other people,” said Dodd. “Part of the LSU situation was reportedly that there was a big outbreak after players went to a Halloween party,” said Dodd.
Cases are also spiking in over 40 states. Louisiana is doing better than most in the country but there’s an indication that cases in Louisiana are on the rise as part of the dreaded “Winter Wave”.
Rescheduling the game will be tough considering LSU already had to flex their Florida game into a later season bye-week. It’s a blow to the local economy and Dodd says it’s yet another blow to the program’s finances.
“Look they were going to lose money hand over foot anyway with only a quarter of attendance. Yea, they are going to lose a lot of money, and they are going to lose a little more,” said Dodd.
Dodd says the cancellation also leads to a crisis of legitimacy for the College Football Playoffs if the SEC doesn’t manage to get a full season in.
Dodd says the rash of COVID outbreaks in the sport could result in New Orleans no longer hosting a first-round college football playoff game as officials seek to create a playoff bubble.
“If they haven’t already they should probably think about some central city where they can play those out of a state where things are not spiking, but there are very few of those,” said Dodd.
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