COLUMBIA, Mo. — The coronavirus has already wiped out three football games in the Southeastern Conference for this weekend. Missouri hopes it doesn't become four.
After Sunday's round of testing revealed one positive case of COVID-19 within the Missouri football team, MU has spent Tuesday contact tracing to see if the team will have enough players available for Saturday's game against No. 12 Georgia, a source confirmed.
If contact tracing determines several players must quarantine the Tigers could fall below the Southeastern Conference roster threshold at one of the three position groups designated by the conference's cancelation policy. PowerMizzou.com first reported the team had started the process of contact tracing after a positive test.
Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz pushed back Tuesday's Zoom press conference from noon to 5:15 p.m. and is expected to address the situation after the team's practice.
The SEC's cancelation policy states that teams must have a minimum of 53 scholarship players to play a game, plus some position-specific requirements: seven offensive linemen, four defensive linemen and one quarterback. The Tigers were down to nine scholarship offensive linemen last week with starters Xavier Delgado and Larry Borom expected to miss several weeks with injuries.
Missouri had only 64 scholarship players available for its last game against Florida and will be without another three players for the first half of Saturday's game as a result of league suspensions for the team's halftime fight against the Gators.
A team can decide to play its next game if the roster is below the league requirements, but otherwise, upon league approval, the game must be rescheduled or ruled no contest. As of Tuesday afternoon, Mizzou was still scheduled to host Georgia at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Missouri has already moved its game against Vanderbilt to Dec. 12, the SEC's universal bye week. Teams that are not playing for the SEC championship the following week could also reschedule their games for Dec. 19. Georgia (4-2) and Missouri (2-3) are still alive for the SEC East Division, though Florida (4-1) is in command of the race with a one-game lead over UGA, plus the head-to-head tiebreakers over both teams.
COVID has already taken a sledgehammer to this week's SEC schedule. Three games have been postponed: Mississippi State-Auburn, LSU-Alabama and Texas A&M-Tennessee, the league confirmed Tuesday.
Positive cases at Mississippi State forced the league to postpone its game against Auburn, which subsequently paused all team activities because of an outbreak within its team. The other outbreaks came at LSU and Texas A&M.
"While it is unfortunate to have multiple postponements in the same week, we began the season with the understanding interruptions to the schedule were possible and we have remained focused throughout the season on the health of everyone around our programs," SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said. "We must remain vigilant, within our programs and in our communities, to prevent the spread of the virus and to manage activities that contribute to these interruptions."
The Mississippi State-Auburn game and Texas A&M-Tennessee game will be moved to Dec. 12, the league announced. LSU already has a game scheduled for Dec. 12, so LSU and Alabama will have to decide if that game will be played. With Alabama in control of the SEC West, playing on the day of the SEC championship game won't be an option for the Crimson Tide.
Arkansas will play Saturday's game at Florida without head coach Sam Pittman, who tested positive for COVID on Sunday.
