Contact Tracing Guidelines Setting up College Football to Fail

Stringent guidelines that are about to be put in place will kill college football almost before it begins.

Are you ready for some football? That's an easy question to answer for fans of football at any level across our country. Still, with every new development, the likelihood of completing a season seems more like a pipe dream than a reality. 

A new report from Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger on Monday puts the possibility of completing a season in such a light that the alternative of not starting at all seems the better option. 

Don't get me wrong, I want, and need football to return as much, if not more than most. I'm in the "do everything you can to play" group and will remain positive, but when those in power place near impossible guidelines on things, reality must be addressed. 

Per Dellenger's article, the issue is a 14-day quarantine that will be part of contact tracing among participants. 

" The Power 5’s in-season virus plan, along with the NCAA’s own in-season guidelines it released last week, is drawing concerns from both college athletic leaders and physicians alike. At issue is that mandatory 14-day quarantine as part of the contact tracing section of the plan. Some around college football believe the quarantine time to be so long and the definition of a “high-risk” contact to be so cautious that completing a season may be virtually impossible."

"“Are you telling me a contact is you and I lining up against each other and you block or tackle me and two days later I come down with the virus and you’re out?” asks a college athletic director in Dellenger's story. “Then you’re not going to finish a season.”

The reality of this seems to be if one player, let's say a starter plays the entire game at then tests positive, through contact tracing any player he had primary contact with during a game would then be subject to quarantine himself. That would also mean his teammates, and the teammates of the opposing player as well.    

"According to both the Power 5 and NCAA guidelines, those who test positive for COVID-19 must isolate for at least 10 days from their onset of symptoms/positive test and until they’ve gone at least three days without symptoms. However, those found to have contact with the infected must miss even more time—two full weeks—even if they test negative for the virus," wrote Dellenger.

Let's be clear; the health and safety of players should and must come first here. However, to put restrictions in place that will all but doom team's seasons with the first positive test, wouldn't it be wiser to simply cancel the season?  

There was a joke floating around when it was announced that several Alabama players had tested positive for the virus upon returning to campus. The joke said Nick Saban was attempting to grow heard immunity by having his entire team go through it. 

While that is illogical and ridiculous, Saban and other coaches whose teams have had large numbers of players infected might have had an advantage in this process. Not now with these new rules for contact tracing. 

This whole thing is making heads spin and has replaced much optimism with a new reality that we could be set up for a repeat of college basketball season all over again, and none of us want to go through that again. 

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