Nick Saban does not think the contact tracing rules in college football make sense.
Four SEC games were postponed this weekend, including Alabama’s game with LSU. Saban said on his radio show Thursday that the reason for the postponements is all the players in contact tracing, not positive COVID-19 tests.
“Look, the social tracing part of it is the reason these games are being canceled,” Saban said, via AL.com. “It’s not the number of players that are testing positive.
Saban says he spoke with people in the federal government, including Dr. Anthony Fauci’s team, and was told 5-7 days is the length of time in which someone exposed to another person who is infected could get it themselves. So Saban believes the science dictates that if someone is negative for the virus seven days after prolonged exposure to an infected person, the contact tracing quarantine period would not need to be longer than that.
Saban’s comment makes sense. From his standpoint, the quarantine period for contact tracing is unnecessarily harsh. Also consider that the Crimson Tide head coach himself tested positive for the virus, then had three negative tests in a row and was cleared to coach against Georgia.
What makes even less sense is the Big Ten’s 21-day quarantine rule, or a Pac-12 game being shut down over one positive case.
