Finally some good COVID-19 news for Michigan State.
Two weeks after the entire football team cleared a mandatory two-week quarantine, Michigan State has announced that 250 COVID-19 tests from August 7-14 resulted in zero positives.
These results come less than a month after 16 athletes and four staff members tested positive at the end of July.
The good testing results are perhaps too little too late as the Big Ten announced last week the fall sports season would be postponed to the spring, taking football with it.
There has been some momentum among players, coaches and parents in restoring the fall season. Multiple parent associations sent letters to Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren urging him to restore the season. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has been public in his displeasure with the cancelation of the season as has Ohio State’s Ryan Day. A petition started by OSU quarterback Justin Fields pushing for the fall season to be restarted has gained more than 300,000 signatures.
Michigan State coach Mel Tucker has been publicly supportive of the Big Ten’s decision and told media last week that the Spartans would be gearing back and starting up a six-and-a-half-week weight and conditioning period.
In total Michigan State has conducted more than 1,000 tests on athletes and staff members since workouts resumed in early June with 35 positives. Of the more than 800 tests given to athletes, 30 were positive, while just five of the 235 tests for staff members yielded positive results.
