Alabama Football: UA students are proving Nick Saban wrong

Alabama students are hurting Alabama football’s odds of a season.

Classes at the University of Alabama started on Wednesday, but we already have a bit of bad news from Tuscaloosa, and it might have an impact on Nick Saban and Alabama football.

According to reports, Alabama has seen an increase in the percentage of positive tests, including as high as 29 percent of tests coming back positive. All students were tested at different locations before arriving on campus, and those results came back with less than a 1 percent positivity rate. You could obviously a higher percentage, but the total number of cases has risen as well.

These actions are proving Nick Saban wrong. Earlier this summer, Saban said that college football athletes were safer on campus than they were back home. The extensive testing, monitoring and medical facilities are certainly an improvement, but the city of Tuscaloosa is just as dangerous as any other hometown. If Alabama football players are not staying in a bubble, they are bound to contract COVID-19.

Saban’s remarks might have been true when they were made, but UA students are proving him wrong. It started on Sunday when students waited in long lines outside of bars without masks. With these new results, it is proving to be even more dangerous in the city of Tuscaloosa.

What can we do to protect Alabama football players?

The ideal situation would be a bubble for all student athletes, but that is unlikely. The NCAA would have to finally admit that athletes are not treated like other students, and that would likely come with financial repercussions.

Outside of that, the University of Alabama is enforcing new guidelines to keep students safer. They have canceled events on campus, kept sororities from fully using their houses, and have amped up the consequences for students who do not follow the rules.

This new information cements the point that a college football season is not guaranteed and that we still have a lot of work to do before we are past this pandemic. All UA students have to do their part to keep the campus as safe as possible.