What happens if a Pac-12 team has positive test?

EUGENE — Oregon’s experience with false positive antigen tests disrupting its fall camp for two-plus days will be the first example cited of the challenges of the Pac-12 attempting to practice and play sports amid a pandemic, but it undoubtedly won’t be the last.

That’s simply the statistical reality of conducting so many rapid tests, where the trade off for their expediency and economic scale is degrees of sensitivity and accuracy, compared to Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests that take longer to process, cost more but are more accurate.

However, the Pac-12\u2032s margin for error on the field is narrower than the degree of variance of results from Quidel’s Sofia 2 testing machines.

Playing six games in as many weeks before conference championship weekend leaves the Pac-12 behind nearly all of the rest of the FBS, but especially its peers in the Power 5 conferences. Thus, the natural concern about the perception of the league, its teams and whether or not a 7-0 Pac-12 champion will have a legitimate shot at a College Football Playoff berth.

A false positive test on the morning of a game is a scenario the Pac-12 can ill afford given this dynamic and the conference intends to have specific protocols for testing for travel the day before games, day of games and if an athlete should test positive on the road.

“We’ll be testing before they get on the plane,” Pac-12 senior associate commissioner for football operations Merton Hanks said on Oct. 15. “We’ll be testing. and more than likely we’ll partner with a third-party to administer the test just to avoid any hint of impropriety and shenanigans the day before the game; have that test. We also certainly are working on protocols if we do have a student-athletes who may unfortunately test positive in that situation, we’ve got

to get that young man or woman back home. We’re also looking at mechanisms to safely transport our student-athletes back home for further treatment. All of that will be wrapped up in our protocols and released to the public in short order.”

Oregon’s five false-positive antigen tests Saturday led to the cancellation of the team’s second scrimmage of fall camp. Should an antigen test come back positive on a game day, it’s unclear if one negative PCR test immediately after will be enough to override the original result and allow for the player or coach to participate in the game.

“Each school will have access to a limited capacity of PCR tests on football gameday,” a Pac-12 spokesman told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Those tests can take several hours to process. However, Oregon coach Mario Cristobal said he believed a process for rapid PCR tests on game days would be in place.

Several rapid PCR tests are on the market, though it’s unclear if the Pac-12 has access to those tests. A Pac-12 spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the availability of rapid PCR tests for the season, which starts next week.

There is some ambiguity as to whether the local public health protocol for each Pac-12 school allows for one negative PCR test to override a positive antigen test.