This college football season may see more upsets than usual — it may also see more blame placed on the flu. Earlier this month, outbreaks were reported at numerous universities — all in time for the beginning of the football season.
- Duke reported that two to three dozen players experienced both the traditional and H1N1 flu, which took about 10 days to recover from.
- Tulane had 27 players with mostly mild symptoms cleared to play against Tulsa, a game which they lost.
- Washington State had 16 players come down with flu-like symptoms before it’s home opener — a loss to Stanford.
- Ole Miss had up to 30 players missing practices earlier this month, due to the flu.
- Stillman College, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama was forced to cancel its home opener against Clark University in Atlanta because 37 players were complaining of flu-like symptoms.
- Wisconsin has finally started recovering from a severely depleted roster earlier this season — all due to the flu.
- Texas quarterback Colt McCoy was hit by the bug, but only missed one day of practice.
- Just this past weekend, several Florida Gators (including quarterback Tim Tebow) played with flu symptoms, which prompted coach Urban Meyer to blame his team’s lackluster performance against Tennessee on the virus.
These schools, and hundreds of others, are not out of the weeds just yet. The height of flu season is the month of October — a month that may see third stringers running plays instead of warming the bench.
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Emily Holbrook is co-editor of Risk Management Monitor and editor of Risk Management magazine, where she has worked since 2008. You can follow her on Twitter @RiskMgmtMonitor.
