The University of Alabama System has 3 different campuses: Tuscaloosa, Birmingham (UAB) and Huntsville, and according to AL.com’s Michael Casagrande, early test results show a low positivity rate for students who were tested before returning to campus.

Approximately 30,000 students have been tested, and the positivity rate is just 0.83, which is 249 students. That’s obviously a great start for the university system’s 3 campuses.

With the Big Ten and Pac-12 already having canceled college football, all eyes are on the SEC, ACC and Big 12 as the Power 5 trio pushes toward playing football this fall. Many factors will go into the final decision of playing or not, and one of those will be the positivity rate on the university’s campuses. Many fear that with the return of students to campus for in-person classes, COVID-19 will spread at an alarming rate.

The SEC has announced a fall football practice start date of August 17 and has scheduled Week 1 games for September 26th. The delayed start gives the conference time to adjust if there’s a high positive rate with students when returning to campus.

Notre Dame announced this week that 12,000 students were tested before the start of classes and just 33 students tested positive for COVID-19. That was also very positive.