How often will the Illini players and staff be tested for COVID-19 this season?
It’s complicated.
Currently, the Illini are being tested five times a week, Monday through Friday.
The players and coaches are using the saliva tests that are being deployed campus-wide.
“What’s going to change is we will add on what the Big Ten is doing on top of what campus is doing,” said Randy Ballard, Illinois associate athletic director of sports medicine.
Ballard is working with head football athletic trainer Jeremy Busch in the program’s dealing with COVID-19.
All told, the program goes through about 200 tests every weekday.
League schools are awaiting final confirmation on how Big Ten testing will work.
“We will have to do whatever the conference mandates,” Ballard said. “It sounds like they are going to mandate daily antigen testing that will be done by a…
