23 Clemson Players Test Positive for COVID-19, Casting More Doubt Over College Football Season

As college athletes around the country begin reporting to campus for voluntary offseason workouts, each player and staff member is required to be tested for the coronavirus. Unfortunately, it hasn't taken long at all for the initial concerns of public health officials to be realized.

The Clemson Tigers announced on Friday that among the 315 athletes and staff examined, 28 individuals contracted COVID-19. The results reportedly include an alarming number of football players, as 23 (!) of head coach Dabo Swinney's finest have tested positive.

This bombshell report really makes you ponder if the 2020 college football season should just be postponed until the spring. We say that despite Clemson insisting that there has been zero hospitalizations and that the majority of the cases have been asymptomatic.

On the heels of this news, it's fair to assume that a number of other programs will have a similar percentage of players contract the virus. How could they not? As of last week, Alabama had at least eight total football players receive a positive diagnosis following its second round of tests, for what it's worth.

Let's not forget that Ohio State disturbingly attempted to make its athletes sign a risk waiver stating that they can't be 100% protected from a potential infection.

Seriously, what are we doing here? The negatives significantly outweigh the positives thus far, and at some point, the NCAA is going to have to take the long-term health of its student-athletes into consideration.