The coronavirus keeps infecting players and disrupting game schedules, but schools are acting as if the pandemic isn’t happening.
College football is now the epitome of the way dysfunction becomes normalized in America. Fans of the sport woke up to the news Saturday morning that the Clemson–Florida State game was postponed because a Clemson offensive lineman had tested positive for the coronavirus the day before. The matchup was one of 18 games that had to be canceled or postponed last week because of COVID-19. Appallingly—though not surprisingly—Clemson officials still wanted to play the game, even though, in the preceding week, the Tigers had practiced and then traveled to Tallahassee, Florida, with a player who turned out to have the coronavirus. The Florida State team, which had not had a positive test since mid-September, wasn’t comfortable going forward, so the game was called. But as in so many other conversations during the pandemic, the people adamant about their right to behave recklessly criticized others for paying attention to public health. The Clemson coach, Dabo Swinney, unloaded on the Seminoles, accusing them of ducking his team. “This game was not canceled because of COVID,” Swinney said to reporters on Sunday. “COVID was just an excuse to cancel the game. I have no doubt their players wanted to play and would have played. And same with the coaches. To me, the Florida State administration forfeited the game.” Even before Swinney made those comments, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley—a Republican who once served as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, and a potential 2024 presidential candidate—was already mocking the Seminoles on Twitter. “Florida State, whether you lose today or a few days from now won’t matter,” Haley wrote. “Get it over with already. Stop stalling.” Immature sniping aside, college football is in the midst of a coronavirus crisis, and the sport’s prevailing attitude seems to be the shrug emoji. For the third straight week, the number of games postponed or canceled this past weekend was in the double digits. The pandemic has compromised even some games that were played as scheduled. On Friday night,20 of Minnesota’s players were unavailable to play against Purdue. Exactly how many of those players were out due to the coronavirus is unclear, but the university did report that staff members and players had tested positive for the virus. Since college football teams aren’t required to provide information as to why players miss games, the secrecy allows colleges and universities to hide just how pervasive the problem really is. On Saturday, when Mississippi State played against 11th-ranked Georgia with fewer than the minimum 53 scholarship players, the game arguably marked an improvement over the week before, when Mississippi State didn’t play at all because of a COVID-19 outbreak.
