What do the latest numbers say about college football, 2020?

In the middle of last week, the NCAA announced its plan to allow college football teams to begin practice and training camps once all of their players arrive back on campus and are tested for COVID 19.

Two days later, the results of those tests began surfacing. 23 positive cases at Clemson, 30 at LSU, 13 at Texas and an undisclosed number at Kansas State that was high enough for K-State to suspend all football-related activities for 14 days.

So far, the schools are proceeding. The players who are testing positive have been placed in quarantine for 10-14 days, where those who are pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic can still work out together, meet with coaches remotely and hang out as a sort of Scarlett Letter fraternity until they test negative.

What happens next is anyone’s guess. Clemson, LSU, Texas and K-State are all in Republican states where the mixed messages have led to less social distancing and mask-wearing and, obviously, more positive test results. So, they could be susceptible to even more bad news.

At UNC, either the school has not released test results or no players who have thus far reported back are positives. Carolina will be as meticulous as any school in its return-to-practice plan, and it is possible the Tar Heels will be all negative right up until their first game at Central Florida, in one of the hottest spots in the country right now.

Does that mean that UNC will send a team of Ghostbusters to Orlando to fumigate the hotel the players and coaches will stay at Thursday night, plus the visiting locker room at UCF’s Stadium?

Even with those precautions, can they really feel safe blocking and tackling against an opponent that will have been in the middle of a surging state for weeks? And with no regulation on testing protocols by the NCAA, how has UCF’s safety measures compared to UNC’s?

There’s never been a sports season with more unknowns and uncertainties. Four predominantly black colleges have already canceled games. Will teams that do start the season stay healthy enough to keep playing?

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