Florida State chickened out and should be made to forfeit to Clemson football
The Clemson football team was informed at 8 a.m. E.T. when the Tigers were still at their team hotel that their game against Florida State had been postponed.
According to The Stadium’s Brett McMurphy, Clemson football had a player test positive on Friday and Florida State’s medical team was ‘concerned’ about playing the next day.
Clemson was informed about 8 a.m. as players were at team hotel coming down for breakfast that Florida State was not comfortable playing game because of COVID concerns w/Clemson, sources told @Stadium. Clemson had 1 player test positive Friday, source said
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) November 21, 2020
That would be fine, except the same exact scenario happened to Florida State earlier in the season and nothing was canceled or postponed. FSU Head Coach Mike Norvell tested positive on a Friday– we all know he was around several players on his team- and the Seminoles still played their game Saturday against the Miami Hurricanes.
So florida state plays a game with a covid positive coach norvell against miami within 14 days of test but avoids Clemson with 1 postive test. Something is missing here with Florida State.
— Jeff or Jeffrey Fann (@TalkinACCSports) November 21, 2020
Despite the cover that is given during this pandemic- and there absolutely should be caution, no doubt- this is more about Florida State chickening out and not wanting to play Clemson than it is about anything related to the virus.
Clemson football had met ACC guidelines and protocols to play the game
There hasn’t been an ACC game canceled or postponed this season because of one positive test. Clemson had met the ACC standards to still play the game and Florida State refused. That should result in a forfeit.
If that weren’t bad enough, Clemson football also reportedly offered to play FSU on Sunday or Monday, according to reports from David Hood at Tigernet, and the Seminoles still refused. If they had moved back the game a day or two, it would’ve allowed for 2-3 more rounds of testing to be conducted before the game was played.
The intriguing portion of all of this is if the game will even be made up. Why would Clemson elect to travel down to Tallahassee- again after already paying its travel expenses- to play a basically meaningless game with a bad Florida State team?
Of course, it should be noted that if Miami were to win out and Clemson didn’t play FSU, the Hurricanes would actually hold the second spot in the ACC standings and play in Charlotte instead of the Tigers.
In the end, if a team meets the conference’s guidelines and protocols to play a game, offers to move back the game for additional rounds of testing and the other team still refuses, why should it not count as a forfeit?