Dabo Swinney revealed some interesting news this week regarding the COVID-19 testing policy in place for his team.
While the majority of Clemson’s football players have been vaccinated, those who haven’t are being tested three times per week. Meanwhile, those who have been fully vaccinated are not being subjected to regular surveillance testing, the Tigers’ coach said.
Those protocols fall in line with what the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Medical Advisory Group (MAG) has recommended for many of the league’s fall sports teams that have at least an 85% vaccination rate. But it doesn’t line up with a university policy mandating weekly testing for all of Clemson’s students regardless of their vaccination status, which has taken precedence until now.
Jeff Kallin, Clemson’s associate athletic director for communications, told TCI the athletic department has its own testing protocols for competition and that they have been adjusted to align with the MAG’s guidance. Going forward, Clemson’s fully vaccinated student-athletes will only be tested if they’re symptomatic or if there’s an outbreak, which also falls in line with the MAG’s updated recommendations.
The ACC’s rescheduling policy for this football season also calls for any team that’s unable to play a game on its original date because of COVID-related issues to forfeit and take a loss in the league standings barring special circumstances.
Kallin said the change to testing requirements for fully vaccinated athletes was made last week, the same time TCI examined the testing protocols at the university level for all of the teams on Clemson’s schedule and found that only one league opponent, Boston College, is also mandating weekly testing for all of its students. Syracuse is requiring it for fully vaccinated students only when they’re randomly chosen for surveillance testing.
The Tigers’ opponent Saturday, South Carolina State, is mandating weekly testing for all of its residential students while Georgia, Clemson’s Week 1 opponent, doesn’t require fully vaccinated students to be tested regularly.
Two days after last week’s game, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said his program had a handful of players and assistant coaches out because of COVID-19 protocols. Clemson defensive tackle Tyler Davis was held out of the game because of what was believed to be COVID-related issues, though Swinney wouldn’t confirm or deny that last week. Clemson also didn’t specify the reason for Davis’ unavailability on game day, but Swinney said he’s hopeful to have Davis back for Saturday’s game.
As for whether Clemson has had any COVID-related problems pop up since playing Georgia, “there are always concerns, but we haven’t had any issues,” Swinney said.
One could certainly argue testing all athletes regardless of their vaccination status is a good thing so that teams can keep infected players off the field, including those who have been vaccinated but may have a breakthrough case. From a competition standpoint, though, varying testing protocols could be a disadvantage for teams that have to test fully vaccinated players regularly and risk losing their availability from week to week.
Clemson doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.
Football season has finally arrived. Time to represent your Tigers and show your stripes!
