Go ahead and add Oklahoma to the “major college football programs pushing herd immunity” conspiracy theory for the black helicopter crowd.
Wednesday, Oklahoma football players officially kicked off their voluntary on-campus workouts. The development came two weeks after schools from the Big 12 were permitted to commence such activities.
The same day workouts commenced, Oklahoma confirmed that 111 football players were tested as part of the return to campus. Of those 111, 14 came back positive for COVID-19 -- seven positives after players had returned to campus, seven before. The program also noted that 12 of those cases remain active, which means the players haven’t recovered.
Additionally, two of the 72 OU football staff, including coaches, tested positive for coronavirus.
Oklahoma isn’t the first football program to be impacted by COVID-19 concerns.
Last week, eight individuals connected to the Boise State football program tested positive, forcing the school to temporarily scuttle workouts. June 20, K-State announced that it is pausing all voluntary workouts as well. The reason? “[A] total of 14 student-athletes have tested positive for active COVID-19 following PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing of more than 130 student-athletes.” The weekend before that, Houston decided to put a halt to voluntary on-campus workouts after six symptomatic UH student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19. This week, Arizona paused its phased return because of a spike in cases in the state.
Other programs, meanwhile, have seen a high number of players test positive but continue workouts. Among those are Clemson (37 players tested positive), LSU (30 players quarantined), Texas (13 confirmed positives for football players) and Texas Tech (23 positives for players/staffers).