Clemson football players Braden Galloway and Zach Giella will not be eligible to play during the 2019 football season. The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards denied the players' appeal of the drug test they failed in December, the players' attorney Robert Ariail announced Friday morning.

Before the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal in December, Galloway, Giella and former starting defensive Dexter Lawrence tested positive on an NCAA-administered drug screening for trace amounts of ostarine, a banned anabolic substance typically utilized to generate lean muscle. The players were suspended from the Cotton Bowl and the CFP National Championship Game.

Clemson announced plans to appeal the test results on Dec. 27. Lawrence left the program to pursue a career in the National Football League. He was drafted in the first round, 17th overall by the New York Giants.

According to a statement from Airail, during the appeal, Galloway and Giella argued that "they have no knowledge of how ostarine entered their bodies" and that both players passed polygraph tests. According to Airail, Galloway and Giella passed drug tests in April and October of 2018 and again in January and February of this year.

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The players and their attorney asserted that the trace amounts were the result of contamination and presented statements from "scientific experts which confirmed that the very low levels detected in December 2018 were indicative of contamination of legitimate products." During this appeal process, an independent lab tested 27 supplements and products and found no contaminants.

The NCAA Committee's ruling effectively ends Giella's career at Clemson. He was a junior with only one year of eligibility remaining. According to NCAA by-laws, players who fail drug tests for performance enhancing drugs must forfeit an entire season, and it cannot be counted as a redshirt year. Galloway, who played as a freshman last season, could return to competition in 2020.

In a statement released Friday morning, the Clemson athletics administration reaffirmed its belief that the players did not knowingly ingest the banned substances. Nevertheless, the NCAA places the burden on athletes to know precisely what they are ingesting.

The NCAA did not respond to email requests for comment.

According to the administration's statement, 329 Clemson athletes have been tested for performance enhancing drugs since 2014. Galloway, Giella and Lawrence are the only three who have ever tested positive.

Clemson claims that "all supplements are reviewed with Clemson Athletics Nutrition and Sports Medicine as well as the Clemson Compliance Office prior to approval for usage to ensure that no banned substances are included in the products."

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