College football in 2020 has seen quite a few cancellations and postponements over positive COVID-19 tests. The latest comes with the Louisville Cardinals, whose road game Saturday against the Virginia Cavaliers was officially moved to next Saturday (Nov. 14) Wednesday night thanks to 15 positive tests at Louisville (10 involving players, five involving support staff). That adjustment was possible thanks to both teams having a bye scheduled on the 14th. Here’s more on what’s going on there from ESPN’s Andrea Adelson:
Fifteen members of the Cardinals tested positive for the virus, including 10 players and five members of the support staff, and seven others are in quarantine. No coaches are positive or in quarantine.
On Friday, multiple players on Louisville’s defensive line either tested positive or went into contact trace quarantine. As a result, the Cardinals played Virginia Tech with four scholarship defensive linemen. Between Friday and the latest round of testing on Wednesday, the number of players and staff impacted doubled, leading Louisville to pause activities.
Athletics director Vince Tyra said on a call with the media on Wednesday night that the staff members who tested positive work in the training room and come into contact with all players on the team, presenting a unique situation that forced the Cards to pause in an attempt to mitigate future spread.
We’ll see if there are more positive tests ahead. That certainly happened with the Wisconsin Badgers, who called off their game against Nebraska last week after six players and six staffers tested positive. Nebraska’s affiliated radio station account threw some shade at that at the time, but the Badgers’ numbers have gotten worse since then. As of Tuesday, they were at 27 active cases, including 15 players, and had cancelled this week’s planned game against Purdue. So it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on what’s going on at Louisville, and how the numbers there may affect the plans to play on Nov. 14.
[ ESPN]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.