Due to ongoing cases of the coronavirus among the Wisconsin football team, Saturday’s showdown between Wisconsin and Purdue has been canceled.
For the second consecutive week, the Wisconsin Badgers have been forced to cancel a Saturday Big Ten showdown due to the coronavirus outbreak within the team. Last week, it was the Nebraska game that was canceled, and now that university has announced that Saturday’s tilt with Purdue will also not be played.
In total, Wisconsin has confirmed 27 positive cases within the football program, with head coach Paul Chryst among those on the list. Because of so many positives, all football-related activities will also remain paused until further notice.
“I share in the disappointment of our student-athletes and staff,” Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said. “We have seen a level of improvement in our testing numbers, but not enough to give us confidence to resume normal activities and play our game on Saturday. We will continue to test regularly, take the proper health-related precautions and look forward to getting our team back on the field as soon as possible.”
Wisconsin football remains on pause due to COVID
While the university hasn’t released the names of the 15 student-athletes who have tested positive, it’s been reported that quarterback Graham Mertz and No. 2 signal-caller Chase Wolf were among the positives. Moving forward, following the back-to-back cancellations, the Badgers can’t afford to miss any other games if they want to keep their dreams of winning the conference title alive.
Per the Big Ten rules for this season, any program must participate in at least a minimum of six contests to be eligible to play in the Big Ten Championship Game. With them already canceling two showdowns, that leaves zero more room for the No. 10 team in the country moving forward.
Prior to these two cancellations, Wisconsin opened its season with a dominant 45-7 victory over Illinois. On Nov. 15, the team is all set to head to Ann Arbor to take on Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines. Stay tuned to see if that game gets played or if Wisconsin will need to cancel a matchup for the third-straight week.
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