The Minnesota Golden Gophers at Wisconsin Badgers football game has been canceled due to COVID-19, it was announced on Tuesday.
The two schools were scheduled to meet at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisc., on Saturday, Nov. 28. The contest will not be played due to “… positive COVID-19 cases in the (Minnesota) program.”
The Minnesota-Wisconsin game will be ruled a no contest and will not be rescheduled this season.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff has always been our main priority,” said Minnesota Director of Athletics Mark Coyle. “We have experienced an increase in positive cases recently and have made the responsible decision to pause team activities. We will continue to rely on the guidance of our medical experts as we navigate the next several days. We are doing everything we possibly can to miss the fewest amount of days possible. Our goal is to be healthy enough and ready to compete on December 5 against Northwestern.”
Nine student-athletes and six staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last five days. There were additional presumptive positive tests today and the program is awaiting confirmation of those results.
The Golden Gophers are 2-3 overall so far this season. Minnesota’s next scheduled game is on Saturday, Dec. 5 at home against the 11th-ranked Northwestern Wildcats.
“The health and safety of our student-athletes will always come first,” said Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck. “Like almost every program in the country, we have been affected on some level by COVID-19 every week this season, but these last few days have resulted in more cases than we have previously seen.
“I am disappointed for our student-athletes and our fans that we will not be able to compete on Saturday, but we need to focus on the health of our student-athletes and staff, which means stopping the spread of the virus. I support the decision made by our administration and medical professionals in consultation with the Big Ten Conference, and I want to thank our athletic trainers and team doctors for everything they are doing to support our program. We will return when it is determined safe to do so by medical experts.”
This is the third game canceled this season for Wisconsin. The Badgers (2-1) are next scheduled to play on Saturday, Dec. 5 at home against the 12th-ranked Indiana Hoosiers.
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