As they continue to battle with coronavirus containment and step closer to ineligibility for the Big Ten crown, the 10th-ranked Badgers will not play Purdue on Saturday.
On Oct. 23, the Wisconsin football team won its season opener, but has not played due to a coronavirus outbreak since. Credit ... Jeff Hanisch / USA Today Sports, via Reuters
Due to a coronavirus outbreak in the program, the University of Wisconsin cancelled a
football game for the second consecutive week.
In The Associated Press poll, Wisconsin, ranked No. 10, said on Tuesday that on Saturday it will not host Purdue. On Tuesday, Wisconsin announced that
since Oct. 24, at least 15 players and 12 staff members have tested positive, including Coach Paul
Chryst.
I share in our student-athletes and employees' disappointment, "Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin's athletic director, said in a statement." "In our testing numbers, we have seen a degree of progress, but not enough to give us confidence to resume regular activities and play Saturday's game."
In a video conference call, Alvarez later told reporters that he had never reached the point of being secure. "He said," I was optimistic. "I thought we were doing things that were right."
Instead of in-person practice, the team has had Zoom meetings and has been keeping players who tested positive isolated, Alvarez said. Wisconsin teams have had several smaller virus outbreaks in other sports, but those are more under control, he said, adding that basketball and hockey are not included in those teams, which are expected to start playing games soon.
The illnesses on and around the soccer team played out as the state as a whole faced some of the pandemic's most wrenching weeks. Statewide, approximately 245,000 individuals have tested positive for the virus; according to a New York Times database, more than 2,100 have died, many of them in October.
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Wisconsin, which postponed a match in Nebraska last week, will have played no more than six regular-season games by the time the championship match of the Big Ten Conference is planned. Under the rules of the league, if one more game ends from Wisconsin, the only ranked team in the West Division of the conference, it will not be eligible to compete for the conference championship. (The threshold, however, could change if more of the league's games this season are cancelled.) Both of the cancelled Wisconsin games would be listed as "no contest."
At home against Illinois, 45-7, on Oct. 23, the Badgers won their first game of the season, but have not played a game since. On Nov. 14, their next one will be at Michigan, ranked No. 23, assuming that the Badgers are cleared to take the field.
In August, the Big Ten said it would not play this fall, The revised schedule of the league called for its teams to play at least nine games, one
of them an exhibition that would not impact the race to reach the showdown of the league championship.
"While we were looking forward to our game against Wisconsin this weekend, we appreciate the decision of the Badgers to cancel based on medical advice and their need to monitor any additional spread of the virus within their team and staff," Mike Bobinski, the athletic director of Purdue, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Since late August, more than three dozen top-tier college football games have been postponed or cancelled by conferences for virus-related reasons.
Based in Atlanta, Alan Blinder travels the nation covering college sports. He reported from more than two dozen states in his previous role as a national correspondent. In 2013, he joined The Times. With @alanblinder
Gillian Rose Brassil is a New York Times sports writer and a member of the 2020-2021 Fellowship class at The Times. Brassil @Gillian
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