The Wisconsin football game against Nebraska has been canceled this Saturday.
The Wisconsin football team has canceled their game this Saturday with Nebraska. It was announced that the Badgers would shut down all team-related activities for at least seven days.
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez made the announcement.
"“We have said from the beginning that the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches and staff members comes first,” Alvarez said. “Over the past several days we have seen a rising number of student-athletes and staff contract the virus. The responsible thing for us to do is to pause football-related activities for at least seven days.”"
According to the report, a total of 12 people within the Wisconsin football program had tested positive for COVID-19. One of those positive tests belonged to head coach Paul Chryst.
"“This morning I received the news that I had tested positive via a PCR test I took yesterday,” Chryst said. “I informed my staff and the team this morning and am currently isolating at home. I had not been experiencing any symptoms and feel good as of this morning.“I am disappointed for our players and coaching staff who put so much into preparing to play each week. But the safety of everyone in our program has to be our top priority and I support the decision made to pause our team activities.”"
So now Wisconsin will miss their game against Nebraska and it won’t be made up. This is part of the problem with having eight games in eight weeks, there are no open weeks to make up games. Also, this game will count as a ‘no contest’ and not a forfeiture. So Wisconsin will still be 1-0 moving into their next game.
Even though they will be missing the game this week, the Badgers will still be eligible to go to the Big Ten Championship. Per the Big Ten rules, as long as a team plays in six games, they can still play in the Big Ten Championship game. I’m sure if Wisconsin goes 6-0 and wins the Big Ten West, there would be some upset fans from other teams who played all eight games, but those are the rules. So even though Wisconsin will miss at least one game, they still have a chance to win the Big Ten and maybe make it to the College Football Playoff.
The Badgers are still scheduled to play Purdue on November 7 at 2:30 PM central time.