Wisconsin Football Cancels Over Virus Cases. Again.

The team has been having Zoom meetings in lieu of in-person practice and has been keeping players who tested positive isolated, Alvarez said. Wisconsin teams in other sports have had some smaller virus outbreaks, but those are more under control, he said, adding that those teams do not include basketball and hockey, which are scheduled to start playing games soon.

The infections on and around the football team have played out while the state as a whole has confronted some of its most wrenching weeks of the pandemic. Statewide, about 245,000 people have tested positive for the virus; more than 2,100 have died, many of them in October, according to a New York Times database.

Wisconsin, which last week canceled a game at Nebraska, will have played no more than six regular-season games by the time the Big Ten Conference’s championship matchup is set. Under the league’s rules, if Wisconsin, the only ranked team in the conference’s West Division, misses one more game, it will not be eligible to play for the conference championship. (The threshold, though, could change if more of the league’s games are canceled this season.)

Both of Wisconsin’s canceled games will be classified “no contest.”

The Badgers won their first game of the season, at home against Illinois, 45-7, on Oct. 23, but have not played a game since. Their next will be at Michigan, ranked No. 23, on Nov. 14, assuming the Badgers are cleared to take the field.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/sports/ncaafootball/wisconsin-purdue-canceled-coronavirus.html