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Ten games that had been slated to take place this weekend have now been either postponed or canceled, including two of the season openers in the PAC-12 - Washington at California, and Arizona at Utah.
Two games have already been rescheduled. Louisville at Virginia will be made good next week (November 14), while Louisiana at North Texas has been slotted for Thursday, December 3.
All of the changes are attributed to Covid-19 cases, including related contact tracing and quarantine protocols.
Below is a list of the affected contests with excerpts from public statements issued by the associated school websites. The most-recent addition to the list is the Arizona-Utah game which was announced Friday afternoon. Earlier Friday, postponements were announced for Charlotte at MTSU, and UTSA at Rice.School statements regarding those latest decisions have been added to the bottom of the list.
Air Force website: Air Force's football game at Army scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11:30 a.m. ET is postponed due to upward trends of COVID-19 cases here at the Academy, the football program and in the surrounding community. The schools will work to reschedule if possible.
"We are disappointed to postpone this game, but the health and safety of our cadets, staff and the community continues to be our No. 1 priority at the Academy," Air Force Director of Athletics Nathan Pine said. "Due to the upward trends in our COVID numbers across the campus, we have paused all intercollegiate team activities."
Cal website: Cal's football game vs. Washington scheduled for Saturday night at California Memorial Stadium will not be played as scheduled and will be declared a no contest due to the Golden Bears' inability to field a competitive roster following the results of one positive COVID-19 test and subsequent contact tracing.
Earlier this week, a member of the Cal football program tested positive for COVID-19, marking the first positive test within the Cal football program since the start of daily testing at the beginning of October. At this time, the student-athlete who tested positive is asymptomatic.
After receiving a positive result through his regularly scheduled daily antigen test, the student-athlete took a supplemental PCR test, as is protocol. The PCR test also produced a positive outcome. Cal Athletics followed guidance from University Health Services Infection Control and Berkeley Public Health on contact tracing, quarantining, symptom monitoring and treatment. As a result, several football student-athletes are in quarantine due to contact tracing.
Head coach Justin Wilcox and Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton agreed that Cal could not field a competitive team given the number of student-athletes affected. The Pac-12 approved Cal's request to cancel the game under the Pac-12's football game cancelation policy due to the Bears' inability to have a minimum number of scholarship players available.
FIU Website: In an abundance of caution, due to the number of healthy scholarship football student-athletes available for this game, and to ensure a sufficient number moving forward, we regret to announce that we will not be playing the football game this weekend.
Louisiana Tech website: Louisiana Tech's Conference USA game set for this Saturday at North Texas has been postponed due to Covid19 cases and contact tracing within the Mean Green program.
The Bulldogs and the Mean Green were set to kickoff Saturday night at Apogee Stadium in a game that was set to be televised on CBS Sports Network. Conference USA and school officials are working to reschedule the game the week of December 5.
"Although we are disappointed we won't get to play this Saturday, we support the decision that has been made for the welfare of everyone involved," said Louisiana Tech VP and Director of Athletics Eric Wood. "We understand the current situation at North Texas as we were in their exact same position back in early September prior to our opener against Baylor. This will provide our student-athletes an open weekend to recover from seven straight weeks of football, and we look forward to playing in Denton in early December."
Louisiana Tech will now have a bye weekend before returning to the field on Nov. 14 at home against the Rice Owls.
Louisville website: The University of Louisville will pause all team-related football activities indefinitely due to a heightened quantity of positive COVID-19 tests and accompanying contact tracing measures among the Cardinals' staff and team members, Vice-President/Director of Athletics Vince Tyra announced on Wednesday.
As a result, UofL's scheduled game Saturday at Virginia will be tentatively rescheduled for Saturday, November 14 at 3:30 p.m. on ACCN. The teams were able to accommodate the postponement because of previously scheduled open dates for both schools.
After consulting with our Chief Medical Officer, Vice-President/Director of Athletics Vince Tyra conferred with ACC and Virginia officials on the decision to postpone Saturday's game and take a step back on its football activities.
"We are taking a precautionary measure to pause due the number of student-athletes and staff that have been impacted by the virus," said Tyra. "With Virginia and us both having a bye week on November 14, we are fortunate to reschedule the game for that date. It also avails us a chance to gauge any further spread of the virus. Test results from both Friday and Sunday will dictate when we return to team activities. We appreciate the ACC and Virginia working with us at this time."
Saturday's Navy football game against Tulsa has been postponed due to positive COVID-19 cases at the Naval Academy and the ensuing quarantine of student-athletes. Whereas Tulsa and Navy do not share a common open date through the rest of the 2020 season, The American will consider a number of options with regard to the playing of the contest. Navy has paused all football activities.
"We are disappointed not to face Tulsa this weekend, however protocols and guidelines are very comprehensive both at the Naval Academy and within the American Athletic Conference," said Naval Academy Director of Athletics Chet Gladchuk. "There are a number of medical personnel that have reviewed all the related issues and, in the end, an administrative decision has been made that clearly reflects the safety and welfare of all involved with both institutions."
The Wisconsin football team's home game against Purdue on Saturday will not be played and team-related activities remain paused indefinitely, UW Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez announced Tuesday.
Saturday's game will not be rescheduled.
"I share in the disappointment of our student-athletes and staff," 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."
There have been five (two staff and three student-athletes) positive COVID-19 PCR tests recorded since Saturday, Oct. 31. Over the last seven days (Oct. 27-Nov. 2), student-athletes (10) and staff (11) have registered a total of 21 positive tests. There are currently 27 active cases in the program, all since Saturday, Oct. 24. That includes 15 football student-athletes and 12 staff members.
The Badger football team first paused team activities on Oct. 28 and its scheduled game at Nebraska on Oct. 31 was canceled.
Wisconsin Athletics plans to provide another update on Saturday, Nov. 7.
Charlotte website: Out of an abundance of caution, Charlotte has postponed Saturday's game at Middle Tennessee due to positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing within the 49ers' program.
Charlotte was set to travel to Middle Tennessee for a Conference USA contest, Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
"We are extremely disappointed to have to postpone our game at Middle Tennessee. Our coaching staff and players were looking forward to the Conference USA matchup," said 49ers Director of Athletics Mike Hill. "The health and safety of everyone involved, however, remains the top priority during these challenging times."
The 49ers will work with Conference USA and Middle Tennessee in an effort to reschedule.
UTSA website: UTSA officials on Friday announced that its football game against Rice originally scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 7, in Houston has been postponed due to coronavirus-related issues within the program. The two schools will work in conjunction with Conference USA for rescheduling options.
"We are certainly disappointed that we have had to make the difficult decision to postpone Saturday's game with Rice," UTSA Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Lisa Campos said. "Throughout the pandemic, our top priority has been and will continue to be the health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and community. We are extremely grateful to the leadership at Rice University and Conference USA for maintaining an open and understanding line of communication, and we look forward to being able to return to competition safely."
Utah website: "This morning our test results included a number of positive cases, which put our team below the Pac-12's minimum threshold of 53 available scholarship student-athletes under the league's game cancellation policy. Coach Whittingham and I discussed this situation extensively, as well as with our medical advisors, and it was extremely clear that to go forward with the game would put our student-athletes at risk, and we simply will not take that risk. We immediately began a conversation with the Pac-12 office and Arizona Athletics Director Dave Heeke to make them aware of our situation and the resulting decision."