Notre Dame on Tuesday announced the indefinite postponement of its game against Wake Forest on Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C. after several Fighting Irish players tested positive for the coronavirus.
Seven of the team's 94 coronavirus tests administered to players Monday came back positive, Notre Dame said in a statement Tuesday. The seven players were in isolation, and their contacts were being traced, the statement said. Combined with positive cases from the prior week, Notre Dame had a total of 13 players in isolation and 10 in quarantine. The Irish are ranked No. 7.
"With student-athlete health and safety our primary focus, we will continue to follow our prevention protocols and ongoing testing procedures," coach Brian Kelly said. "We managed an increase in positive rates in August, and the players handled it wonderfully."
The process of rescheduling the game was underway, the school said.
Notre Dame's football program is technically independent but became a de facto member of the ACC, along with the rest of the school's teams, several years ago. Notre Dame got off to a nice start, handling Duke with relative ease in its opener before trouncing South Florida last week.
The postponement comes only a week after the Big Ten reversed course from its initial decision to suspend its football season until the spring, instead targeting a restart on the Oct. 23-24 weekend. The Pac-12 was said to be considering similar steps, though it appeared that the schools were divided on whether and how to proceed.