The University of Minnesota football team, like all of us, has had to deal with the ramifications of coronavirus. New ways of practicing, playing games, testing, quarantines, and on Tuesday of this week, a “virtual practice”.
The Gophers released a statement on Monday, saying that there were positive cases inside the program which necessitates the move:
“Upon the advice of medical experts, the University of Minnesota football team will not practice on Tuesday and will conduct all meetings virtually as a result of presumptive COVID-19 positive tests Monday. The team's goal is to return to a regular practice schedule on Wednesday in preparation for Saturday’s game at Wisconsin. An update will be provided when additional test results are returned and more information is available.”
Mark Coyle, the Gopher Athletic Director, joined Dave Lee on the WCCO Morning News Tuesday and talked about the league’s process for this situation.
“The Big 10 and our good friend, Commissioner (Kevin) Warren, who used to be with the Vikings, and now obviously now the Big 10, he put this in when he became commissioner,” Coyle said. “And when the COVID pandemic struck us that we put in really strong protocols for all of our institutions to follow. And we follow those daily testing protocols that we do every day and obviously, we've seen an uptick just like our community. We've seen an uptick and some of the positives around our program.”
Coyle said that while they need to avoid in-person contact until they get tests back, a form of practice will still go on virtually.
“We are obviously talking to our medical experts on campus and also working with the Big 10, and have decided that today will be all virtual,” Coyle told Dave Lee. “We won't have practice today. But our students do have a chance to visit with their coaches virtually as we try to learn more about where we're going with our testing numbers, etcetera. We hope to have an update here a little bit later once we get more information from medical people.”
Right now, Saturday’s game against Wisconsin is still on according to Coyle.
“Yeah, that is that is our hope. Obviously we'll have again virtual practice today, meetings, etcetera. And then hopefully get back to practice tomorrow in preparation for our game Saturday in Madison.”
Wisconsin is no stranger to dealing with COVID. After opening the year with a win over Illinois, the Badgers were forced to cancel games against Nebraska and Purdue due to a virus outbreak within its program between late October and early November.
Minnesota had 22 players unavailable against Purdue this past Friday due to either COVID-19 or injury. Gophers Coach P.J. Fleck said after the game “about half” of those players were out due to either positive COVID-19 tests or contact tracing. No players have been hospitalized after contracting the virus so far according to Fleck who added only some have reported mild symptoms.
The Big Ten's rules for COVID requires a player that tests positive to sit out for 21 days. For teams, if the positivity rate is greater than 5% and its population — including coaches and on-field staff — is greater than 7.5%, the game will be canceled and considered a no contest. In that case, neither team would get the win or loss.
The Gopher-Wisconsin rivalry is the most-played among the major college football programs (FBS) with 129 games between the two next-door neighbors. The teams have played each season since 1906, and other than that year, every season since 1890.
Wisconsin leads the overall series 61–60–8 with a win in 2019. The last Gopher win was 2018 in Madison.
Minnesota is coming off a controversial win over Purdue, where a late offensive pass interference penalty cost the Boilermakers a game-winning TD. Wisconsin lost to Northwestern in a game where they turned the ball over five times in a 17-7 loss.
Adding to the situation, since the Big Ten does not make up the games cancelled due to COVID, the Badgers would be eliminated from reaching the Big Ten Championship game if the Gopher game is called off. The league requires teams to play a minimum of six games to qualify, and with three cancellations Wisconsin would only play five games at most.
The Gophers and Badgers are scheduled to kick off Saturday at 1:00p.m. on the Big Ten Network.