Yahoo Finance Air Force-Wyoming canceled, Utah-UCLA delayed a day due to COVID-19
With COVID-19 cases still trending up within the Air Force Academy, Air Force’s game this weekend at Wyoming has been canceled. The Mountain West Conference announced the news on Sunday afternoon.
The game will instead be ruled a no contest and will not be rescheduled.
Due to an upward trend of COVID-19 cases at the Air Force Academy and within the football program, Air Force is unable to participate in the scheduled football game on Sat., Nov. 14, at Wyoming. Therefore, the Mountain West is canceling the game and declaring it a no contest. pic.twitter.com/4LK7dYyJ3T
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) November 8, 2020
The announcement came just days after Air Force’s game with Army was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The Falcons said they intend to reschedule that game, as it will decide who win the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy — which is awarded to the winner of games between the three service academies.
Air Force has since suspended all football activities. It’s unclear how big the outbreak is or how many players are infected.
“We are disappointed to lose a second consecutive game, but the health and safety of our cadets, staff and community is our No. 1 priority at the Academy,” Air Force athletic director Nathan Pine said in a statement. “We have seen continued increase in our COVID numbers within the football program and have again eclipsed our threshold for safe competition.
“We will pause football practices for now and work with our sports medicine staff to determine when it will be safe to restart again.”
UCLA, Utah delayed 1 day
The UCLA and Utah matchup this week will be delayed one day, the Pac-12 announced on Sunday afternoon. The game, which was initially set for Friday, will be played on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl in Southern California.
The decision came just days after the conference postponed Utah’s season opener against Arizona. The Utes wouldn’t have had enough scholarship players available due to coronavirus positives and contact tracing.
On Sunday, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said that the Utes football program has since gone two straight days without any positive tests. Harlan said the team is aiming to return to practice on Monday.
“We greatly appreciate the understanding and flexibility of UCLA, the Pac-12 and our conference television rights holders to consider the challenges we have been working through over the past several days with regard to our recent increases in positive COVID-19 cases within our football program,” Harlan said in a statement. “After two consecutive days of no positive COVID-19 test results we are encouraged that we can resume practice on Monday in preparation for this week's game at UCLA. We continue to rigorously reinforce all health and safety protocols related to the virus throughout our department.”
The Pac-12 kicked off its season last weekend, though only had four games after the Cal-Washington game was also postponed. In total, there were 10 postponed or canceled games in Week 10 due to the coronavirus.
There have been more than 10 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States as of Sunday night, according to The New York Times, and more than 238,000 deaths attributed to it. The country is averaging nearly 107,000 cases a day over the past week, too, and set an all-time single-day record with more than 136,700 cases on Friday.
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