Notre Dame postpones Saturday's game due to COVID-19 originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Notre Dame has postponed this Saturday’s game against Wake Forest after seven student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19. Those players are now in isolation, bringing Notre Dame’s total to 13 student-athletes in isolation.
Notre Dame is also pausing all football-related activities until they can conduct further testing.
“With student-athlete health and safety our primary focus, we will continue to follow our prevention protocols and ongoing testing procedures,” said head coach Brian Kelly in a statement. “We managed an increase in positivity rates in August, and the players handled it wonderfully.
“We knew COVID would present challenges throughout the season, and we'll always put student-athlete health and safety at the forefront of our decision making. We look forward to resuming team activities and getting back on the playing field.”
Now, Notre Dame is working with the ACC to reschedule their game against Wake Forest.
Major COVID-19 outbreaks in college football include Iowa, which had to shut down all football activities due to 93 people testing positive; Texas Tech, which has had 75 student-athletes test positive since June; and LSU. According to LSU head coach Ed Orgeron, “most of our players have caught it.” Other schools like Oklahoma have considered postponing games, but refuse to divulge specific COVID-19 data.
Of the five major conferences, only the ACC and Big 12 have begun playing already. The SEC season is set to begin Sept. 26, with the Big Ten following in late October. The Pac-12 currently has no plans set to return to play.
