COVID-19 causes Gophers to cancel football game with Wisconsin

For the first time in 114 years, the Minnesota-Wisconsin game has been bumped off the schedule.

Minnesota called off its annual battle with Wisconsin for Paul Bunyan’s Axe — which was slated for Saturday afternoon — due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases within the program. The decision made Tuesday by Minnesota will also likely make the 18th-ranked Badgers ineligible for the Big Ten championship game, because of two earlier canceled games.

Ten scheduled games this week involving FBS teams have been postponed or canceled. The Minnesota-Wisconsin game won’t be made up.

Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle and president Joan Gabel made the decision at the recommendation of athletic medical director Dr. Brad Nelson, who’s on the conference’s COVID-19 task force, after consultation with Big Ten officials.

Minnesota said nine players and six staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last five days. There were additional presumptive positive tests that turned up Wednesday from daily antigen testing, with the program awaiting confirmation of those results.

Coyle spoke several times this week with Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez about what the Badgers went through with their cancellations.

“Disappointment is a good word,” Coyle said, later adding: “It’s something that none of us can control. The virus remains undefeated. We just have to do everything we can to make sure that our student athletes and our coaches and staff are safe as possible.”

According to Big Ten protocols this season, teams must play at least six games to be eligible for the conference championship game on Dec. 19. If the average number of league games played by all Big Ten teams is below six, programs must play no less than two fewer league games than that average to be eligible.

Wisconsin (2-1) has only two games remaining on its schedule and won’t reach the six-game minimum. The Badgers dealt with a COVID-19 outbreak earlier this season that caused them to call off scheduled games with Nebraska and Purdue.

The Badgers’ only remaining games are at home against No. 12 Indiana (4-1) on Dec. 5 and at Iowa (3-2) on Dec. 12. Wisconsin’s Big Ten title bid was already jeopardized last week by losing 17-7 at Northwestern, a result that enabled the 11th-ranked Wildcats (5-0) to take command of the West Division race. Minnesota is scheduled to play Northwestern on Dec. 5.

“We will continue to rely on the guidance of our medical experts as we navigate the next several days,” Coyle said. “We are doing everything we possibly can to miss the fewest amount of days possible. Our goal is to be healthy enough and ready to compete on Dec. 5 against Northwestern.”

This will mark the first gap in the Minnesota-Wisconsin series since 1906, when safety concerns around the sport kept some of the most intense rivalries from being played. The Gophers and Badgers have faced each other 129 times, making it the most-played series involving FBS teams. Wisconsin leads the series 61-60-8, winning 15 of the last 16 matchups.

The Badgers worked out Tuesday morning knowing Minnesota had called off its own practice that day, still hoping the game would go on Saturday as scheduled.

“Like I always say, it’s 2020,” Wisconsin offensive tackle Cole Van Lanen said before the game was officially canceled. “Things are out of our control.”

The Big Ten slated Dec. 19 for all 14 teams to play against the team finishing in the same place in the opposite division, including the annual championship game. The conference could always alter that plan and stage a Minnesota-Wisconsin redo, but Coyle declined to speculate on that.