Wisconsin cancels a 2nd game

Wisconsin has canceled its home matchup Saturday against Purdue, the second consecutive game the 10th-ranked Badgers have called off as COVID-19 cases within the team keep rising.

School officials announced Tuesday that three more players and two additional staffers have tested positive since Saturday, bringing the program’s total of active cases to 27 — 15 players and 12 staffers. All team-related activities for Wisconsin remain paused indefinitely.

“I’m concerned with the health and safety of the guys,” athletic director Barry Alvarez said. “No one wants to be on that field any more than I do. But I’m not going to lose track of priorities.”

The Badgers also had been scheduled to visit Nebraska on Oct. 31. Neither game will be rescheduled.

“While we looked forward to our game this weekend against Wisconsin, we understand the Badgers’ decision to cancel based on medical advice and their need to control any additional transmission of the virus within their team and staff,” Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski said in a statement.

The Purdue-Wisconsin matchup becomes the 38th game involving a Football Bowl Subdivision team to get postponed or canceled as a result of the pandemic.

Wisconsin’s 27 active cases all have arisen since Oct. 24, the day after Wisconsin’s season- opening 45-7 victory over Illinois. Ten players and 11 staffers have tested positive in the last seven days.

“It just didn’t feel as though we had our arms around it and had things controlled as I thought we needed,” Alvarez said.

When Wisconsin canceled the Nebraska game last week, Alvarez said the school had reached the “orange/red” levels in the Big Ten protocols based on its rate of positive tests. The Big Ten says teams in that area must proceed with caution. Among the steps is considering the viability of playing.

Alvarez said that Wisconsin still hasn’t reached the “red/red” threshold that forces a team to stop practices and competition for at least seven days.