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The much anticipated matchup between the South Florida Bulls and the Florida Atlantic Owls has been officially postponed due to COVID-19, the University of South Florida announced today.
SCHEDULE UPDATE
— USF Football (@USFFootball) September 23, 2020
This Saturday's game at FAU has been postponed. pic.twitter.com/x5Cys8zFB2
“With the health and safety of our student-athletes and staff as well as mitigating the spread of the virus as our primary concern, given the outbreak among team members of our most recent opponent and subsequent contract tracing within our team, postponement of this Saturday’s game at FAU is the right thing to do,” USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly said. “We were aware going into this season and have seen across the country that dealing with COVID-19 and taking the necessary precautions to mitigate its spread will present ongoing challenges. We are prepared to deal with those challenges and move forward in a safe manner. We will resume on-field team activities once our medical professionals are comfortable with us doing so and will work in good faith with FAU to identify a future date to reschedule the game.”
The news comes just hours after USF paused on-field activities because of Notre Dame’s announcement that seven players tested positive for COVID-19 after they faced the Bulls last week.
FAU has been dealing with their own COVID-19 issues as they have had their season opener postponed three times due to outbreaks on the team. The Owls stopped practice on August 20 due to positive tests before resuming practice on August 26. Taggart said this week up 25 players would’ve had to miss their game against Georiga Southern if they had played.
USF has not indicated how many players are affected, and likely will not citing competitive advantage reasons.