Florida’s fourth game of the season against LSU has been postponed following an increase in positive tests over the last few days, UF Athletic Director Scott Stricklin told the media on Wednesday.
Stricklin said there are now 21 positive cases on the team, 18 of which are scholarship players. This puts the team at below 50 scholarship players available, and the SEC requires 53 in order to play.
The game is tentatively rescheduled for Saturday, Dec. 12.
He said that the program suspects that the root of the outbreak was last weekend’s trip to College Station, Tex. However, he mentioned that several players also failed to report symptoms last week, though he said he didn’t believe the lack of reporting was done intentionally to cover-up COVID symptoms.
He said the team’s head trainer reached out to him Monday morning to let him know that a number of players had called him the night before to report symptoms, though the team was still awaiting test results on those players at the time.
There is currently no timetable for the team to resume football operations. Stricklin said the pause will be “indefinite.”
However, he also said the SEC was prepared for this possibility, and the league set up its schedule with accommodating these situations in mind.
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