The Colorado State–UNLV game scheduled for Saturday is off because of positive cases for COVID-19 and the related contact tracing, the Mountain West Conference announced Wednesday.
“Over the past six weeks, more than 2,600 tests have been administered to UNLV football student-athletes, coaches and staff with a positivity rate of less than 0.6 percent,” UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois said. “Unfortunately, with a surge in cases in the Las Vegas community and despite the efforts of our student-athletes, coaches and staff to adhere to health and safety protocols, the decision to not play this weekend is in the best health and safety interests of all involved.”
It is the second Mountain West game set to be played this week that will not happen after the conference announced earlier Wednesday that Wyoming’s game against Utah State was canceled. Colorado State and UNLV will look into the possibility of playing the game later in the year, with the week of the conference title game (Dec. 19) the most likely possibility, according to a source.
With Colorado State and Wyoming both without opponents this week, the conference is expected to look first at arranging a rematch between the schools — Colorado State beat Wyoming 34-24 on Nov. 5 — before considering nonconference options, a source said. In that event, a rematch likely would not count toward the conference standings.
If that were to fall through, the natural nonconference opponent for Colorado State would be in-state rival Colorado, which is without a game after the Pac-12 canceled its game with Arizona State because of issues the Sun Devils’ are having with the virus. Colorado coach Karl Dorrell said Monday his preference was for the Buffaloes to play a nonconference game than sit out the week, and on Wednesday, Colorado State coach Steve Addazio told Yahoo Sports the Rams would be open to playing Colorado.
The Pac-12 has not officially changed its rule that prevents nonconference football games from being played in 2020, however the Bay Area News Group reported Wednesday the conference is expected to change the rule and allow nonconference games to be played.
Merton Hanks, the Pac-12’s senior associate commissioner for football operations, told ESPN on Sunday he expected the rule to be discussed, but confirmed Tuesday no rule change had been adopted.