Texas‘ upcoming game at Kansas has been canceled because of COVID-19 issues within the Longhorns program.
The Longhorns (6-3) and Jayhawks (0-9) were scheduled for their regular-season finale on Saturday, but Texas has shut down football activities and training facilities to contain virus spread among its team.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said nine players and 13 staff members tested positive this week and are isolating. There are also 14 players and 15 staffers who were identified as close contacts and are in quarantine.
The game will not be rescheduled and will be declared a no contest, the Big 12 announced.
“We will continue daily testing, monitor the situation and adhere to all of the medical team’s health and safety protocols as we move forward with an abundance of caution in this situation,” Del Conte said in a statement. “We’re extremely disappointed that we won’t be able to play our final regular-season game at Kansas this week but look forward to returning to action for our bowl game in the coming weeks.”
The game was up in the air from the beginning of the week, after Texas received testing results on Sunday that indicated that three players and two staffers who traveled to the Longhorns’ road trip at Kansas State last week were positive for COVID-19. All five tested negative the day before the game.
The Longhorns subsequently paused team activities for three days and tested daily to monitor the outbreak and conducted limited outdoor team activities on Wednesday before Thursday’s announcement came down.
Following the Big 12’s announcement earlier Thursday that Oklahoma and West Virginia’s game was canceled, there are now only two games remaining this weekend involving Big 12 teams: Oklahoma State at Baylor, and Louisiana Tech at TCU.