The Virginia-Florida State football game was postponed on Saturday morning after positive coronavirus tests and contact trace quarantines within the Seminoles -- the second straight week they had a game postponed hours before kickoff.
"Our team underwent the mandated third-party testing yesterday and learned late last night that we had one positive test. Contact tracing this morning determined that, with opt-outs and injuries, we had just 44 scholarship players for the game, with some position groups depleted almost entirely," Florida State athletic director David Coburn said in a statement.
"We deeply regret that many Florida State and Virginia fans have already traveled to the game as well as Virginia's team. We simply had no way of knowing we would not be playing until this morning. We made every effort to play, but we could not do so in a way that was safe for the players."
Florida State's ability to face Duke on Dec. 5 is uncertain at this time, a source told ESPN.
Miami's game at Wake Forest scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 5, was also postponed following positive tests and contract tracing in the Demon Deacons' program. The game had already been pushed back from this weekend as both teams were going through issues with coronavirus.
ACC protocols state that teams must be tested the day before competition. Those tests are conducted by an independent third party, and results are received either the same day or early the following day. Once those tests are received, both schools get on a call with the ACC to sign off on whether they feel comfortable proceeding with the game.
Virginia traveled to Tallahassee in anticipation of playing the game and will leave to go back to Charlottesville at some point Saturday. Virginia had delayed its trip to Tallahassee to get all its test results back from Friday testing to try to avoid a situation like last weekend's Clemson-Florida State game. But given the roster situation at Florida State, it became clear the game could not be played.
Last Saturday, the Clemson-Florida State game also was postponed after the chief medical officers from both schools could not agree about whether it was safe to play the game -- unleashing a torrent of criticism from Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, who said Florida State should have to forfeit the game. In that case, Clemson traveled to Tallahassee with a player who ultimately tested positive for the coronavirus.
Last week, Florida State coach Mike Norvell said his team had done extremely well following the protocols the program put in place.
Neither the Clemson-Florida State nor the Virginia-Florida State game has been rescheduled at this time.
Two other games were canceled Saturday because of coronavirus issues. Boise State and San Jose State was canceled because of an upward trend of COVID-19 cases and contact tracing within the Boise State program, according to the Mountain West Conference. UTEP at Rice was also called off due to positive tests and contact tracing within the UTEP program.