FSU vs. UVA football is postponed due to COVID-19 concerns – 247Sports

TALLAHASSEE — The Atlantic Coast Conference announced that today’s Virginia at Florida State football game has been postponed.

The rescheduling follows positive COVID-19 tests, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing within the Florida State football team. The team is adhering to the outlined protocols within the ACC Medical Advisory Group report, which is available on theACC.com. No makeup date was announced in the ACC’s release.

At least one FSU player and one staffer tested positive earlier this week, two sources confirmed to Noles247.

FSU has an open date on Dec. 12, although Virginia does not as the Cavaliers are scheduled to play Virginia Tech that day.

This comes after FSU and Clemson postponed their contest last Saturday after the Tigers traveled to Tallahassee with a player who tested positive last Friday. FSU’s and Clemson’s medical officials couldn’t agree that the game was safe to be played, prompting claims from Clemson coach Dabo Swinney that FSU was dodging the game because of competitive reasons instead of safety concerns.

Coach Mike Norvell, in response to the claim from Swinney, said that the postponed game — both teams have Dec. 12 open, although the game has not been rescheduled yet — was “absolutely a COVID issue.” He also praised FSU’s protocol and standards, pointing to minimal positive tests throughout the season, especially since he became the first known Power Five coach to test positive back in September.

“We’re trying to do this the right way while having a primary focus on their health and well-being. It’s been something that we’ve focused on,” Norvell said last week. “Jake Pfeil, our athletic trainer, we meet every morning about the status of each player. There’s been plenty of times, this year more than any, that if there is a symptom that shows up, we’re sending guys home and keeping them away while they’re expressing symptoms just in case.

“Because we are not gonna be reckless in how we handle our players, their safety, the atmosphere that we have around here and I appreciate those protocols because you don’t know how somebody will respond if they get it. …It is a different year and it is a different time. I’m really proud of our guys and how they have conducted themselves to be able to play this season and to be able to do the things we’ve been able to do up to this point. We’re gonna continue to do the best of our ability to keep that the emphasis.”

The ACC has a generalized baseline requisite for playing games, stating that “an adequate number” of players must be available. There is no specific number of players, but the league does require that at least seven offensive linemen dress out.

FSU has another regular-season game scheduled for next Saturday (Dec. 5) at Duke.

Per the ACC: As was previously announced, the 2020 ACC Football scheduling model includes 11 games (10 conference plus one non-conference), played over at least 13 weeks with each team having two open dates. Through games of Nov. 21, the ACC has played 69 of its 78 scheduled games (88.5 percent). Six of those games have been rescheduled, one non-conference opponent was replaced, one game was canceled and one game was postponed. There have been several changes to the last four weeks of the schedule that can be found on theACC.com.