Boise State pauses all football-related activities; San Jose State game canceled
The Boise State football team’s game against San Jose State was canceled less than 5 hours before it was scheduled to kick off Saturday.
The game was supposed to begin at 2 p.m. in Albertsons Stadium, but the Mountain West announced around 9:30 a.m. that it was canceled because of an upward trend of COVID-19 cases and contact tracing within the Boise State program.
Boise State announced Saturday evening that as a result of the cancellation, it has paused all football-related activities except for coaches accessing their offices and players accessing the training room. The Broncos are scheduled to resume practice on Tuesday, pending the results of Sunday’s previously scheduled round of COVID-19 testing.
It’s the Broncos’ first game this season that has been canceled. It has been declared a no contest, and there are currently no plans to make it up, according to the conference. It’s also the second Mountain West game canceled this week, following Colorado State’s contest at Air Force.
Boise State had five players test positive for the virus this week, and another four were going to miss the game because of contact tracing, a team spokesperson confirmed on Saturday morning. That’s fewer players than the Broncos have been without the past two weeks.
Boise State was without 14 players because of positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing on Nov. 12 against Colorado State, and 12 were out last week against Hawaii, but the Broncos were unable to dress enough players at certain position groups to safely hold Saturday’s game, according to interim athletic director Bob Carney.
“Because of a delay at the lab, our results from Thursday’s tests didn’t come back until late yesterday, which meant our staff were contact tracing until late last night,” Carney said in a statement released Saturday morning. “Under the circumstances, and with limited numbers within specific position groups, our coaches, administration and medical personnel met this morning and determined that it was not in the best interest of our student-athletes’ safety and well-being to play today’s game.”
The Mountain West requires that teams have no fewer than seven offensive linemen, four interior defensive linemen and one quarterback available to play a game. The Broncos have come close to not hitting some of those numbers the past two weeks.
Against Colorado State, Boise State dressed just five defensive linemen, and offensive lineman Ben Dooley had to fill in on the other side of the ball. Last week at Hawaii, the Broncos dressed 11 offensive linemen, including Dooley.
“I am disappointed for the student-athletes, coaches and fans, both at Boise State and San Jose State, and am hopeful the Broncos will be able to return to the field this next week against UNLV,” Carney said.
Saturday’s game was scheduled to be broadcast on Fox — creating a rare opportunity for both teams to play on national TV. The last time a Boise State game was broadcast on one of the primary national networks — Fox, CBS, NBC or ABC — was the 2014 Mountain West championship game against Fresno State, a game the Broncos won 28-14.
The Broncos (4-1, 4-0 MW) and San Jose State (4-0, 4-0) are two of three remaining teams that are undefeated in Mountain West play, so Saturday’s game was a big one in terms of the race for the championship. Nevada (5-0) is the other unbeaten team.
“We arrived in Boise on Friday and learned this news Saturday morning,” said San Jose State Athletic Director Marie Tuite in a statement on sjsuspartans.com. “Our players and coaches were looking forward to this game with great anticipation. It is a big disappointment to everyone that we are not able to play this game.”
Boise State is scheduled to travel to UNLV (0-5) next weekend, but the Rebels saw their game at Colorado State canceled last weekend after four players tested positive for the virus, and UNLV only had 49 players available at practice on Monday because of positive cases and contact tracing.
The Rebels did play Friday in a 45-14 home loss to Wyoming.
COVID-19 has surged in the Boise area and on the Boise State campus in recent weeks. Ada County has added an average of 241.4 confirmed cases per day over the past week. Boise State reported a record 121 new cases within the campus community for the week ending Nov. 19; it did not provide a weekly update Friday.
On Friday, the Boise State men’s basketball program announced that it traveled to its season opener at Houston without two players because of COVID-19 protocols. The program hadn’t had any positive tests, according to the school.
Women’s basketball: BSU’s MW opener rescheduled
The football team wasn’t the only Boise State program to receive disappointing news on Saturday.
The women’s basketball team had its season-opening two-game series at New Mexico pushed back to the week of March 1, 2021. The rescheduled dates will be announced once finalized by the Mountain West and both institutions.
The Lobos have been limited by New Mexico’s COVID-19 restrictions, which forced them to relocate practices to West Texas A&M in Amarillo, Texas.
Boise State has not yet released its nonconference slate. The first game on its conference schedule will now be a two-game series at ExtraMile Arena against San Jose State on Dec. 31 and Jan. 2.
This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 9:56 AM.
