Wisconsin Badgers learned yesterday that Graham Mertz and Chase Wolf will not be playing for the next 21 days due to COVID-19. Badgers’ new star quarterback will be shut down after an amazing start to his career. For a guy like Wolf, he will not even get the opportunity to play. It appears that they’re not the only ones though. As with COVID-19, it spreads and it can spread far and wide. Per Jeff Portrkus, there is a chance that Wisconsin will not play on Saturday. Their positivity rate might exceed five percent and if that happens, Nebraska-Wisconsin will be a no contest. This raises a ton of questions around Wisconsin more than anything else.

The first question is an obvious one, but did Wisconsin have COVID before their game against Illinois? From what we know, the infection can start as soon as two days, but the true sign of symptoms is usually five to seven. If it’s two days, Mertz getting popped on Sunday for his positive case could render this not possible. But if Mertz was with teammates on Saturday or even Friday night, more could be popping up that the school is keeping quiet at the moment.

The second question is pretty simple. What sparked this wildfire? Remember, Wisconsin had little to no issues when they were practicing. Things were almost bubble-like in the sense that nothing seemed to go in or out. Wisconsin won a game on a Friday night in the middle of October with all of campus there. There are no social media posts that would indicate things either way, but you cannot help but think this could be a contributing factor. Big Badger wins typically equal a big party after.

The last question is how bad does it get? If Wisconsin corralled things on Monday or Tuesday, it might be alright. Wisconsin can pause this week and hopefully get back to playing against Purdue the following week. It does seem that whenever there is a whiff of cancelation, the game does get shutdown. The only one I can remember that didn’t was Oklahoma-Kansas State. Wisconsin has dealt with many false positives, therefore, that might be a cause for positivity versus concern.

This could only be the beginning or an overreaction of a source. Time will tell.

Charlie.