Virginia football season-opener at Virginia Tech postponed

The Virginia Cavaliers were scheduled to start their 2020 season at in-state rival Virginia Tech on September 19th. Thanks to the Hokies’ ongoing problems with COVID-19, the game has been postponed.

No date was announced for the game to be rescheduled. December 12 has been built into the ACC schedule as a contingency date for games that had to be postponed.

If all other situations remain as scheduled, UVA will open the season October 3rd at Clemson.

In a statement from the athletics department, Virginia athletic director Carla Williams said the decision had been made by Virginia Tech, but it was a decision that Virginia could “understand and respect.” Williams continued, “With so much uncertainty, flexibility in scheduling becomes incredibly important. I know both teams and both fan bases were looking forward to opening the season next weekend. We’ll work with the conference and Virginia Tech to reschedule.”

UVA announced Friday night that continued testing of Cavalier student-athletes showed a positivity rate well below 1%—14 total positive tests out of 2,164 administered. The football program has not registered a positive test result since July 24.

Virginia Tech does not publicly release its COVID testing numbers, but head coach Justin Fuente had said previously that he would have had difficulty fielding a team to play the first week of September.

This is the second Cavalier athletics event in three days to be altered by COVID precautions, after the men’s soccer exhibition against Clemson was canceled on Thursday.