Tuesday saw Wednesday night’s Iowa Hawkeyes game against the Northwestern Wildcats postponed due to COVID-19 concerns and protocols. Due to injury issues and players in COVID protocols, Northwestern can’t meet the minimum player requirement in order to compete.
According to sources inside the program, they only have six healthy, eligible players right now.
Northwestern and Iowa, along with the Big Ten Conference, will work together to identify possible rescheduling dates, with Tuesday Feb. 7 as a potential possibility.
This isn’t the first time, as Iowa and Northwestern had to reschedule a contest in 1993 when it was Iowa who wasn’t eligible to play. Whole other conferences have seen games COVIDed out this campaign, this will be the first Big Ten postponed due to Covid.
The second could come Saturday when Northwestern hosts Wisconsin.
With tomorrow night now off, the clock is already ticking on NU to have enough guys who are fully fit, ready/testing negative for the virus in order to play that contest.
Hopefully, the Cats can get enough bodies ready in time to tip that one off this weekend.
This is all a major bummer because NU got off to a 3-1 start in the league, and narrowly missed out on a 4-1 mark when they fell to Rutgers in the closing seconds. They were starting to really build some momentum here, for this season. NU still only has one postseason appearance during the Chris Collins era, which has run for a decade now.
Of course, Iowa, historically, has been a very bad match-up for NU. You’ll recall the last meeting between the two sides, in the quarterfinals of this last Big Ten Tournament. Iowa racked up numerous BTT records in that one, including the first 100 point game in the entire quarter century history of the competition. This one was projected to be a lot more competitive.
Northwestern is currently 12-5 overall, 3-3 in the league. Meanwhile Iowa have won four in a row in conference play, after having started 0-3.
Wisconsin meanwhile, started 3-0 in Big Ten play, rising to as high as #14 in the national polls, but they quickly hit a big slump and have since fallen out of the polls.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
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