What really happened with the UNC vs. Charlotte game?

When the college football season began with such uncertainty, you had to wonder what it would take to cancel or postpone a game.

N.C. State’s game at Virginia Tech, scheduled for last week, was postponed until next Saturday because of a COVID outbreak on the Raleigh campus. Yet, the Wolfpack opens the season this week at home versus Wake Forest after a thousand-plus infections sent everyone to remote learning.

Meanwhile, VaTech’s home date with Virginia has now been moved from this Saturday to December 12, the first option for the ACC championship in Charlotte. If either the Hokies or Cavaliers finish first or second, the title game will be on December 19.  Huh?

Mack Brown was in the middle of practice when UNC Charlotte called and said its team couldn’t come to Chapel Hill because three players had tested positive and a bunch of others had to be quarantined. It is one of four college games canceled or postponed this week.

Meanwhile, in Charlotte, several 49ers players are questioning the decision not to play, claiming that the test results were actually false positives, and everything is really okay. Reports are the Charlotte players who tested positive were not infected in the team’s game at App State, but from a party some of them went to after returning from the 35-20 loss in Boone. The Mounties are still playing at Marshall on Saturday, so that must be true. Maybe.

The Tar Heels prepared all week for an opponent to learn after their last full practice that the game was off. And unless they can find someone to fill their idle date next weekend, Carolina won’t play for three weeks until Boston College on October 3, if the BC campus is deemed safe enough after the current outbreak there.

This is the first time in Brown’s 25-plus year coaching career that a game was ever called off as late as Thursday. And all because something happened with the other team. UNC’s program is very vigilant about staying safe, from social distancing everywhere to single rooms for everyone all the way to so-called COVID COPS, who make sure that every player keeps his mask on when off the field.

Featured image via ACC Media

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