The Sun Belt Conference football championship game between No. 19 Louisiana and No. 12 Coastal Carolina has been canceled due to a positive COVID-19 test within the Coastal Carolina program, the conference announced Thursday evening.
Due to contact tracking, an entire position group would be unavailable to play for the Chanticleers due to potential exposure, forcing Saturday’s game to be canceled. The conference will recognize Louisiana and Coastal Carolina as co-champions.
“We are all clearly devastated by this development and hurt for the student athletes of both institutions because they will not have a chance to compete for a title of the conference,” Coastal Carolina athletics director Matt Hogue said in a statement. health and safety protocols for our student athletes was and will remain the number one priority, and those protocols and guidelines from our medical team fully determine this decision. ”
Coastal Carolina is one of the stories of the season. They finished the regular season 11-0, including a win over the then-unbeaten BYU, the first Sun Belt team in history to do so.
Louisiana is 9-1, with their lone defeat to the Chanticleers on October 14. Louisiana has won the Sun Belt’s Western Division for the past three seasons, losing each of the conference’s first two title games to Appalachian State.
“We are deeply disappointed that our student athletes and staff have not had the opportunity to play in what would have been a really exciting championship game for the Sun Belt Conference,” Louisiana athletic director Bryan Maggard said in a statement. “For our football program, fans and alumni, we look forward to getting to know our bowl destination this weekend.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.