Northwestern-Iowa College Basketball Game Postponed Due To Covid, Seriously, In 2023

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Welcome to 2023 where we're still postponing sporting events due to COVID-19 outbreaks. The Northwestern-Iowa men's college basketball game scheduled for Wednesday in Iowa City was officially postponed on Tuesday with the Wildcats reportedly dealing with an outbreak.

According to Jeff Goodman of Stadium, Northwestern was down to just six available players heading into Wednesday's contest. The Big Ten will reportedly look to reschedule the game, but it is not a guarantee that it will be made up at a later date.

We seemed to be past postponing and canceling events due to positive COVID tests, but that apparently isn't the case.

The last time we saw the virus impact college sports was in 2021 when Duke, UCLA, and other college hoops programs canceled multiple games early in the season.

Northwestern has postponed its game with Iowa due to a COVID outbreak. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Northwestern is 12-5 on the year and the Wildcats are assuredly not purposefully ducking the meeting with the 12-6 Hawkeyes.

Northwestern's press release announcing the postponed game consisted of only two sentences and cited "COVID-19 health and safety protocols within the Northwestern program" as the reasoning behind the postponement.

READ: BOOSTED INDIVIDUALS MORE LIKELY TO TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID, ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH

It is unclear whether over half the Northwestern team has tested positive and/or has symptoms or a contact tracing protocol has caused the postponement.

If it's the latter, questions must be asked about why protocols are in place to keep college athletes - most of which are likely vaccinated - from playing a basketball game.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and all other happenings in the world of golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.