COVID-19 just sacked CSU Rams foot­ball again.

CSU’s pro­gram is going on a coro­n­avirus-relat­ed pause and its rival­ry game at Air Force has been can­celed, uni­ver­si­ty pres­i­dent Joyce McConnell announced ear­ly Wednes­day afternoon.

The Rams (1–2) were sched­uled to play on Thanks­giv­ing day at the Acad­e­my against the Fal­cons (2–2). CSU foot­ball coach Steve Addazio said ear­li­er this week that the team planned to leave on Wednes­day and stay overnight in greater Col­orado Springs rather than trav­el the morn­ing of the game.

As of ear­ly Wednes­day after­noon, at least sev­en CSU play­ers have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19, the uni­ver­si­ty announced. Two staff mem­bers have also test­ed pos­i­tive. The uni­ver­si­ty has found nine foot­ball play­ers iden­ti­fied as “close con­tacts of those pos­i­tive individuals.”

All CSU foot­ball activ­i­ties have been paused until “cur­rent case inves­ti­ga­tion can be com­plet­ed” and the team and staff are test­ed again lat­er this week.

“Our great­est respon­si­bil­i­ty is the health of our stu­dents — includ­ing stu­dent-ath­letes — fac­ul­ty, staff and the broad­er Fort Collins, Larimer Coun­ty and Col­orado com­mu­ni­ty,” McConnell said via a uni­ver­si­ty news release. “While we under­stand play­ers, staff and fans may be dis­ap­point­ed, to pro­ceed with a game under these con­di­tions is not respon­si­ble, and we must all do what we can to pro­tect each other.”

Larimer Coun­ty moved to COVID-19 Lev­el R ed pre­cau­tions on Tues­day. It’s the third CSU foot­ball can­cel­la­tion this fall and its sec­ond in three games. The Rams’ sea­son-open­er vs. New Mex­i­co and a Nov. 21 home date with UNLV were also can­celed because of coro­n­avirus positives.