AD Barry Alvarez believes Wisconsin will play against Michigan

After canceling back-to-back games, Wisconsin believes it is on track to play its scheduled game against Michigan Saturday. Athletic director Barry Alvarez says that the Badgers are "confident that we have a handle on the situation."

"We had no new positives on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was a great sign," he said. "That's when we started thinking Friday could be a day we could get the team together to start doing things with an eye towards having a regular practice week this week. So we were cautious on Friday and Saturday, split guys into groups, and just did conditioning. The team then got together and held its regular Monday practice this morning."

Last month, Wisconsin canceled its game against Nebraska after 12 positive tests between players and staff, including starting quarterback Graham Mertz and head coach Paul Chryst. Wisconsin then canceled its game against Purdue, with the number rising to at least 27 active cases, with 15 players and 12 staff members testing positive. 

A second canceled game, which cannot be made up or rescheduled, put into question whether or not Wisconsin will be able to finish its season at all. According to Big Ten rules for the season, a team must play at least six games to compete for the conference title. Wisconsin needs to play every remaining game on its schedule to meet that threshold. 

If Wisconsin is able to play against Michigan, that would be a huge first step in finishing the season and being able to compete for a Big Ten title.