COVID-19 antigen testing has proven to be less than 100% accurate. Just ask the University of Utah men’s basketball program.
Multiple sources told The Salt Lake Tribune Tuesday that a positive test within the men’s basketball program, announced by the athletic department Sunday and the crux of why Tuesday night’s game at Arizona State was postponed, has come back as a false positive.
An athletic department spokesperson told The Tribune they have not been notified of a false positive within the men’s hoops program.
Given Tuesday’s postponement, the one positive Utah test involved a Tier 1 individual. The NCAA defines Tier 1 individuals as “student-athletes, coaches, athletic trainers and physical therapists, medical staff, equipment staff and officials.” Multiple sources told The Tribune that the positive test belonged to a player, which Utah did not clarify on Sunday when it announced the positive. Furthermore, the ensuing contact tracing knocked the Utes below the required minimum of seven scholarship players necessary to play a Pac-12 game.
With Tuesday’s game vs. the Sun Devils postponed, Utah will have 13 days between Dec. 18′s blowout win over the University of Idaho and the Pac-12′s Southern California swing, Dec. 31 at UCLA and Jan. 2 at USC.
