According to the press release, Michigan State conducted “surveillance testing” on all staff members during the weekend. The school then tested its student-athletes earlier in the day Wednesday before receiving notice of the positive test of a staff member, resulting in the pausing of football workouts until “it receives the complete results from all surveillance testing.”

On Monday, the Spartans were preparing to begin their first 20-hour practice week that had been made possible by an NCAA plan passed in mid-June, allowing Division I football teams to conduct up to eight hours per week for weight lifting and conditioning, six hours per week for walk-through practices with no pads or helmets, but play with a ball will be allowed, and up to six hours for team meetings that can include film study and meetings with coaches.

In that 20-hour week, student-athletes were required to have at least two days off.

Michigan State is not the first Big Ten team to pause workouts, joining Indiana, Maryland, and Ohio State as other teams in the Big Ten to do so.