IOWA CITY, Iowa – The COVID-19 global pandemic has finally caused an Iowa football game to be canceled.

But it was due to Iowa’s opponent, Michigan, not having enough players to participate in Saturday’s game because of positive COVID-19 tests.

“We do not have enough available players at multiple position groups to field a team at Iowa,” Michigan athletic director Wade Manuel said in a statement. “We have more student-athletes out this week compared to last week and the week prior.”

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz expressed his disappointment during a press conference Tuesday.

“I think all of us were looking forward to this game and this challenge and unfortunately it’s not going to happen,” Ferentz said. “We were really close. We felt great about getting eight games in and were really close to getting a ninth, but these kinds of things happen.”

Iowa is one of three Big Ten teams that made it through the eight-game regular season without a game being canceled.

The 16th-ranked Hawkeyes are 6-2 and riding a six-game winning streak, so the cancelation comes at a bad time with Iowa gaining momentum.

Michigan on the other hand has had three games canceled due to COVID-19, and ended the season with a 2-4 record under head coach Jim Harbaugh.

Ferentz was asked about potentially scheduling for Saturday.

“Our staff has been working hard since Sunday morning getting ready for this ballgame,” Ferentz said. “To try to flip it over to play somebody else this weekend, it wouldn’t be fair to the sport, and most of all it wouldn’t be fair to our players. It just wouldn’t be representative of the kind of team we want to put out on the field. I know it’s been done, somebody did one earlier in the year, whatever.

“We’ve gotten eight games in, so I think that would be a really regrettable thing. For all I know, it may still happen, I don’t know. But if it does I won’t be real pleased about it.”

Iowa still has a chance to play in a bowl game, with the Capital One Bowl and the Outback Bowl are perhaps considered two of the best options.

Ferentz said Tuesday that Iowa intends to accept a bowl bid.