MADISON, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin football has seen its active COVID-19 cases drop, a sign that the Badgers could be close to resuming its 2020 season.

According to the latest release, the football program currently has 14 active COVID-19 cases, nine student-athletes and five staff members. Five of those positive results have come in the last seven days. Over the last four days of testing, one student-athlete and one staff member have recorded positive tests for COVID-19.

By comparison, Wisconsin reported 27 active COVID-19 cases within the program (12 from the UW staff, 15 student-athletes) on Tuesday.

“We got to let the numbers drive it, and we’re all hopeful that we can get back sooner than later," head coach Paul Chryst said on his Thursday radio show. “The key for us is to just stack days with no numbers or low numbers and let the data drive kind of when we can return, but we’re certainly hopeful that we can get back and get going again.”

The players also took part in limited on-field conditioning Friday afternoon and are slated to hold another conditioning session today, with student-athletes broken up into multiple groups. Wisconsin had indefinitely paused its football-related activities on Oct.28 and canceled last weekend’s road game at Nebraska and today’s home game against Purdue because of an outbreak of coronavirus within their program.

The football team continues to hold all team and position-specific meetings virtually. In addition, the football program has secured additional locker room space adjacent to its regular locker room in the basement of the McClain Center in order to allow for opportunity to remain physically distant when in the facility. UW Athletics plans to provide another update Monday. The Badgers’ next scheduled game is next Saturday at Michigan. The Badgers have not played since their 45-7 victory over Illinois on October 23 and need to play their final five games to be eligible for the Big Ten Championship game.

“(We) certainly have (winning the Big Ten) as a goal, but really we just want to have the opportunity to get back, and to do that, we had to stop the spread,” Chryst said. “That was kind of what’s most important. Then it’s getting back to where we can be practicing and then playing games. Really of all the years, this one would be the last one that you ever try to spend any time or take any of your energy looking forward, right? You should be grateful to get an opportunity to play.”