Five football players from California University of Pennsylvania, who reportedly chanted “Football strong” as they left after brutally beating a 30-year-old man outside a popular off-campus restaurant, were arrested Thursday.

In the wake of the events, the university — which is known as Cal U. and which plays in the West Division of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, an N.C.A.A. Division II conference — has canceled and forfeited its next home game, scheduled for Saturday against Gannon University.

“Our hearts and our prayers go out to the victim, his family and his friends,” the university’s interim president, Geraldine M. Jones, said in a statement. “All else pales in comparison.”

The attack occurred shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday outside Spuds, a late-night hangout less than a mile from the campus of 8,600 students in California, Pa., according to the police. The police said an argument had broken out between a Vulcans defensive back, Corey Ford, and the girlfriend of Lewis Campbell. When Campbell intervened, the police said, Ford and the four other men beat him and stomped on his face until he was unconscious.