Washington vs. Cal Canceled Due to Golden Bears' COVID-19 Issues

California and Washington's season-opening game on Saturday has been canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Golden Bears' program.

California and Washington's season-opening game on Saturday has been canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Golden Bears' program, the Pac-12 announced on Thursday.

“This decision was made under the Pac-12’s football game cancellation policy due to Cal not having the minimum number of scholarship players available for the game as a result of a positive football student-athlete COVID-19 case and resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols," the statement read. 

The game will be declared a no-contest since there are no bye weeks built into the Pac-12's shortened schedule. The league's guidelines require at least 53 scholarship players to be available for a game.

Saturday's game status was already up in the air after Cal announced on Wednesday that a member of the team had tested positive for COVID-19. Coach Justin Wilcox also said a "significant" number of players were held out of practice while the team completed contract tracing.

Wilcox wouldn't specify how many players were sidelined on Wednesday, but he did say the player who tested positive is asymptomatic. 

"It is very disappointing that we will not be opening our 2020 season this Saturday night against Washington," Wilcox said on Thursday. "My heart goes out first and foremost to all of our players who have been through so much since the pandemic began and worked so hard under difficult circumstances to prepare themselves to play. They have done so well following the protocols that have been put in place, but as we are finding out first-hand, playing football during 2020 is a fragile situation."

The Pac-12's opening weekend slate is down to five games with the matchup in Berkeley being canceled. The conference voted in September to have a seven-game season starting on Nov. 6. It originally opted to not hold a fall football season due to COVID-19 concerns but reversed its decision shortly after the Big Ten elected to have a shortened eight-game season.

The Washington-Cal game marks the sixth FBS game to be postponed or canceled this week. 

Saturday's game between Tulsa and Navy was postponed on Thursday because of positive COVID-19 cases and contact tracing at the Naval Academy. The Air Force-Army game also reportedly will not take place this weekend because of a COVID-19 outbreak within the Falcons' program.