A Second Pac-12 Opener Canceled: Utah-Arizona

The Cal-Washington game is not the only Pac-12 season-opening contest that will not be played because of COVID-19 positive tests

The Cal-Washington game is not the only Pac-12 opener that will be canceled this week, as the Pac-12 announced on Friday that Saturday's game between Utah and Arizona has also been canceled due to positive COVID-19 tests.

The announcement was made just over 24 hours before kickoff. The game will not be made up.

Since the start of the 2020 season, 47 games have been canceled or postponed due to COVID-19, including 10 this past week. 

Here is the Pac-12 release:

“The Pac-12 has approved a request from Utah to cancel the Arizona at Utah football game scheduled for November 7. This decision was made under the Pac-12’s football game cancellation policy due to Utah not having the minimum number of scholarship players available for the game as a result of a number of positive football student-athlete COVID-19 cases and resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols. Under Conference policy, the game will be declared a no contest.

The cancellation of this game, following yesterday’s cancellation of the Washington at Cal football game, is of course incredibly disappointing to our student-athletes and our fans. At the same time it is an indication that our health and safety protocols are working in identifying positive cases and contact tracing cases. While all of us want to see our football student-athletes on the field competing, our number one priority must continue to be the health and safety of all those connected to Pac-12 football programs.”

This cancellation complicates the Pac-12 football season. Pac-12 teams are scheduled to play only seven regular-season games,all against conference foes, and only the first six will count in determining the two teams that will participate in the Pac-12 championship game.

Cal, Washington, Utah and Arizona now have just five games to get in position to vie for a conference title. Utah was the Pac-12 South champion last year, and probably would have gone on to the four-team College Football Playoff if it had defeated Oregon in the conference title game.

Utah's next game 

Teams can still compete for a Pac-12 title playing just four or five games, as the teams' winning percentage will be used to determine the North and South division representatives in the conference championship game. A 6-0 team would have the same standing as a 5-0 team in a tie-breaker situation. However, a 6-0 team would win a title-game berth over a 4-0 team based on Pac-12 rules that a team with two fewer games does not win any tiebreaker.

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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