Cal Football: Season Opener vs. Washington is Canceled - COVID-19

The Pac-12 announced no plans to reschedule - game is considered a 'no contest'

Cal’s long-awaited season-opening football game against Washington on Saturday night has been canceled due to a COVID-19 outbreak among the Bears.

The Pac-12 made the announcement Thursday, approving a request from Cal.

“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 student-athlete COVID-19 case and resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols,” the Pac-12 said in its news release.

Those minimums, as established by the Pac-12, requires teams to have 53 healthy scholarship players, including at least one quarterback, seven offensive linemen and four defensive linemen. For privacy reasons, Cal did not identify players affected by COVID-19.

Here is more on the Pac-12's plan related to canceling games and how that impacts the conference championship picture.

There was no mention of the game potentially being made up at a later date.

“Under conference policy, the game will be declared a no contest,” the Pac-12 said.

Cal announced on Wednesday night that one of its players had tested positive after taking both a daily antigen and PCR test. Others players, described by coach Justin Wilcox as a “significant” number, entered quarantine for contact tracing purposes.

Because of the number of players in quarantine, the Bears obviously believe they had no choice but to ask the Pac-12 to cancel the game.

Not everyone agreed with the decision.

Junior wide receiver Nikko Remigio, on Twitter, wrote: WOW . . . UNBELIEVABLE! WE WANT TO PLAY! LET US PLAY!"

These reactions on social media demonstrate the frustration felt by Cal's players:

Wilcox said he understands the disappointment Cal's players are feeling.

"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," he said. "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 news was a shock to Washington coach Jimmy Lake, who had met with reporters via Zoom barely an hour before the Pac-12 canceled the game.

"Everything we've heard is the game is on," Lake said, according to Husky Maven. "Right now we just had a great practice and we're ready to travel to Berkeley and go get a first victory."

Lake said he was told the Cal player with the positive test remains healthy.

The Huskies were planning to fly to California at mid-day on Friday and stay sequestered until it was time to go to the stadium to play on Saturday night, with no walk-through the night before. 

Cal stated in a news release that Wilcox and athletic director Jim Knowlton “agreed that Cal could not field a competitive team given the number of student-athletes affected.”

Wilcox hinted at the worst on Wednesday when asked if the one positive test result might lead to the game being canceled. “I would say that’s fair,” he responded.

At this point, the Cal-Washington game is the only one of six Pac-12 contests scheduled for Saturday that has been scratched.

It's unclear how the situation might impact Cal's game next week at Arizona State. 

Pac-12 protocols call for athletes with confirmed positives to isolate for at least 10 days and until symptoms resolve. An athlete who has had high-risk contact with a confirmed positive must quarantine for 14 days.

"The health and well-being of our student-athletes is always at the forefront of our decision making," Knowlton said in a statement. "We have been diligent in the development and execution of our return-to-play plan, and our goal all along has been to provide a safe environment and to mitigate risk as much as possible.

“We know how much our team and the greater Cal Athletics community was looking forward to the start of the football season this weekend. While we are disappointed in our inability to play this week, we are confident that we have made the right decision. As we have seen across the country, we knew that there would be COVID-19 challenges, and we will continue to follow our protocols to support the health of our student-athletes."

*** This story will be updated

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Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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