Cal Football: Curtain to Open on Bears' Season vs. Washington on Nov. 7

The Big Game vs. Stanford will be played on a Friday for the first time ever

Photo by Neville E. Guard, USA Today

Cal will open its 2020 football season at long last on Saturday, Nov. 7 against Washington at Memorial Stadium, according to a revised Pac-12 Conference schedule released Saturday morning.

The Golden Bears will play three home games in the conference-only schedule that features five matchups against their other Pac-12 North rivals plus a cross-division game at Arizona State on Nov. 14.

Cal’s seven-game slate will wrap up either on Dec. 18 with an appearance in the Pac-12 championship game or Dec. 19 with a second cross-division matchup to be determined.

Besides Washington, the Bears will play at home in the Big Game against Stanford on Friday, Nov. 27 — the day after Thanksgiving — and Dec. 5 against Oregon.

According to the College Football Reference website and Cal's media guide, the Big Game has never been played on a Friday since its inception in 1892. For much of the rest of the decade of the 1890s, the Cal-Stanford game was played on a Thursday, Otherwise, it's always been a Saturday event. 

In addition to ASU, Cal plays road games at Oregon State on Nov. 21 and at Washington State on Dec. 12, which could be played in chilly (even snowy) conditions.

The Pac-12 announced a week ago Friday that it would play a fall football season after postponing the schedule back on Aug. 11 due to COVID-19. Under that plan, games were to be rescheduled for the winter or spring, pending the status of the pandemic.

Cal was originally slated to open its season Aug. 30 at UNLV. Using that schedule, the Bears would have been playing their fifth game of the season today, at Washington State.

Instead, the Bears are scheduled to begin four weeks of fall camp next Friday, Oct. 9.

The original 2020 schedule featured five conference home games and four road dates. As a result, you would expect the Bears' seventh game might be at Memorial Stadium, unless they win the North title and play in the Pac-12 championship game.

The Pac-12’s first game will be Arizona State at USC on Nov. 7 at 9 a.m. Fox will broadcast the matchup of two teams expected to challenge for the South title.

Notably absent from the Pac-12 schedule is a regular-season matchup of North favorite Oregon and South favorite USC. As Jon Wilner of the Mercury News wrote, each team needed a home game in its cross-division matchup to ensure three home games/three road games for everyone, so it was not possible.

The first College Football Playoff rankings will be released on Nov. 24, meaning Pac-12 teams will have three games in the books. The CFP matchups will be announced on Dec. 20, the day after the Pac-12 title game, which will be played on a campus site.

With no fans allowed at games, there had been much discussion about early kickoffs in order to gain television exposure nationwide.

Every football game through the first six weeks of the season will be televised nationally by a combination of ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, FOX and FS1, with FOX televising the Pac-12 Football Championship Game.

Exact television network broadcast schedules will be determined at a later date. 

The Bears are coming off an 8-5 season, capped by a 35-20 victory over Illinois in the Redbox Bowl at Santa Clara. Cal returns virtually its entire offense intact, but must reload on defense, where three players were drafted and expected returnees Camryn Bynum (NFL draft prep) and Luc Bequette (transfer to Boston College) both opted out this fall.

REVISED 2020 CAL SCHEDULE

Nov. 7 - vs. Washington (Bears have won the past two meetings, by a total of 3 points)

Nov. 14 - at Arizona State (ASU won 24-17 at Berkeley last season)

Nov. 21 - at Oregon State (Bears lost 21-17 at home to OSU in 2019)

Nov. 27 - vs. Stanford (Cal won last year to end a 9-game Big Game losing streak)

Dec. 5 - vs. Oregon (Ducks have won 10 of the past 11 meetings)

Dec. 12 - at Washington State (Cal hasn’t won in Pullman since 60-59 victory in 2014)

Dec. 18-19 - Pac-12 Championship Game or cross-division game, TBD

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ORIGINAL 2020 CAL SCHEDULE

Aug. 29 - at UNLV

Sept. 5 - vs. TCU

Sept. 12 - vs. Cal Poly

Sept. 26 - vs. Utah

Oct. 3 - at WSU

Oct. 10 - at USC

Oct. 17 - Oregon

Oct. 24 - at Oregon State

Oct. 31 - Washington

Nov. 7 - at ASU

Nov. 21 - Stanford

Nov. 27 - UCLA

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

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