Breaking: Washington OUT For Pac-12 Championship

The USC Trojans will now play the Oregon Ducks on Friday, December 18th.

On Monday, the Pac-12 announced that the Washington Huskies would be withdrawing from the Pac-12 Championship Game against the USC Trojans.

Per the PAC-12, 

The Pac-12 has, after consultation with Washington, made the decision to replace Washington with Oregon as the Pac-12 North Division team to face South Division champion USC in the Pac-12 Football Championship Game scheduled for Friday, December 18.

This decision was made under the Pac-12’s football game cancellation policy and Football Championship Game policy due to Washington neither having the minimum 53 scholarship student-athletes available for the game nor the minimum number of scholarship student-athletes at a position group, in each case 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 Pac-12 Football Championship Game policy, the team with the next best record in the North Division, Oregon, will represent the North Division against South Division Champion USC.

Head Coach of the Washington Huskies Jimmy Lake released a statement following the news saying, 

“Our goal every season is to win the Pac-12 Championship. I am so proud of the work our team and staff have put in to position ourselves to attain that goal. Unfortunately, the virus is in our footprint. We have not been able to resume football activities and currently the entirety of one of our key position groups, deemed a critical position group by the Pac-12, is in quarantine. There is no path forward to practice or play this week. Our focus now is getting everyone healthy so we can resume football activities and prepare for a possible bowl game. We are crushed that we cannot bring home the Pac-12 trophy for our fans, staff and players.”

The USC Trojans have been preparing to face both Washington and Oregon. Clay Helton told the media this morning, "we really started yesterday working on Washington and focusing on Washington. Spent the day and night and spent some walk throughs yesterday afternoon with the team just Washington. That will be the same today for our football team."

Helton and his staff had planned on starting their preparations for Oregon tonight after Monday's practice, but now will shift the focus to prepare for the Ducks on Friday. 

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