Earlier: Last week, the Cal football program announced that they would be without “multiple” players for Saturday’s matchup against Arizona due to an undisclosed number of positive COVID-19 tests within the team.
Now following a 10-3 loss to the Wildcats, the Golden Bears have some more bad news on the COVID-19 front.
On Tuesday evening, the Cal athletic department announced that this Saturday’s matchup against USC has been postponed due to “additional Cal football student-athletes” who tested positive for the virus and are unavailable to practice this week or play this weekend.
The university has contacted the Pac 12 about a possible rescheduling later this season.
Fans from around the college football world took to Twitter to react to this news.
Game Update for Cal Football vs USC this Saturday.
full release: https://t.co/xtbBSpE4WI pic.twitter.com/qwvjse8iRY
— Cal Athletics (@CalAthletics) November 9, 2021
City of Berkeley has their own requirements that are far more strict than the rest of the Pac-12. Why were Cal players not educated about what might happen if there were numerous positive test cases regardless of vaccination status?
Big disconnect between players and university.
— Avinash Kunnath (@avinashkunnath) November 9, 2021
Re: news of Cal-USC cancellation:
Cal declined my requests to clarify what’s going on, and Berkeley Dept. of Public Health is ghosting me. If there is indeed a major COVID outbreak on a 99% vaccinated team, the public deserves to know. And if there isn’t, we should know that too
— Alex Shultz (@AlexShultz) November 9, 2021
Can confirm @wilnerhotline report: Cal-USC canceled, related to COVID cases at Cal. Team experienced more positive cases after roughly two dozen tested positive last week.
— Kyle Bonagura (@BonaguraESPN) November 9, 2021
First major college game this season rescheduled because of CV19. https://t.co/0KIUOCFFEY
— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) November 10, 2021
According to a statement from the university last week, 99% of players on the team are vaccinated against the virus. Vaccinated players were not undergoing weekly testing, per Cal insider Avinash Kunnath.
After allowing Arizona to snap its record-breaking losing streak this past weekend, the Golden Bears are now 3-6 on the year. Assuming the program can recover and reschedule its game against the Trojans, Cal will finish off its season with games against Stanford, UCLA and USC.
This news marks the first major COVID-19 cancelation of the 2021 season.
Update: The game has been rescheduled for December 4.
USC announces that its game against Cal is rescheduled to Dec. 4
— Adam Grosbard (@AdamGrosbard) November 10, 2021
At least these two teams won’t lose the opportunity to play each other.
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