Pac-12 teams have waited months to begin their season. Washington and Cal will have to wait a bit longer.
The Huskies were supposed to travel to take on the Golden Bears this Saturday night as the Pac-12 finally begins its season. But there’s been a change of plans because of the pandemic. Washington at Cal has been cancelled because of positive tests within the Cal program.
“The Pac-12 has approved a request from Cal to cancel the Washington at Cal football game schedule for Nov. 7,” the Pac-12 announced in a statement. “The 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 football student-athlete COVID-19 case and resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols.”
This is obviously an unfortunate development. Washington at Cal was expected to be the conference’s most pivotal game this weekend in terms of how the Pac-12 standings could play out. The Huskies and Golden Bears will have to wait at least another week to start their respective seasons.
The Cal Golden Bears figure to be the Pac-12 North’s top challenger to the preseason favorite Oregon Ducks.
Cal returns star quarterback Chase Garbers and a talented defense. Washington, meanwhile, lost plenty of talent from last year’s team. But new head coach Jimmy Lake is expected to make some noise in the conference this season.
Washington at Cal will unfortunately not be played this season. The game has been declared a no-contest.