Saturday’s football season opener between California and Washington has been canceled after a Cal player tested positive for the coronavirus, the Pac-12 announced Thursday.
“The Pac-12 has approved a request from Cal to cancel the Washington at Cal football game scheduled for November 7,” the Pac-12 said in a statement. “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 football student-athlete COVID-19 case and resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols.”
Cal reported the case after a daily antigen test came back positive and was then confirmed through a PCR test.
“As a result, several football student-athletes are in quarantine due to contact tracing,” Cal said in a statement.
The school did not announce how many players were in quarantine as a result of contact tracing and said the player who tested positive is asymptomatic.
“It is very disappointing that we will not be opening our 2020 season this Saturday night against Washington,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said in a statement. “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.
The game will be declared a no contest, per Pac-12 policy.