Thursday Update:
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Two Pac-12 teams might get their seasons stopped before they ever get started.
On a Wednesday evening Zoom call with reporters, Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said “it's fair” to question whether his Golden Bears' scheduled Saturday night season opener, against visiting Washington, would be played after a Cal player tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.
“If it is feasible for us to play, we are going to play the game,” said Wilcox, who's led the Cal program to consecutive bowl appearances for the first time in more than a decade as he enters his fourth season atop the program.
Though Cal officials did not specify which player had tested positive, Wilcox noted that the positive test also forced several other players into contact-tracing protocols, which clouded the picture of the game's ability to be played as scheduled Saturday night in Berkeley.
Wilcox said his school's officials had been in contact Wednesday night with officials from the University of Washington.
“If we have the bodies available to play the game, we will play the game,” Wilcox said on the call. “Several people are being held out [right now] and that’s a legitimate threat to the game.”
The Pac-12 is the last of the Power-5 conferences to begin play this season, after first cancelling the season, then delaying it and, finally, announcing on Sept. 24 the plan for the season to kick off this weekend with each of its teams playing a six-game, conference-only schedule. The Pac-12 title game was set for Friday, Dec. 18., “enabling Pac-12 teams to be considered for selection by the (College Football Playoff),” the league said in its release announcing the sport's return.