The game between Utah at UCLA is the last to be called off. The Pac-12 conference made the announcement on Friday, citing the Utah football program not having the minimum number of available scholarship recipients due to positive Covid-19 tests and new student-athletes being placed in segregation under protocols. contact tracing.
“Our community is particularly hard hit right now by this virus, and our team and department have done everything possible to follow protocols and prevent the spread of the virus,” said Utah athletic director Mark Harlan. , in a press release. were doing very well, day in and day out, and it’s extremely difficult for our student-athletes and coaches not to be able to compete this week. “
According to NCAA.com, 15 of 49 football games slated to start on Saturday have been postponed or canceled due to issues with Covid-19.
The announcement came just a day after the South Eastern Conference postponed several football games – with seven initially scheduled and only three ready to play – all because of Covid-19.
The number of Covid-19 cases is increasing in almost every state, with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicting there will be 260,000 to 282,000 coronavirus deaths by December 5, according to a forecast released Thursday .
There are currently at least 10.5 million cases of the coronavirus in the United States and more than 242,000 have already died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
CNN’s Amir Vera, Holly Yan and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.
