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Utah football has another game called off.
Pac-12 announced on Friday that the Utes’ scheduled game against UCLA on Saturday night was canceled because Utah does not have the minimum number of scholarship recipients available under COVID-19 protocols. The game will be declared without competition.
“We came into this week knowing it was an everyday situation,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said in a statement. “We did everything we could under the circumstances to prepare for the game and follow all guidelines and protocols. As always, the health and safety of our student-athletes comes first.
Utah also saw its first scheduled game canceled – last week against Arizona – due to positive COVID-19 results in the Utes’ schedule.
The school announced that Utah had an additional positive test result on Friday, making 17 confirmed positive cases among Utes student-athletes and coaching staff, with 11 additional program members in quarantine due contact tracing protocols. That put Utah below the Pac-12’s mandatory threshold of 53 scholarship student-athletes available to play a game.
“Our community is particularly affected at this time by this virus, and our team and department have done everything possible to follow protocols and prevent the spread of the virus,” Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said in a statement. “We were doing really 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.
“We also recognize the disappointment of our fans, and we know how upsetting it is for the UCLA football program. We maintained close communication with UCLA and had high hopes that this game would be played. As I have said since the start of the pandemic, the well-being and safety of our student-athletes remains our top priority and guides all of our decisions and we follow the recommendations of medical professionals.
It was the second cancellation of a Pac-12 game on Friday, after the league canceled the Arizona State-Cal game due to positive COVID-19 results in the Sun Devils program. The league later announced that UCLA and Cal, instead, would now play each other this week. The game will be played at the Rose Bowl on Sunday at 10 a.m. KST, with the contest being televised on Fox Sports 1.
As such, next week’s UCLA game in Oregon will be postponed for one day, from Friday, November 20 to Saturday, November 21.
So far, four Pac-12 games have been called off by COVID, including Utah-Arizona and Washington-Cal games last week, when the league opened the game.
“The cancellation of this game is very disappointing for our student-athletes and our fans,” the Pac-12 said in a statement. “At the same time, it’s a further indication that our health and safety protocols are working to identify positive cases and contact tracing cases. While we all want to see our football student-athletes compete on the pitch, our number one priority must remain the health and safety of everyone involved in Pac-12 football programs.
The next game scheduled for Utah is a November 21 home game against USC.
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