Thursday, March 28, 2024
spot_img

USC vs. Cal game postponed as Bears program continues to battle with COVID-19 protocols

Saturday’s scheduled matchup between California and USC in Berkeley has been postponed until Dec. 4 due to additional positive COVID-19 tests in the Cal football program, the school announced on Tuesday. Cal was without multiple players due to positive COVID-19 tests last weekend in the loss to Arizona, even though the school reported that the football program is 99% vaccinated. This is the first FBS game to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic this season.

“It was a difficult decision to postpone this Saturday’s game against USC,” Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton said. “We know how important every one of our games is to our student-athletes, especially our seniors who have been incredible representatives of the program, but it was the right thing to do. Due to additional impact on specific position groups, we have decided to postpone Saturday’s game. We have had multiple COVID-19 positives within our program, and we are taking every step we can to mitigate the spread and protect the greater community.”

The game will take place one day after the Pac-12 Championship Game, which is scheduled for Dec. 3 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The conference announced this summer that its forfeiture policy, which was waived during the COVID-19 pandemic last season, will be applied to games during the 2021 season. As a result, championship weekend was the only available weekend for Cal to play and avoid a forfeit. 

“Our heart goes out to all of the people who enjoy our games in so many ways and especially the players who only get so many chances to go out and play them,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said. “Postponing this game was a last resort and not an action any of us wanted to take, however it was not possible for us to field a team on Saturday.”

Cal quarterback Chase Garbers added some context to the specific testing process surrounding this saga in a statement released to Twitter on Monday night.

“We players are frustrated with our University Health Services (UHS),” Garbers said. “City and University officials spoke to us today, [and] they really had no answers for us. They just beat around the bush and deflected our questions. However, we did come away with that the testing last week was not mandated by anyone, it was highly recommended, meaning they should’ve never happened. But the university told us it was mandated and we could not participate unless we tested.

“They will continue to test us this week. These tests also aren’t mandated but highly recommended so therefore we should have a choice on whether to take the test or not. But they are still forcing us to take the test with the threat of cancelling competition unless we test. Nothing was mandated but it was enforced as so with the threat of keeping players and staff out of competition until we tested and the same if for this week. We have worked too hard to have someone take this all away from us, it is wrong. We deserve answers and transparent communication.”

Cal defensive lineman Luc Bequette responded to his teammate’s tweet by revealing that UHS said that asymptomatic players who are vaccinated but refused to undergo COVID-19 tests could be subject to arrest. 

Cal is currently 3-6 (2-4 Pac-12), and fell to Arizona last weekend as the Wildcats snapped a 20-game losing streak. It is scheduled to play at Stanford on Nov. 20 in the 124th edition of the “Big Game.”

Related articles

Share article

Latest articles

Newsletter

Subscribe to stay updated.