Utah fans will have to wait a week longer to see their Utes play. The Pac-12 announced on Friday afternoon, Nov. 6, that the game between the Utes and Wildcats would be declared a no-contest. The request for the cancellation came from Utah.

“The Pac-12 has approved a request from Utah to cancel the Arizona at Utah football game scheduled for Nov. 7. This decision was made under the Pac-12’s football game cancellation policy due to Utah not having the minimum number of scholarship players available for the game as a result of a number of positive football student-athlete COVID-19 cases and the resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols.  Under Conference policy, the game will be declared a no contest,” the conference said in a statement.

Today’s cancellation comes on the heels of the cancelation of the Cal-Washington game.

According to the requirements by the Pac-12 schools must have at least 53 scholarship players available to participate and the following minimum number of position scholarship players available to begin a game: seven offensive linemen, one quarterback and four defensive linemen.

The U released a statement about the cancellation stating that the number of positive cases had gone up in the last 24 hours.

“Over the last 24 hours, the University of Utah Department of Athletics has been informed of a number of positive COVID-19 cases among student-athletes within the football program, which necessitates that Utah’s game versus the University of Arizona scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 7 be canceled. The decision was made following the Pac-12’s football game cancellation policy as Utah does not have the minimum number of scholarship student-athletes available for the game due to the positive cases and the resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols. The health and safety of our student-athletes and all associated with our program is our highest priority and we will continue to follow all applicable Pac-12 and local health policies and guidelines,” the athletic department said in a statement.

Along with the number of scholarship players the conference also said a game should be declared a no-contest if:

1. Inability to isolate new positive cases within a team or athletic department or to quarantine high-risk contacts.
2. Unavailability or inability to perform testing as provided by the Pac-12 medical guidelines.
3. Campus-wide or local community transmission rates that are considered unsafe by local public health officials.
4. Inability to perform adequate contact tracing consistent with governmental requirements.
5. Local public health officials of the home team state that there is an inability for the hospital infrastructure to accommodate a surge.

Some close to the situation say that due to the number of cases in the state of Utah, next week’s game between the Utes and UCLA is also in jeopardy:

Only time will tell if the Utes take the field next week, or even this season.

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