Cal's football game vs. Washington scheduled for Saturday night at California Memorial Stadium will not be played as scheduled and will be declared a no contest due to the Golden Bears' inability to field a competitive roster following the results of one positive COVID-19 test and subsequent contact tracing.

Earlier this week, a member of the Cal football program tested positive for COVID-19, marking the first positive test within the Cal football program since the start of daily testing at the beginning of October. At this time, the student-athlete who tested positive is asymptomatic.

After receiving a positive result through his regularly scheduled daily antigen test, the student-athlete took a supplemental PCR test, as is protocol. The PCR test also produced a positive outcome. Cal Athletics followed guidance from University Health Services Infection Control and Berkeley Public Health on contact tracing, quarantining, symptom monitoring and treatment. As a result, several football student-athletes are in quarantine due to contact tracing.

Head coach Justin Wilcox and Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton agreed that Cal could not field a competitive team given the number of student-athletes affected. The Pac-12 approved Cal's request to cancel the game under the Pac-12's football game cancelation policy due to the Bears' inability to have a minimum number of scholarship players available.

"The health and well-being of our student-athletes is always at the forefront of our decision making," Knowlton said. "We have been diligent in the development and execution of our return-to-play plan, and our goal all along has been to provide a safe environment and to mitigate risk as much as possible. We know how much our team and the greater Cal Athletics community was looking forward to the start of the football season this weekend. While we are disappointed in our inability to play this week, we are confident that we have made the right decision. As we have seen across the country, we knew that there would be COVID-19 challenges, and we will continue to follow our protocols to support the health of our student-athletes."

"It is very disappointing that we will not be opening our 2020 season this Saturday night against Washington," Wilcox said. "My heart goes out first and foremost to all of our players who have been through so much since the pandemic began and worked so hard under difficult circumstances to prepare themselves to play. They have done so well following the protocols that have been put in place, but as we are finding out first-hand, playing football during 2020 is a fragile situation."

Since student-athlete testing began on June 4, Cal Athletics has conducted 3,547 total PCR tests among all student-athletes (through Oct. 30) with 20 positive results.