Utah-Arizona season opener canceled due to COVID-19 positive cases in Utes football program

Rice-Eccles Stadium is pictured in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

The Utah Utes’ first game of the 2020 football season has been canceled, the school announced Friday.

There had been speculation in recent weeks that the Utes’ Saturday afternoon game against the Arizona Wildcats might be called off because of rising COVID-19 case counts in Salt Lake City, but the school said in its announcement that it was because of cases within the program over the last 24 hours.

“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 resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols,” the statement read. “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.”

Statement from Utah Athletics regarding Saturday’s football game. pic.twitter.com/XriHPNGdbz

— Utah Athletics (@utahathletics) November 6, 2020

The Utah-Arizona game, which was scheduled to kick off at 1:30 p.m. MT, will be declared a no-contest.

It’s the second Pac-12 game to be canceled in the pasts two days — joining the Cal-Washington game scheduled for Saturday night — after a positive COVID-19 test in the Cal program left the Golden Bears without enough scholarship players available under quarantine protocols.

“The cancellation of this game, following yesterday’s cancellation of the Washington at Cal football game, is of course incredibly disappointing to our student-athletes and our fans. At the same time it is an indication that our health and safety protocols are working in identifying positive cases and contact tracing cases,” the Pac-12 said in a statement. “While all of us want to see our football student-athletes on the field competing, our number one priority must continue to be the health and safety of all those connected to Pac-12 football programs.”

According to The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel, it also becomes the ninth college football game in the country to be postponed or canceled this week alone because of COVID-19, which is a record.

It is the second for an in-state team this season, as case count led to the postponement (and likely ultimate cancellation of) BYU’s game against Army, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 19 and has not been rescheduled.

What the cancellations mean for the four teams’ that now won’t play this weekend isn’t entirely clear, as the Pac-12 left virtually no wiggle room for such scenarios when it created a six-week schedule for teams to play six games.

This story will be updated.

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