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Saturday’s contest between Arizona and Utah has been canceled because the host Utes are short on available scholarship players due to a COVID-19 outbreak, the Pac-12 announced Friday.

Utah requested the cancellation and the Pac-12 approved it, the conference said in a statement.

“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 positive football student-athlete COVID-19 cases and resulting isolation of additional football student-athletes under contact tracing protocols,” the Pac-12 said.

Utah said it learned of a “number of positive COVID-19 cases” within the football program over the past 24 hours.

The league declared the game a no-contest.

Pac-12’s rough start

It marks the second Pac-12 game in two days to be canceled. California’s game at Washington, also scheduled for Saturday, was called off on Thursday.

The Pac-12 termed the two cancellations as “incredibly disappointing to our student-athletes and fans.” The league said it also displays that its health and safety protocols regarding COVID-19 are working.



“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,” the Pac-12 said.

Saturday marks the first games of the Pac-12 season after a delayed start due to the coronavirus pandemic. There are four games currently set to go on — Arizona State at Southern California, UCLA at Colorado, Stanford at Oregon and Washington State and Oregon State.

–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)