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Is it possible that the novel coronavirus could affect Cal's football season? The simple answer is yes, in one specific way.

Cal is scheduled to open its 2020 season on August 29 against UNLV at Las Vegas' brand-new Allegiant Stadium. That stadium is still being built but it is scheduled to be ready well before the start of the 2020 season. Afterall, that stadium will be the home of the Raiders, so it has to be ready, right?

Well, there could be a hitch, as Mike Florida of Pro Football Talk points out.  If restrictions related to the novel coronavirus slow or prevent contruction, the stadium might not be ready for the Bears' opener. It's anyone's guess how that site issue would be solved.

Florio is more interested in the NFL angle on this issue, but it could affet Cal too.

Here is what Florio reported over the weekend regarding the new stadiums in Los Angeles and Las Vegas:

If/when the U.S. government (or the California or Nevada governments) impose sweeping restrictions like those in Italy and Spain, progress on both venues likely would slam to a halt.

It’s a simple proposition. If citizens are prohibited from leaving home only to go to the store, the pharmacy, or to get gasoline, they won’t be allowed to leave home for work. And of all the jobs that now can be done at home, working on a stadium cannot be.

So unless housing will be constructed at the stadium site for all stadium workers, there will be no way for the stadium workers to work on these stadiums. Which could keep the Raiders in Oakland, the Rams in the Coliseum, and the Chargers in a 30,000-seat soccer stadium for another year.

Yes, besides being a problem for the Cal-UNLV game, a delay in the construction of Allegiant Stadium could leave the Raiders in Oakland for another season -- if Oakland agrees to have them, that is.

Cal has high hopes for 2020, as Cal coach Justin Wilcox noted in the video below after the Redbox Bowl: