Can Cal Play With Players Out? What If Bears Don't Play Saturday?
The positive COVID-19 test result of a Cal player that has put Saturday night’s Cal-Washington game in jeopardy brings up two issues:
---Can a team play a game with some players unavailable because of positive tests?
---What happens to Cal's Pac-12 title hopes if a game is canceled?
The first question has a fairly easy answer:
A team must have at least 53 available scholarship players, and that must include at least seven offensive linemen, one quarterback and four defensive linemen. A school could agree to play the game with fewer than the 53 scholarship players, but if it elects not to do so the game would be canceled or postponed. Presumably the game could only be postponed two days (until Monday) to allow the following week’s game to be played as scheduled.
We don’t know how many Cal players would be unavailable for the game, but Justin Wilcox said the Bears would play the game if at all possible.
The second question is complicated by the fact that teams may not play the same number of games.
Teams are scheduled to play six conference games to determine the Pac-12 championship-game participants. But a canceled game does not eliminate a team from contention for a Pac-12 title. Participants in the Pac-12 title game would be determined by winning percentage. So if one team plays six conference games and goes 6-0 it would be tied with a team that plays five conference games and finishes 5-0.
Then a tie-breaker system would be used, which goes by head-to-head results, record within the division, then record against the next-highest team in the standings.
It is possible for a team to win a division title playing just four games. However, if a team plays two fewer games than a team with the same winning percentage, it is not considered a tie. So a team that finishes 6-0 would earn the berth over a team that goes 4-0.
It is also possible for two teams from the same division to play in the Pac-12 championship game, but that would require a number of unlikely occurrences that will be explained if that situation takes place.
Click here for a story on the details of these two issues.
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