By Canadian Press

Washington pulls out of Pac-12 title game, replaced by Ducks

Dec 14, 2020 | 12:40 PM

SEATTLE — Washington has pulled out of the Pac-12 football championship game due to COVID-19 issues in the Huskies program, and Oregon will now play No. 13 USC for the conference title on Friday instead.

Washington (3-1) announced Monday it is withdrawing from the championship game after determining the Huskies did not have at least 53 scholarship players available and did not meet the minimum number of scholarship athletes at specific positions.

Huskies coach Jimmy Lake said the entire team is quarantining as a precaution while they await results of more tests. Lake said Washington did not expect to have any offensive lineman — scholarship players or walk-ons — available to play because of positive tests and contact tracing.

Washington had to cancel its game last weekend against Oregon (3-2) that would have determined the Pac-12 North champion due to COVID-19 cases in the program that caused the Huskies to pause practice in the middle of the week.

Washington was named Pac-12 North champ by virtue of having a better winning percentage than Oregon.

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Now the Ducks, the preseason Pac-12 favourites, will take a two-game losing streak into the title game, and Colorado is left without an opponent this weekend.

The Pac-12 scheduled games for its teams not involved in the championship and had planned to have Oregon and Colorado (4-1, 3-1 Pac-12), second to USC in the South, meet Saturday at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

If USC had not been able to play, Colorado would have been its replacement.

Currently there are no Pac-12 teams available for CU to play. On Sunday, just a few hours after the Pac-12 released its final week matchups, the game between Arizona and California was cancelled due to virus-related issues with both schools.

Colorado could schedule another game outside of the conference for Saturday, but the Buffaloes also need to remain on standby for the Pac-12 title game until later in the week.

Washington team physician Dr. Kim Harmon said the Huskies program has continued to see positive cases over the past several days.

“This increase in cases, combined with issues with a key position group, doesn’t allow for a path forward for us this week,” Harmon said in a statement.

Lake said the Huskies hope to be back in their facility by Monday and want to play in a bowl game.

Meanwhile, Stanford on Sunday became the first Pac-12 team to say that it will not play in a bowl if invited. The Atlantic Coast Conference has already had three schools — Boston College, Pittsburgh and Virginia — announce they will opt out of bowl season.

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AP College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo contributed to this report.

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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Tim Booth, The Associated Press