Two circumstances vaulted the Ducks to the Pac 12 championship within the past week without the final game of the season.
Last December 10th, it became official the Washington Huskies would be forced to cancel Saturday’s rivalry tilt against Oregon. Given that King County still mandates a 14-day quarantine period it would have been surprising if cases that seemingly started popping up last Tuesday/Wednesday allowed the team to play 10 or fewer days later. Even if Washington had the appropriate number of scholarship players exactly by Friday afternoon presumably any of them would’ve been playing with no practice in over a week. The Huskies said they not only do not have the minimum 53 scholarship players available but also are lacking at one of the key position groups (QB, OL, or DL). That last component is new since last week’s announcement.
The Huskies won’t get to face off against USC on Friday as well in an announcement December 14th.
In a move that unfortunately can’t be viewed as a surprise the Washington Huskies announced they will not be able to take place in the Pac-12 championship game due to roster limitations from positive COVID-19 tests and subsequent contact tracing mandated by King County as well.
Conference rules dictate the second-place finisher replaces the division champions, resulting in Oregon (3-2) playing USC (5-0), in Los Angeles on Friday, for the title, the Pac-12 said.
This possibility has been clear since the Huskies (3-1) were forced to cancel last week’s game against Oregon, which would have sent the winner to the championship game had it been played. The Pac-12 announced Sunday that Oregon would play Colorado in Los Angeles, which was done to allow either Oregon or Colorado to be used as a replacement team if either division winner was unable to play.
It is unclear whether Colorado (4-1, 3-1 Pac-12) will play this week, while Stanford at UCLA, Washington State at Utah and Arizona State at Oregon State remain scheduled to be played. California-Arizona, which was also announced Saturday, was canceled on Sunday.
