Full disclosure: A comment here from SpecSlayer was deleted. We will not tolerate any speculation on a particular player without any official reporting. This also crosses lines in players' personal health privacy. Feel free to discuss anything that's officially reported such as Wilner reporting it was the DL group, but not make comments on specific players. Thanks.
Somehow, I knew all along that the City of Berkeley would find a way to F this up. The only reason the Pac12 was able to schedule a season is that they were able to guarantee daily rapid tests for players. Any positive player is given the more accurate PCR test to confirm the result, and he can be quarantined from the rest of the team.
None of the players contract traced to the player in question has tested positive after several days. Rather than rely on the safety of all the test results, some bureaucratic functionary with a public health degree thinks s/he knows better than every professional team, college administration, state, and municipality in the country. There is absolutely no rational basis for one positive test on a roster to shut down a whole program, especially for 14 days! Maybe we need to change the saying to "Because Berkeley."
But if a player doesn't test positive, he can't be shedding the virus and is not contagious. Moreover, that hasn't stopped countless other professional and college teams with multiple positive tests from continuing to practice and play. This was ONE positive test, and daily tests continue to confirm no other positives among players and coaches.
Someone can test negative while having a viral load that is under the limit of detection. After time, the virus will grow and reach a level that is high enough to be detected and high enough to trigger illness, spread, etc.
Just hope we will be able to play at ASU next Saturday...I figured it might be a position group as that's the way the team is working out, with a focus on position groups.
So, the dagger is EVEN if we have the bodies to play at ASU, we'll be way behind the blue and gold eight ball in terms of game-prep and practice time. What a pisser...I mean, the unique nature of Berkeley makes Cal what it is, although athletics is the relative exception.
Something is weird here. FBS allows 85 scholarships. Cal is at the 85 limit. That means that the position group that would bring our scholarship numbers below 53 would need to account for 22 to 23 players. What position group do we have that has that many players. The O-line has 18 players and WR's and DB's are at 17. It would have to be one of those groups but we would still have more than 53 available to play. Perhaps because the entire position group was quarantined the PAC12 recognized the issue and abandoned the game, but however it happened it has not been reported correctly.
Ah!! Thanks Rick. So, irrespective of the 53 scholarship rule you need a minimum number of a certain position group to be eligible to play. Now that makes much more sense. I've seen this reported elsewhere and I thought the original source may have been told something incorrect. It's not a big deal, it was just puzzling. You have answered my question!
It’s odd because it’s a bunch of OR statements. You “can’t” have fewer than 53 scholarship players or four defensive linemen or seven offensive linemen or one quarterback.
What makes it more confusing is a team can choose to play without having the minimum number of players, so it’s not a hard rule. Coach Wilcox didn’t want to play because so many players are affected and there is no one else to substitute in for the defensive linemen.
Feel free to email me (everyone, not just GoBears49) or DM me if you can't read a certain article: seriouslyrick@outlook.com or @seriouslyrick on Twitter
The main takeaway is negative tests aren't a get-out-of-quarantine-free card. Jon Wilner asked the city a hypothetical: If someone tests negative every day for 13 days while in quarantine, do they still have to quarantine for the 14th day? The answer is yes because of CDC definitions of close contact and quarantine recommendations.
Another notable thing: Some Pac-12 sources believe processes on the West Coast are more stringent than other regions in the country because of how Covid-19 has been politicized.
You're right: The university and the football program are not happy about the city's requirements. On a call with reporters late last week, Coach Wilcox expressed frustration that Covid-19 protocols are so different across the country.
Coach Wilcox also expressed disappointment about the close contact that required the self-quarantine because the university's protocols and training set up was created with input from the city's public health guidelines. For example, players are set up more than six feet (CDC defines close contact as within six feet for more than 15 minutes) apart. It appears Cal tried to do everything right to protect their players' health and limit the spread of Covid-19.
Written waivers won’t work because the city public health officials are following CDC guidelines for close contact and self-quarantine. It’s obvious the Cal athletes and coaches want to continue and play, but it’s not a question about avoiding liability. Public health and avoiding the spread of Covid-19 is the No. 1 concern of the city health department.
What the university will insist (and it’s Cal —not the football program—that communicates with the city) is that they followed CDC and city public health guidelines on-site in how they set up practices and meetings. The university is likely arguing that the steps they took were put together and implemented with the guidance of the city and other public health guidelines to avoid “close contact,” and thus, the negative players shouldn’t be affected by contact tracing and it’s required self-quarantine
As we reported, Cal certainly is governed by the most guidelines of any other football program: university, city, county, state and conference.
Fortunately, most of the guidelines and protocols are similar because they all have the same goal. Everyone wants to limit the spread of Covid-19 among student-athletes and their respective communities.
As a result, I think the required self-quarantine is fair. The city is using CDC guidelines and public health best practices to inform their work and their decision-making isn’t arbitrary.
Now, if you were a Washington fan, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking the Berkeley city requirements are unfair. After all, they had zero reported positive tests and still lost a game from their season.
Cal and the conference is not the reason why the position group is in quarantine. The reason is local public health authorities are enforcing a 14 day quarantine on close contact even if you repeatedly test negative after close contact. It's overkill in my opinion and is completely overregulated/overreaching and may put the ASU game in danger if that group can't travel.
That's because there's a nontrivial chance of false negatives for those repeated tests (primarily if the viral titer is still below the threshold of detection during the test days).
There's no point in speculating about which player tested positive. For all we know the player could have caught it volunteering at a food bank. There's no need for cal fans to get angry at the player for catching Covid. Lets just hope the player is safe and that this ends up as a teachable moment.
Watching Oregon Stanford game right now. So sad there is no Cal game today, especially a much anticipated Huskies game. :(
Heartbreaking defeat for ASU. Led all game only to have the Trojans score two TD's in a 92 second span.
It’s so sad seeing Wilcox’s statement...the program felt
like they took all the necessary steps only to be stopped
by the city. I hope this doesn’t plant a seed that leads to him looking elsewhere
If Berkeley guidelines are in place, basketball games will be even more difficult to play since the number of players are so small to begin with.
Full disclosure: A comment here from SpecSlayer was deleted. We will not tolerate any speculation on a particular player without any official reporting. This also crosses lines in players' personal health privacy. Feel free to discuss anything that's officially reported such as Wilner reporting it was the DL group, but not make comments on specific players. Thanks.
Somehow, I knew all along that the City of Berkeley would find a way to F this up. The only reason the Pac12 was able to schedule a season is that they were able to guarantee daily rapid tests for players. Any positive player is given the more accurate PCR test to confirm the result, and he can be quarantined from the rest of the team.
None of the players contract traced to the player in question has tested positive after several days. Rather than rely on the safety of all the test results, some bureaucratic functionary with a public health degree thinks s/he knows better than every professional team, college administration, state, and municipality in the country. There is absolutely no rational basis for one positive test on a roster to shut down a whole program, especially for 14 days! Maybe we need to change the saying to "Because Berkeley."
The 14-day quarantine is required because it’s currently believed Covid-19 has a 14-day incubation period
So that means we can't play next Saturday either. It's still within 14 days.
But if a player doesn't test positive, he can't be shedding the virus and is not contagious. Moreover, that hasn't stopped countless other professional and college teams with multiple positive tests from continuing to practice and play. This was ONE positive test, and daily tests continue to confirm no other positives among players and coaches.
Tests aren't an absolute flawless method.
Someone can test negative while having a viral load that is under the limit of detection. After time, the virus will grow and reach a level that is high enough to be detected and high enough to trigger illness, spread, etc.
Just hope we will be able to play at ASU next Saturday...I figured it might be a position group as that's the way the team is working out, with a focus on position groups.
So, the dagger is EVEN if we have the bodies to play at ASU, we'll be way behind the blue and gold eight ball in terms of game-prep and practice time. What a pisser...I mean, the unique nature of Berkeley makes Cal what it is, although athletics is the relative exception.
Something is weird here. FBS allows 85 scholarships. Cal is at the 85 limit. That means that the position group that would bring our scholarship numbers below 53 would need to account for 22 to 23 players. What position group do we have that has that many players. The O-line has 18 players and WR's and DB's are at 17. It would have to be one of those groups but we would still have more than 53 available to play. Perhaps because the entire position group was quarantined the PAC12 recognized the issue and abandoned the game, but however it happened it has not been reported correctly.
https://calbears.com/sports/football/roster
https://cal.rivals.com/news/updated-cal-football-scholarship-chart
You need at least four defensive lineman or seven offensive lineman or one quarterback.
We updated the story based on Jon Wilner from The Mercury News' reporting (tweet above) that the position group in quarantine is the defensive line.
Ah!! Thanks Rick. So, irrespective of the 53 scholarship rule you need a minimum number of a certain position group to be eligible to play. Now that makes much more sense. I've seen this reported elsewhere and I thought the original source may have been told something incorrect. It's not a big deal, it was just puzzling. You have answered my question!
It’s odd because it’s a bunch of OR statements. You “can’t” have fewer than 53 scholarship players or four defensive linemen or seven offensive linemen or one quarterback.
What makes it more confusing is a team can choose to play without having the minimum number of players, so it’s not a hard rule. Coach Wilcox didn’t want to play because so many players are affected and there is no one else to substitute in for the defensive linemen.
Gotcha. Thanks again.
Feel free to email me (everyone, not just GoBears49) or DM me if you can't read a certain article: seriouslyrick@outlook.com or @seriouslyrick on Twitter
The main takeaway is negative tests aren't a get-out-of-quarantine-free card. Jon Wilner asked the city a hypothetical: If someone tests negative every day for 13 days while in quarantine, do they still have to quarantine for the 14th day? The answer is yes because of CDC definitions of close contact and quarantine recommendations.
Another notable thing: Some Pac-12 sources believe processes on the West Coast are more stringent than other regions in the country because of how Covid-19 has been politicized.
You're right: The university and the football program are not happy about the city's requirements. On a call with reporters late last week, Coach Wilcox expressed frustration that Covid-19 protocols are so different across the country.
Coach Wilcox also expressed disappointment about the close contact that required the self-quarantine because the university's protocols and training set up was created with input from the city's public health guidelines. For example, players are set up more than six feet (CDC defines close contact as within six feet for more than 15 minutes) apart. It appears Cal tried to do everything right to protect their players' health and limit the spread of Covid-19.
Written waivers won’t work because the city public health officials are following CDC guidelines for close contact and self-quarantine. It’s obvious the Cal athletes and coaches want to continue and play, but it’s not a question about avoiding liability. Public health and avoiding the spread of Covid-19 is the No. 1 concern of the city health department.
What the university will insist (and it’s Cal —not the football program—that communicates with the city) is that they followed CDC and city public health guidelines on-site in how they set up practices and meetings. The university is likely arguing that the steps they took were put together and implemented with the guidance of the city and other public health guidelines to avoid “close contact,” and thus, the negative players shouldn’t be affected by contact tracing and it’s required self-quarantine
As we reported, Cal certainly is governed by the most guidelines of any other football program: university, city, county, state and conference.
Fortunately, most of the guidelines and protocols are similar because they all have the same goal. Everyone wants to limit the spread of Covid-19 among student-athletes and their respective communities.
As a result, I think the required self-quarantine is fair. The city is using CDC guidelines and public health best practices to inform their work and their decision-making isn’t arbitrary.
Now, if you were a Washington fan, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking the Berkeley city requirements are unfair. After all, they had zero reported positive tests and still lost a game from their season.
Cal and the conference is not the reason why the position group is in quarantine. The reason is local public health authorities are enforcing a 14 day quarantine on close contact even if you repeatedly test negative after close contact. It's overkill in my opinion and is completely overregulated/overreaching and may put the ASU game in danger if that group can't travel.
That's because there's a nontrivial chance of false negatives for those repeated tests (primarily if the viral titer is still below the threshold of detection during the test days).
There's no point in speculating about which player tested positive. For all we know the player could have caught it volunteering at a food bank. There's no need for cal fans to get angry at the player for catching Covid. Lets just hope the player is safe and that this ends up as a teachable moment.
No kidding? ;-)