Both schools to begin season November 7
By Toi Creel
UCLA and USC football is set to kick off its season in a few weeks with no additional COVID-19 health and safety restrictions.
On October 3, USC announced its football schedule and will be kicking off a home game against Arizona State on November 7.
UCLA will also kick off a game on November 7 against the University of Colorado.
On Thursday, September 28, Pac 12 conference CEOs voted to reverse their original decision to postpone all Fall sports competition until 2021.
Originally, there was some concern that the universities would not be able to start with football due to COVID-19 guidelines, but the Los Angeles County Health Department confirmed it would not issue any additional health and safety restrictions in addition to California state mandates.
“We have not placed other local restrictions or requirements so that means as long as the institution is implementing its athletic program in compliance with all the guidelines within the state document (which also includes a requirement to adhere to all NCAA directives), it is permitted in Los Angeles County,” said representatives from the Health Department.
On Wednesday, September 16, athletic directors from both schools met with health officials on a video call to discuss how to navigate the games with new protocols.
That was following an announcement from California Governor Gavin Newsom who said there would not be preventative restrictions placed on Pac-12 that would discontinue or delay the football season.
Any further restrictions would have been determined by the county or the city. While many officials wanted to start in late October, there was also a question whether football players would have to undergo rapid Covid testing and the timeline that it would take for practice camp.
Players were able to move on with the restrictions.
