Cal may be looking at not just a full 2-week shutdown, but also the cancellation of the game immediately following the 2-week period.
In the past, the Pac-12 has first updated its own
WBB schedule when it makes a decision to cancel games. Shortly thereafter, the word begins to filter out and then you will see teams and the news media begin to report cancellations. Look at the schedule now - not only is our Utah game on 1/17 cancelled but also the following games vs. USC and UCLA as well as the following road trip to Washington and WSU. The WSU game would be immediately beyond the 2-week period but that's what the Pac-12 did in the past with Oregon State (i.e. you can't have a program shut down for 2 weeks and then ask them to immediately begin playing in the next day or two).
The Pac-12 doesn't list our following two games vs. Utah and Colorado but again, this is a mistake that they've made in the past when they cancel games. For some reason they will sometimes cancel games and then obliterate the following games as well (omitting them entirely instead of showing them as either scheduled or postponed). So I wouldn't read anything into that, and would assume that if all is well we will play next at home vs. Utah on 2/5.
As for why they have already cancelled games for the 2-week period, that's a decision that they make based on the facts in each particular case. Sometimes if there's ambiguity and the caution is due to contact tracing, they will hold off and wait on further testing. But if it's obvious that a full program shutdown is required, then they'll cancel as far ahead as necessary. Our limited roster size may also be a factor leading to the full 2-week cancellation.
I hope we will not have any complications with our current travel back to Berkeley. And further I hope the above is all a clerical error and that we can indeed return vs. USC this Friday. But so far, I don't recall an instance where the Pac-12 issued a covid cancellation on its schedule only to rescind it later.
