Cal working towards return to play but need local sign off

The California Golden Bears are certainly working towards a return-to-play schedule for this fall’s eventual return to the football field, however, they’ll need local health officials to sign off on a plan to return to the fields, according to the Mercury News’ Jon Wilner.

Wilner pointed out that both Cal and Stanford are working to receive clearance for the return to the fields for full contact and full team practices. Los Angeles County permitted the return to play by basically informing USC and UCLA that they will not impose restrictions that are more severe than those of the state.

“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,” the health department said in a statement published by ESPN.

Santa Clara County has seen the San Francisco 49ers return to the practice field weeks ago but Stanford would need clearance after submitting a proposal to the public health department.

As far as Berkeley goes, Cal and the local officials are apparently making progress on raising the restrictions on size, according to Wilner as well.

State guidelines are strict against groups of no more than 12 and that obviously creates an issue for any team wanting to practice any kind of 11-on-11 or even 7-on-7 practices.

It’s still a developing story on whether or not Cal has a proposal to submit in the works and as such, we don’t know when the return to practice is viable, but we’ll continue to monitor.