California moves to raise the outdoor football practice limit to 75 student-athletes

The State of California has officially updated their health guidelines as it pertains to the limitations on group practices at the University level. Formerly, the number of participants in team events was limited to just 12 student-athletes. But now, those numbers are all the way up to 75.

The new guidelines read ‘if daily antigen testing is the adopted protocol, teams may train outdoors in groups of no more than 75.’ Thanks to the Pac-12’s partnership with Quidel, those daily tests will be made available.

Still, it’s not the only hurdle to get over before the UCLA Bruins can make it back onto the field, but it is seen as the last big one.

According to ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura, each local government for Stanford, Cal, USC and UCLA will still require their athletic departments to submit “written, facility-specific COVID-19 prevention plan at every facility, perform a comprehensive risk assessment of all work and athletic areas, and designate a person at each facility to implement the plan,” which was also written in the new guidelines.

That last bit will continued to be monitored, but as it stands now, the Bruins are closer than they’ve been in some time to getting back onto the practice field in a full team sense.