In this ESPN report from a week ago, there's no mention of the status of USC football players. Did they get the placebo?
-NW

USC-Cal football game postponed due to COVID-19 cases among Golden Bears
Kyle Bonagura
ESPN
Nov 9, 2021

[snip]

The USC-California football game scheduled for (LAST) Saturday has been postponed, Cal announced Tuesday.

"It was a difficult decision to postpone this Saturday's game against USC," Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton said in a statement. "We know how important every one of our games is to our student-athletes, especially our seniors who have been incredible representatives of the program, but it was the right thing to do.

"Due to additional impact on specific position groups, we have decided to postpone Saturday's game. We have had multiple COVID-19 positives within our program, and we are taking every step we can to mitigate the spread and protect the greater community."

The schools later agreed, and received Pac-12 approval, to reschedule the game for Dec. 4 -- a day after the conference title game. That follows the precedent set when the Big Game between Cal and Stanford was postponed in 2018, due to poor air quality.

Cal was undermanned for its game at Arizona on Saturday (NOV 6), with approximately 42 scholarship players in uniform after roughly two dozen tested positive during the week. The team, which has a 99% vaccination rate among players, experienced additional positive cases after the Arizona game, the school said...

[Here's the kicker posted at the end of the report (no pun intended)]

'Had a player refused to be tested, Knowlton said they would have not been permitted to play. The overwhelming majority of the players who tested positive are asymptomatic, sources told ESPN.'