News/Commentary

UPDATED: Houston at Baylor is 6th Game Wiped From This Week's Slate Due to Covid

September 18, 2020 by Staff

An announcement that the Houston-Baylor game scheduled for tomorrow is canceled due to Covid follows a development earlier on Friday that the FAU-Georgia Southern game was scratched.

Baylor had to cancel as a result of not meeting the Big 12 Conference COVID-19 game cancellation thresholds. This game was going to serve as the head coaching debut for Dave Aranda after Baylor's original season-opener that was scheduled against Louisiana Tech for September 12 was canceled because of a Covid breakout on the Bulldogs' campus in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura.

Baylor is scheduled to host Kansas next week, while Houston is slated to host North Texas.

The Houston-Baylor contest is the 6th game that had been scheduled for this week to be affected, joining FAU at Georgia Southern,  Charlotte at North Carolina, BYU at Army, Virginia at Virginia Tech, and Houston at Memphis.

The FAU-Georgia Southern cancelation was announced earlier on Friday when FAU said it would not be able to play. That school's announcement was short on details, but it had said earlier in the week that the need for Covid tracing issues could force this action to take place.

Charlotte announced yesterday (Thursday) the football game scheduled for this Saturday, Sept. 19, against North Carolina has been canceled. The decision was made due to the impact that contact tracing quarantine has had on a key position group. Several members of the offensive line were placed into quarantine following the University's COVID-19 contact tracing protocols, effectively depleting that unit.

Houston quickly scheduled a game at Baylor for this Saturday to replace the lost contest at Memphis.

Army attempted to replace BYU through a humorous tweet from Athletic Director Mike Buddie.

The Virginia-Virginia Tech game has been rescheduled for December 12. The ACC Championship game would be pushed back to December 19 if either, or both, were involved.

As for the specific issues at Charlotte, the school issued this statement on its athletics website,

"Over the past two weeks, there have been three positive cases of coronavirus in football student-athletes found through regular testing required by Conference USA. The individuals are in isolation receiving proper medical care, and all other affected individuals were notified to quarantine for 14 days by University contact tracers."

It went on to say, "As of Monday, Sept. 14, a total of 3,150 tests have been administered for our student-athletes, coaches and staff since June 10.  A total of 20 positive cases have been reported. On Monday, 200 tests were administered with one positive."

The school expects to be able to play its home opener and conference opener next Saturday, September 26, against Georgia State.