Baylor-Houston matchup postponed for COVID-19 concerns

By Jordan Burgess

Share or Save for Later

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Save to Favorites

Baylor football's season opener against Houston has been cancelled due to COVID-19 protocols. The news was first reported by The Athletic.

The decision marks the third cancelled game for Baylor thus far, after season-opening matchups with Ole Miss and Louisiana Tech were both scrapped. While the game will officially be "postponed," the Big 12 mandated that all nonconference matchups had to be complete before conference play started on Sept. 26.

While the game will be cancelled, Baylor and Houston will maintain the future home-and-home that was previously dependent on Saturday's matchup being played.

"We are incredibly disappointed with the continued delay to the start of our season, and empathize with our student-athletes, fans, coaches and administrative staff," said Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades. "We look forward to a future home-and-home matchup."

According to SicEm365, the decision was made because Baylor would have been without a major position group due to contact tracing protocols. The university reported six active cases among student-athletes earlier this week, though another round of testing would have occurred on Friday.

This is the fourth game that Houston has lost so far due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cougars cancelled matchups with Rice and Washington State and postponed a matchup with conference foe Memphis.

The Baylor-Houston matchup was hurriedly agreed to one week ago after the Cougars lost the Memphis matchup and Baylor lost Louisiana Tech. However, the Bears will now not play a nonconference game in 2020.

This article is available to our Digital Subscribers.
Click "Subscribe Now" to see a list of subscription offers.
Already a Subscriber? Sign In to access this content.

Sign In
Don't Miss Any Exclusive Coverage!

We've been the Bible of Texas football fans for 64 years. By joining the DCTF family you'll gain access to all of our exclusive content and have our magazines mailed to you!