HOUSTON – The Baylor University football season opener against Louisiana Tech was postponed due to a rising number of coronavirus cases among student-athletes, Baylor officials announced in a statement Tuesday night.
The game was originally going to be played on Sept. 12 but now the two schools have “agreed to monitor dates throughout the season to potentially make up the game,” officials wrote in the statement.
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“We are incredibly disappointed to announce the postponement of our upcoming football game against Louisiana Tech,” said Baylor Director of Athletics Mack B. Rhoades. “However, in the interest of the health and wellness of our student-athletes, coaches, and staff, we are confident in this unfortunate but necessary course of action. To the Baylor and Louisiana Tech student-athletes and communities, we share in your disappointment and look ahead to resuming play.”
As of Tuesday night, there were 334 active cases of coronavirus among the Baylor Unversity community, according to the school’s COVID-19 dashboard.
“We are obviously very disappointed that we will not be able to open the season this weekend at Baylor,” said Louisiana Tech Director of Athletics Tommy McClelland. "However, with the number of recent positive COVID19 results and contact tracing, it is simply not possible. We would be putting our student-athletes at risk.
McClelland said that since Hurricane Laura, cases have spiked in the area.
“With 95 percent of our city losing power for days – even up to a week in many areas – our student-athletes were forced to find places to stay and some even had family from south Louisiana that came northward to stay with them. So many things that we were able to control for the month of August became out of our control, and I think the numbers prove that it took its toll,” McClelland said.