There have been 21 NCAA football games postponed or canceled this season.
The three latest were announced Wednesday, with North Texas, Arkansas State and South Florida each announcing they wouldn’t be able to play this weekend.
North Texas’ press release said that the university in Denton, Texas, is working with the University of Houston to reschedule a game that was originally scheduled for Saturday. The game was postponed due to four members of the North Texas football team testing positive for COVID-19 this week. Those individuals are in isolation, while the number of people identified by contact tracing made it so North Texas couldn’t field a team.
"We knew that there would be challenges with COVID-19 this season and we were taking precautions to hopefully avoid this situation," North Texas director of athletics Wren Baker said in the release. “Our student-athlete health and safety is the priority in every decision we make and that is what this difficult decision is based on. We are hopeful we can resume safe activities soon."
Arkansas State’s announcement was similar, as the school in Jonesboro postponed Saturday’s game against Tulsa “due to being unable to assemble a two-deep depth chart at one position group that would allow the game to be played safely.”
"We are postponing our game against Tulsa because the amount of unavailable players at one specific position group doesn't allow for us to safely play the game," Arkansas State director of athletics Terry Mohajir said. "This is a result of a combination of positive tests on Monday and other players still displaying symptoms, as well as having time to safely reacclimate prior to the game. This decision is based on the ability to safely field a two-deep at the position group rather than the total number of players unavailable. We are taking all precautions as our student health and safety remains our first and foremost priority.
Arkansas State and Tulsa are working to reschedule the game, while Arkansas State will be able to resume practice this week despite not having a full roster. The Red Wolves are scheduled to open Sun Belt Conference play at Coastal Carolina on Oct. 3.
South Florida and Florida Atlantic came to a “joint agreement of the schools” to postpone Saturday’s game due to COVID-19.
"With the health and safety of our student-athletes and staff as well as mitigating the spread of the virus as our primary concern, given the outbreak among team members of our most recent opponent and subsequent contact tracing within our team, postponement of this Saturday's game at FAU is the right thing to do," USF vice president of athletics Michael Kelly said. "We were aware going into this season and have seen across the country that dealing with COVID-19 and taking the necessary precautions to mitigate its spread will present ongoing challenges. We are prepared to deal with those challenges and move forward in a safe manner. We will resume on-field team activities once our medical professionals are comfortable with us doing so and will work in good faith with FAU to identify a future date to reschedule the game."
The latest announcements make it six games this weekend impacted by COVID-19. Memphis at UTSA won’t be rescheduled, while Temple at Navy was postponed until Oct. 10, and Notre Dame at Wake Forest was rescheduled for Dec. 12.
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