Baylor Football's season opener against Louisiana Tech has been postponed after Louisiana Tech saw an increase in COVID-19 cases following Hurricane Laura.
Baylor-Louisiana Tech Season Opener Postponed
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Kickoff was initially set for 11 a.m. CT on Saturday, September 12 at McLane Stadium.
Both teams have agreed to monitor dates throughout the season to potentially makeup the game.
"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."
"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.
"It is obvious that the impact of Hurricane Laura in our community a few weeks ago really sparked our significant increase in numbers. 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.
"The days leading up to this outbreak, we had a stretch of three weeks with only one positive case. So the protocols we had in place were working prior to Hurricane Laura."
Adjusted game dates and times will be communicated to original ticket holders via email as more information is released.
This article was written by Sydney Isenberg forKXXV.