After announcing the cancellation of its 2020 contest with Florida A&M, Southern University announced Friday a revised 2020 schedule that slates the Jaguars to start their season Saturday, Sept. 19.
“First and foremost, we are committed to and 100 percent focused on the safety, health and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and supporters,” said Athletic Director Roman Banks in the release. “Pushing our start date back to mid-September gives our coaches more time to get student-athletes acclimated and assess and focus on their appropriate physical conditioning after such a long, unprecedented period with no supervised work-outs. A later start will also help accommodate a later-than-usual initial reporting date for football due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the preparations that our campus is making in anticipation of a return to in-person instruction this fall.”
Southern will now open its season at Alabama A&M on Saturday, Sept. 19, with the first home game at Ace W. Mumford Stadium in Baton Rouge against Jackson State a week later. The September 5 contest with Tennessee State at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, will either be postponed or canceled.
The Jaguars will then be away from home until Saturday, Oct. 17, following an Oct. 3 bye and Oct. 10 contest at Alabama State. Three of the remaining four home tilts will be played on consecutive weeks, with Alcorn State (Oct. 24) and Florida Memorial University (Oct. 31) following a visit from Texas Southern (Oct. 17; previously scheduled to be played in Dallas, Texas).
Southern was previously scheduled to host Morehouse on Oct. 31, but as previously mentioned, will now be hosting Florida Memorial on that date. The Morehouse contest will either be postponed to another season or canceled.
The final home game for Southern will be against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday, Nov. 14. Trips to Prairie View A&M (Nov. 7) and the Bayou Classic in New Orleans against Grambling (Nov. 28) will bring to a close the nine-game slate.
Football Schedules
Southern – 9 Game Slate, that should be the headline. I sure hope COVID does not make this a trend, but I suspect it could be.