Florida Atlantic-Georgia Southern football game postponed due to COVID-19

By Kevin Kelley -

The 2020 Florida Atlantic Owls at Georgia Southern Eagles football game has been postponed, both schools have announced.

The game, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020 at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Ga., was postponed due to contact tracing issues at Florida Atlantic amid the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Following results of Thursday’s COVID-19 testing, it was determined the Owls would be unable to play Saturday. The two schools are working to find a date to play later this season.

“FAU contacted me Monday night and indicated they might not be able to come to Statesboro for our game due to COVID-related reasons with their team,” Georgia Southern Director of Athletics Jared Benko said. “After completing additional testing and contact tracing, FAU contacted us again today to confirm they will not be playing tomorrow. We’re beyond disappointed we won’t be able to play this home game, but this is an evolving situation that changes week to week, day to day. We know first-hand how hard it is to play a game with a large number of players unavailable.”

The Georgia Southern game was scheduled to be the first contest of the season for Florida Atlantic. The Owls will now open the season on Saturday, Sept. 26 at home against the USF Bulls, provided they have enough players for that game.

Georgia Southern is 1-0 so far this season following a narrow 27-26 home victory over the Campbell Camels last Saturday. The Eagles are next slated to travel to take on the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns on Saturday, Sept. 26.

Georgia Southern and Florida Atlantic do not share a common open date where their game could be rescheduled. The two schools could play Saturday, Dec. 5 if the Conference USA Championship Game is moved back or if Florida Atlantic doesn’t qualify.

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