The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at Baylor Bears football game has been postponed due to the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, both schools have announced.
The game, which was scheduled last month, was set to be played this weekend on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020 at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas.
“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.”
Louisiana Tech and Baylor first met on the gridiron in 1981 in Shreveport, La. In their most recent matchup in 1996, also in Shreveport, Baylor defeated Louisiana Tech 24-16 to extend their lead in the overall series to 5-1.
“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.”
Louisiana Tech is now scheduled to open their 2020 season on Saturday, Sept. 19 in a Conference USA contest on the road against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. Baylor, which is scheduled to be off on Sept. 19, now opens their schedule on Saturday, Sept. 26 at home against the Kansas Jayhawks.
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