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Saturday’s game between Rice and Louisiana Tech in Ruston, LA has been postponed due to COVID-19 related issues within Louisiana Tech’s program.
This marks the second-consecutive COVID-19 related postponement for both participating C-USA programs. In the previous week, Rice’s home game against UTSA as well as Louisiana Tech’s road trip to North Texas were called off due to COVID-19 issues. Both programs most recently took the field Oct. 31.
The C-USA has been severely affected by postponements this season, more than any other FBS conference. Four C-USA league games were postponed one week ago and two games this upcoming Saturday were postponed Thursday night (UAB vs. North Texas as the other). Of the 13 C-USA teams in action this season, only WKU has yet to experience a postponement or cancelation.
Rescheduling the game will be a challenge as the Owls’ current 6-game schedule is filled to capacity. Rice (1-1) recently rescheduled its postponed games against UAB and Marshall for Dec. 5 and Dec. 12, and the Owls do not have an open date on the calendar, except for the weekend of the C-USA Championship Game.
Head coach Mike Bloomgren expressed interest earlier in the week about scheduling a C-USA West opponent, specifically UTSA, in place of C-USA East frontrunner Marshall as the West division race remains up in the air.
“Marshall’s an opponent on the East. They’re probably not going to need the game at a current rate to reach the conference championship game,” Bloomgren said Tuesday, prior to the Louisiana Tech postponement. “We may have some people on the West who need to play to figure this thing out, so I hope we get that opportunity.”
Louisiana Tech (4-3) rescheduled its postponed game against North Texas for Thursday, Dec. 3 — the same weekend as Rice’s matchup with Marshall. The Bulldogs currently have one vacancy in the schedule — the weekend of Saturday, Dec. 12.
Rice is slated to take the field next Nov. 21 at North Texas, while Louisiana Tech’s ensuing game is a non-conference matchup with ULM that same Saturday.