COVID-19 forces UH-Baylor football game to be canceled

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston Cougars' first football game of the season will no longer be against Baylor, which has canceled the matchup due to "COVID-related issues."

University of Houston's athletics department announced the cancellation Friday, just a day before the Cougars were due to play the Big 12 program in Waco.

The two schools added this game to their slate just a week ago.

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The Coogs' House will host only a quarter of its fans as more college programs figure out how they'll play in a pandemic.

"Baylor contacted us Friday afternoon and determined that Saturday's game could not be played due to COVID-related issues," said UH Vice President for Athletics Chris Pezman. "We're extremely disappointed for our student-athletes, coaches and staff. They all have consistently done the right thing and worked tirelessly to be prepared for this game. We appreciate their dedication to adhering to not only the American's testing protocols, but the Big 12's as well. With our student-athletes' commitment to doing the right thing, we remain ready to play."

The game was to be played before a limited capacity.

UH will now have another opponent set as their first of the 2020 season. The Cougars debut the season at home against North Texas next Saturday.

It's been a scheduling roller-coaster for the Cougars program. Houston was originally tabbed to take on cross-town rival Rice Owls on Sept. 3 before that was postponed by Rice.

Houston's Sept. 12 matchup against another Cougars team, Washington State, was canceled after the Pac-12 postponed the season for all of its teams.

Then, UH's original conference opener, which was a Sept. 18 contest with Memphis, was postponed after a reported outbreak on the Tigers team.