Louisiana Tech’s season opener against Baylor scheduled for this Saturday has been postponed by the schools due to a rash of positive COVID-19 tests at Louisiana Tech.
“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 in a statement. “However, with the number of recent positive COVID-19 results and contact tracing, it is simply not possible. We would be putting our student-athletes at risk.”
McClelland said that the aftermath of Hurricane Laura in the region was a likely contributor to the spread of the virus among the team. Prior to the hurricane, the team had seen just one positive test in the previous three weeks.
“It is obvious that the impact of Hurricane Laura in our community a few weeks ago really sparked our significant increase in numbers,” McClelland said. “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.”
There isn’t a makeup date scheduled yet for the game but the two schools will try to find a date that works for both to eventually play the game.
Louisiana Tech will face Southern Miss on Sept. 19.
Baylor will host Kansas on Sept. 26.
Tulsa-Oklahoma State and TCU-SMU are also games originally scheduled for this weekend that have been postponed.
