MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The University of Memphis Athletics Department announced on Saturday, the Tigers have canceled its upcoming match-up against the University of Texas at San Antonio due to coronavirus cases at Memphis.
Memphis and UTSA were set to face-off on this coming Friday in a primetime game on ESPN. But, over the last couple of weeks, the Memphis Tigers have been battling COVID-19 within the program.
The Tigers paused football activities on Sept. 11 due to positive tests. Memphis director of athletics, Laird Veatch, said canceling this game was the right thing to do, considering the challenges the football program is facing during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“While we project our quarantine and isolation numbers to improve next week, we felt it was in the best interest of the health and safety of our student-athletes to make this decision now,” Veatch said. “This also allows UTSA the most flexibility to find a replacement opponent.”
Memphis is not rescheduling its match-up against UTSA but instead scheduled a new opponent. The Tigers will play host to Stephen F. Austin on Saturday, November 21.
This is the second game in a row the Memphis Tigers had to cancel due to coronavirus issues. Memphis originally was scheduled to play Houston on Sept. 18, but that game was canceled.
Now the Tigers are on an extended bye period hoping to play its next opponent which is SMU on Oct. 3.
