Houston‘s upcoming game with SMU has been postponed for a second time because of COVID-19 issues, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
The game, which was originally to be played on Nov. 21, was postponed to Dec. 5 when COVID-19 issues within Houston’s program caused the game to be delayed. This time, it’s COVID-19 issues within SMU’s program that are preventing the game from being played.
SMU didn’t have any positive tests on the team, but contact tracing knocked out entire position groups with more than 20 players sidelined, a source said.
It’s unclear at this point whether the game can be made up.
Houston has a game scheduled with Memphis on Dec. 12 (which was originally postponed from Sept. 18) and is tentatively set to play Tulsa on Dec. 19, only if Tulsa is not a participant in the American Athletic Conference championship game. Should Tulsa play in the league title game, it would be possible for Houston and SMU to meet on Dec. 19.
This is the third consecutive Houston game to be postponed or canceled because of COVID-19 issues. The Cougars last played on Nov. 14. This is the eighth time that Houston has had a game has impacted by COVID-19; the Cougars lost their entire September slate of opponents because of virus-related issues.
Before the Houston postponements, SMU had only one COVID-19 cancellation this season, its Sept. 12 nonconference game against rival TCU. This is the first time the Mustangs have had to cancel a game because of virus-related issues in their program.
The Houston Chronicle first reported the cancellation.
ESPN’s Dave Wilson contributed to this report.