North Texas football team's game at UAB canceled due to coronavirus concerns at UAB

“We are disappointed for our student-athletes that we won’t be playing our football game Saturday at UAB, especially since we were finally healthy and excited to get back to playing,” UNT athletic director Wren Baker said in a statement announcing the decision. “We understand the situation that UAB is in and we know that they are making this decision based on the health and safety of their student-athletes. We appreciate the communication with UAB and we look forward to hosting Rice next weekend.”

UNT has now had five games either canceled or postponed, matching the number of games it has played. School officials knew heading into the week they had no wiggle room left to reschedule games.

The Mean Green’s games the last two weeks against UTEP and Louisiana Tech were both postponed and rescheduled for early December. Conference USA opened up the first two weeks of the month for games to be rescheduled by pushing its title game back from Dec. 5 to Dec. 18.

UNT has already filled those two open weeks. The Mean Green will play Louisiana Tech at home on Dec. 3 and travel to UTEP on Dec. 12.

The school is out of open dates to reschedule games.

UNT’s latest cancellation came just two days after head coach Seth Littrell expressed confidence that the Mean Green would play this weekend.

UNT has not played since knocking off Middle Tennessee State University on Oct. 17 to move to 2-3 on the season.

“I feel confident we will play this week,” Littrell said. “Sunday’s test results came back. We feel good about it.”

Unfortunately for UNT, UAB had enough cases crop up in its last round of tests that the Blazers were unable to play.

UAB athletic director Mark Ingram also issued a statement and said the school’s main concern is the health and safety of its players and coaches.

“These are unprecedented times and we appreciate the patience of our fan base as we navigate this situation together,” Ingram said.

The next game on UNT’s slate is a home game against Rice on Nov. 21. The Mean Green will have been off for 34 days by the time it faces the Owls, assuming the teams are able to play.

Seeing another game postponed was a tough blow for UNT considering it had contained infections within its program to the point it was confident it would be able to play this week.

“Everyone is just ready to get back on the field,” UNT linebacker KD Davis said earlier this week.

Davis and his teammates have now seen three games wiped off their schedule since this summer and another two postponed.

UNT’s game at Texas A&M on Sept. 12 was called off when the Southeastern Conference went to a 10-game, conference-only schedule. The Mean Green’s game at Houston on Sept. 26 was later canceled due to a coronavirus outbreak among their players.

UNT officials were uncomfortable with sending their players and coaches to El Paso, where cases were spiking, for a game against UTEP on Oct. 31, leading to that game being postponed.

The Mean Green’s homecoming game against Louisiana Tech last weekend was postponed due to another outbreak of coronavirus cases within UNT’s program.

UNT had 30 active coronavirus cases across its entire athletics program following a round of testing conducted last week. School officials said those cases would not have precluded the Mean Green from playing at UAB.

Losing its game at UAB leaves the Mean Green with just four games this season. The Mean Green are scheduled to travel to UTSA on Nov. 28 in addition to its games against Rice, Louisiana Tech and UTEP.

Littrell has consistently praised UNT’s efforts to contain the virus since the school’s athletes began returning to campus in June. UNT began testing all of its athletes, coaches and staff immediately upon their return and established social distancing measures.

UNT is following C-USA testing standards that call for football players to be tested three times per week.

Littrell said his players and coaches have been careful during a spike in cases across UNT’s athletics department.

“We’ve got to minimize it as much as possible by doing the things you can control with washing your hands, social distancing and wearing masks,” Littrell said. “Sometimes it’s going to hit you even though you are doing everything possible.”

That was the case on Thursday, when UNT had a third game canceled due to a pandemic that has continued to impact the sports world.