All Houston athletics events have been canceled for this upcoming weekend, the Cougars announced Tuesday, which includes UH’s scheduled football opener at UTSA on Saturday.
The Houston-UTSA game was scheduled to be played in San Antonio. While the game could have logistically been played -- there has been no reported damage to San Antonio’s Alamodome -- it is certainly understandable why the Coogs opted to focus on more pressing matters as the city of Houston deals with the aftermath of a once-every-500 years flooding event.
“Everyone in our university community, including our student-athletes, coaches and their staff, has been impacted by this incredible storm. This is a time for all of us to focus on the wellbeing of our families and neighbors and the recovery of the Houston area,” UH president Renu Khator said in a statement. “We’ll be excited to resume athletic competition, but right now our student-athletes are anxious to contribute to getting the city we love so much back on its feet again.”
“As families across Southeast and South Central Texas struggle with the catastrophic flooding and impact of the storm, our focus must be on how we all can help,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. “In lieu of this weekend’s game, I urge Roadrunners, the San Antonio community and all Texans to support recovery efforts in Houston and across the region, including donating to disaster relief efforts.”
With the cancellation, Houston will now open its season at Arizona on Sept. 9. (Rice is also on the road on Sept. 9, meaning both the Coogs’ and the Owls’ first home games will come, fittingly, against each other on Sept. 16.) UTSA will now open Sept. 9 at Baylor.
The announcement stated that the two sides will attempt to reschedule the game, but the teams do not share a bye week. Houston is off on the weekend of Nov. 11, when UTSA plays a conference game against UAB. UTSA is off for the weekend of Sept. 30, when Houston plays an AAC game at Temple. Our Kevin McGuire notes that UTSA and UAB also share bye weeks, so it would technically be possible to play UTSA-UAB on Sept. 30 and move Houston-UTSA to the Coogs’ scheduled off week of Nov. 11, but the Alamodome is occupied that weekend by San Antonio’s annual Fall Home & Garden Show, which means such a reschedule would require finding a new stadium and asking three teams to give up their off weeks in an effort to get a non-conference game played.
This would leave only the weekend of Dec. 2 as open for both teams, assuming neither reaches their respective conference championship games.