UTEP-Texas Tech Football Game Is Officially Canceled
The college football landscape has been swirling and changing every day, and now the 2020 Texas Tech football schedule is finally starting to materialize.
The Big 12 announced that the conference will move to a conference-only schedule, with one non-conference game play set at the Big 12 team's home stadium.
Unfortunately, that axes the Red Raiders' final scheduled non-conference game against UTEP in El Paso, originally scheduled for September 5th, 2020.
UTEP Athletic Director Jim Senter released a statement about the cancellation:
UTEP is already on the schedule to head to Austin to play the Longhorns on September 19th. That game is expected to stay on the schedule for UT.
Even though the Big 12 did officially adopt a 9+1 approach to the upcoming season, they haven't nailed down a start date for Big 12 play, which could get adjusted.
The Big 12 said in a statement: "The start of Conference play will be solidified in the coming weeks, with an anticipated start sometime between mid- to late-September, with the expectation that non-conference games are contested prior to beginning league games."
“I would like to salute the work of our university presidents and chancellors, athletics directors, coaches, medical advisors and administrators who have worked tirelessly and collaboratively during these extraordinary times,” said Commissioner Bob Bowlsby in a Big 12 conference statement. “We believe this change provides the best opportunity going forward. However, we will undoubtedly need to be flexible as we progress through the season in order to combat the challenges that lie ahead.”
The Big 12 also specified that the model also gives the Conference "flexibility to move back the Dr Pepper Big 12 Championship game to December 12th or 19th."
If you have a printed out schedule for Texas Tech lying around, you can probably go ahead and throw that away. Even the conference schedule will likely be updated and changed in the next few weeks, and a non-conference game will be added to get the Red Raiders to 10 officially scheduled games.
You can also expect Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt and head coach Matt Wells to announce the Red Raiders' single non-conference home game opponent sometime in between August 19th and the end of September.
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