Well, that didn’t take long.
After opening the season with a 16-7 loss at Oklahoma State on Sept. 19, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane were looking forward to a little easier test at Arkansas State this past Saturday, however, it wasn’t to be.
The football game scheduled for Sept. 26 in Jonesboro, Ark., was postponed due to Arkansas State’s stated inability to assemble a two-deep depth chart at one position group that would allow the game to be played safely.
It was the second week in a row that the Red Wolves had to postpone a game. They were scheduled to play Central Arkansas on Sept. 19, but that game has now been moved to Oct. 10.
Tulsa and ASU are working to find a new date to reschedule their game. However, the Red Wolves don’t appear to have an open date on the schedule the rest of the season. The only open date for Tulsa is Oct. 10, which would now conflict with ASU’s schedule.
A couple of Tulsa home games were canceled earlier in the season; against Toledo (Sept. 5) and Northwestern State (Sept. 19). Those games were not played because the opponents’ seasons were cancelled.
Tulsa is now set to play its American Athletic Conference opener at University of Central Florida, this Saturday, in Orlando. The Knights are ranked in the Top 15 in the polls. The game will kick off at 6:30 p.m. (CDT) and will air on ESPN2.
The Knights had their first game of the season against Florida International postponed, but since then, they’ve picked up a couple wins. UCF beat Georgia Tech, 49-21, and East Carolina, 51-28.
This game will be a tough challenge for Tulsa’s pass defense. Last week, against ECU, the Central Florida’s quarterback, Dillon Gabriel, completed 32 passes for 825 yards, and four touchdowns. Wide receiver, Marlon Williams, caught 23 of those passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns.
MLB POSTSEASON
Hold on to your baseball cap, the Major League Baseball postseason will have a much different look, than we’re used to.
MLB postseason play began this week with 16 of the 30 teams, eight in each league. In the past, only five teams from each league made it to the playoffs. In this pandemic affected sports world we live in, MLB has decided to play the best-of-three opening rounds, called the Wild-Card Series in home parks of the higher seeds. However, the final three rounds of the postseason will take place in neutral-site “bubble” locations, to minimize travel and eliminate the chances of a COVID outbreak that could derail the entire postseason. Reportedly, MLB would lose almost $1-Billion if the postseason were to be postponed.
The best-of-five Division Series rounds and the best-of-seven League Championship Series rounds will be played in “bubble” cities. The National League games will be played in Texas (Houston and Arlington) and the American League games will be played in California (Los Angeles and San Diego). The World Series will be played in Arlington, at Globe Life Field (Oct. 20-28).
What’s interesting, is MLB is considering allowing a limited number of tickets to be sold, for fans to attend the games in the bubble cities, while at the same time, the players involved, will be quarantined in their hotels between games, much like the NHL and NBA has done.
The Texas Rangers have been playing in their brand-new ballpark this season, but no fans have been allowed to attend. It would be very cool to be able to attend the NL Championship Series, or even the World Series in Arlington, even if the Rangers weren’t involved in the series.