For the third week in-a-row, the University of North Texas' football team will be watching college football instead of playing due to the ongoing pandemic.
The school said Friday that Saturday's game against the University of Alabama at Birmingham was canceled "due to the number of COVID-19 cases and subsequent contact tracing within the UAB program."
"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," Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker said. "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."
The game is the third-straight that has been either canceled or postponed for the Mean Green.
"Our guys have been frustrated," head coach Seth Littrell told NBC 5 earlier this week. "We had plans to play the last two weeks and game plan and had good weeks of preparation but unfortunately you know weren't able to do so."
College Football
UNT was originally scheduled to play the University of Texas at El Paso on Oct. 31 but the game was postponed after a surge of COVID-19 cases hit the West Texas city. That game has since been rescheduled for Dec. 12.
Their Nov. 5 matchup against Louisiana Tech was postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak among the Mean Green and was rescheduled for Dec. 3.
UNT's Sept. 26 matchup against the University of Houston was also canceled due to the coronavirus.
Saturday's game against UAB is currently marked as canceled on North Texas' schedule, though UNT said there remains a possibility they may be able to reschedule the game.
The Mean Green are 2-3 on the year with wins against Houston Baptist University and Middle Tennessee and losses to SMU, Southern Miss and Charlotte.
UNT is currently scheduled to play Rice on Nov. 21 and UTSA on Nov. 28.
