The FAMU vs Southern football game scheduled for September 12 in Baton Rouge, LA, could be the first casualty of the season. According to published reports in the New York Times and the Tallahassee Democrat, yesterday, the game was cancelled by Southern because of safety precautions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"From my understanding, Southern is not playing for the first couple of weeks. Our trip to Baton Rouge is canceled. Right now, we're in conversations about replacing the game," FAMU Athletic Director Kortne Gosha told the Democrat.
Gosha said, FAMU is looking to add another HBCU opponent to its schedule for the 2020 season. The location is being discussed by administrators and coaches. This includes conversations about a home-and-home series.
According to the Times, the Jaguars’ will cancel is first two games: a neutral-site game in Detroit on Sept. 5 between the Jaguars and Tennessee State and the Jaguars' home opener Sept. 12 vs. FAMU. However, Southern AD Roman Banks told the Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper yesterday, that the cancellations have not been finalized yet.
Complicating matters even worst, yesterday Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN in an interview that football players would need to be placed in a "bubble" environment, isolated from others, for a season to be successfully staged this fall and winter amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
"Unless players are essentially in a bubble --- insulated from the community and they are tested nearly everyday -- it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall," Fauci told the network. "If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flue season, football may not happen this year.
Last year's FAMU v Souther football game dry more than 27,000 fans to Bragg Stadium, the largest non-homecoming attendance on record. FAMU will join Southern as member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference in 2021.
Update: At 6 p.m. EST, Friday, June 19, Southern University released a "revised" football schedule dropping their first two games. The Jaguars will now begin their season on September 19, 2020.
Complicating matters even worst, yesterday Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN in an interview that football players would need to be placed in a "bubble" environment, isolated from others, for a season to be successfully staged this fall and winter amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
"Unless players are essentially in a bubble --- insulated from the community and they are tested nearly everyday -- it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall," Fauci told the network. "If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flue season, football may not happen this year.
Last year's FAMU v Souther football game dry more than 27,000 fans to Bragg Stadium, the largest non-homecoming attendance on record. FAMU will join Southern as member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference in 2021.
Update: At 6 p.m. EST, Friday, June 19, Southern University released a "revised" football schedule dropping their first two games. The Jaguars will now begin their season on September 19, 2020.