The future of the 2020 Rice Football season remains unclear. Here’s the latest on the Owls and the outlook for their schedule.
There has been a lot of buzz this weekend about the future of the 2020 Rice Football season, specifically the Owls’ October 3 game against Marshall.
When the news of Rice delaying practice came out on Sunday I told subscribers there was a high likelihood Rice would not be playing that game as scheduled. If Rice isn’t practicing, they’re not going to play football in four weeks’ time. That game, as well as the game against UAB, would be postponed.
On Monday evening, reports surfaced that Rice had indeed postponed their games against Marshall and UAB. In all likelihood, we’ll get to that scenario. And I can understand the angst in Hungtington, WV and Birmingham, AL. I believe both games will be postponed. It just hasn’t happened yet.
Per a source, Rice has not made any official changes to their 8-game schedule. The Owls will make an official decision on those games in the coming days.
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The “best case scenario” would be for Rice to postpone games against Marshall and UAB and slot one of those two teams into a game on Dec. 5, a weekend originally reserved for the conference championship game, but already noted as being flexible. UAB would be the preference there, allowing Rice to round out a complete West Division schedule. The Championship game would be played on Dec. 12.
The “worst case scenario” would be a complete cancelation of those games and the 2020 Rice football season. I do not believe Rice would have afforded themselves the opportunity to play football this fall after their scheduled bye week if there wasn’t a distinct possibility they could return to the field.
The method with which they’ve chosen to push back the decision is what seems to have drawn the most scorn. This weekend would have been an appropriate time to make a go or no-go decision on the season, but that can was kicked further down the road. We’ll see where it settles in a few more days.
