Photo Credit: Harley Taylor
After N.C. State announced yesterday that all athletic activities have been temporarily halted due to a surge of COVID cases in their athletics programs, WRAL Sports Fan's Joe Giglio is reporting that Virginia Tech's season opener against the Wolfpack may be postponed two weeks.
NC State Athletics temporarily pauses all athletic-related activities.https://t.co/dHPTkhncLN
— NC State Athletics (@PackAthletics) August 24, 2020
Breaking News: NC State could delay football season opener; sources say coronavirus cases in football program https://t.co/gbDuzE9kjD
— WRALSportsFan (@WRALSportsFan) August 25, 2020
The report says that the game, currently scheduled for September 12th, could be postponed to September 26th which is the first bye week for both teams. The report also adds that there is a cluster of cases connected with an apartment complex in Raleigh where many freshman football players are living.
Contact tracing and mandatory self-quarantines that would follow in accordance with health officials and ACC policy could make fielding a full team difficult for the Wolfpack depending on the number who may have to.
If that were to happen, it would make Tech's September 19th game against rival Virginia their season opener and give Tech 10-straight games before a bye as currently scheduled. That would definitely not be an ideal setup though as we know, there are plenty of things that are unpredictable about the upcoming season anyway.
There's no doubt that this is a delicate situation with kickoff set for 18 days from today and plenty of unknowns given how it's unclear who and how many may have to go into quarantine. However, this is definitely a situation worth monitoring in the coming days.
8/26 Update
Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports is reporting that the Virginia Tech-N.C. State has indeed been postponed two weeks from September 12th to September 26th.
Sources: NC State’s opening game at Virginia Tech schedule for Sept. 12 has officially been moved. The teams will play on Sept. 26. Decision comes in the wake of NC State athletics taking a pause because of 22 new positive COVID cases in the atheltic department.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 26, 2020
If this is accurate, this would mean that as currently-scheduled, Virginia Tech will open the season against rival Virginia at Lane Stadium on September 19th. Additionally, Tech now has 10-straight weeks of games before having a bye week during the week of Thanksgiving.
We will have more as this story develops.