MEMPHIS, Tenn. — This Saturday's Memphis-Navy game has officially been postponed, the American Athletic Conference announced Tuesday afternoon.
The number of positive COVID-19 cases and ensuing contact tracing at the Naval Academy has not lowered to the point where the Midshipmen could resume football activities this afternoon.
"Right now, we're under the same guidelines," Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo said. "There are no football activities right now until further notice, so we're waiting to hear back from the medical people. But right now there are no football activities going on right now in the building."
The teams do not have a shared open date, but the conference is considering a number of options to get the game played. This marks the third postponement or cancellation for the Tigers since the season began. Memphis was hit with their own COVID-19 outbreak in September, resulting in the postponement of the Houston game and the cancellation of their contest against UTSA.
College football's COVID-19 problem is only worsening. Memphis-Navy is one of five games to be cancelled or postponed for this weekend. Ten games suffered the same fate last week; several of them being called Wednesday or Thursday.
The SEC has been hit particularly hard by the virus. Three of the conference's seven games scheduled for Saturday (Texas A&M-Tennesse, Alabama-LSU, and Auburn-Mississippi State) have been postponed due to outbreaks within the Texas A&M, LSU and Auburn programs.