COVID problems cause more weekend cancellations

The American Athletic Conference has postponed the Tulsa at Navy game scheduled for Saturday because of positive COVID-19 cases and contact tracing at Navy.

The schools and conference made the announcement Thursday. It’s the fourth FBS game this week and the 41st since Aug. 26 to be postponed or canceled. Earlier this week, Conference USA rescheduled seven games that have been postponed for mid-December.

A makeup date has not been announced. Tulsa and Navy do not share a common open date the rest of the season, so the conference will “consider a number of options with regard to the playing of the contest.”

This is the fourth time that a Tulsa game has been postponed or canceled because of COVID cases. Tulsa’s game against Oklahoma State was pushed back a week to Sept. 19 because Tulsa had COVID issues. The Golden Hurricane were supposed to play Arkansas State on Sept. 26, but the Red Wolves couldn’t put a two- deep lineup together. That game has not been rescheduled. Tulsa was set to play Cincinnati last month, but the Bearcats said they couldn’t play, and the game was moved to Dec. 5.

• Air Force and Army will not play their annual game as scheduled this weekend because of the impact of COVID-19 on the Falcons, multiple outlets reported. The game was set to be played in West Point, New York.

On the season, Army is 6-1, playing an easier schedule than normal as its regular slate of games was overhauled due to COVID-19. Air Force, a member of the Mountain West Conference, is 1-2.

• The Saturday game between host North Texas and Louisiana Tech was postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the North Texas program. The game will be rescheduled for the weekend of Dec. 5, according to officials from both schools. FOX PREGAME CREWSUBBED OVER COVID-19 CONCERNS >> Fox Sports announced that the network’s normal pregame show analysts — Urban Meyer, Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and Brady Quinn — will be held out of Saturday’s broadcast, with the New York Post reporting that the reason is related to COVID-19 concerns.

Per the Post report, the show’s analysts and host Rob Stone will be shelved for this weekend’s show leading into the Arizona State-USC morning game in Los Angeles because of quarantine protocols.

Instead of the usual group, the network will feature host Charissa Thompson along with analysts Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Emmanuel Acho. Bradshaw and Long are longtime members of the network’s Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, on which Thompson is an occasional reporter. Acho participates on the daily “Speak For Yourself” show on Fox Sports 1.

In addition to the cast change, Fox announced that this week’s pregame program will be shortened from the normal two-hour format to one hour, starting at 8 a.m. before the 9 a.m. kickoff at the Los Angeles Coliseum.