NORTHWEST NOTES: July 31, 2020

Eastern Washington/Florida

football game canceled

A much-anticipated Eastern Washington football game at Florida was canceled as the result of the Southeastern Conference electing to not play nonconference games because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The SEC made the announcement Thursday and its members are now slated to begin a 10-game league-only schedule on Sept. 26.

The league joins the Pac-12 Conferences and other leagues in making the same determination. As a result, Eastern’s game at Florida will not be played as scheduled on Sept. 5.

Whether or not Florida will re-schedule the Eagles for a future date remains to be seen, but administrators from both schools are working closely together to determine the next steps.

“Florida has been a great partner throughout this process,” EWU Associate Vice President/Director of Athletics Lynn Hickey said. “We hope we can work something out, but it’s disappointing for EWU and our football program not to be able to play as scheduled on Sept. 5.”

The Big Sky Conference has yet to make a decision in going to the league-only format for football. Already, the league announced that the start of other sports will be delayed until Sept. 18 (Sept. 14 for women’s golf). Eastern’s other two nonconference football games are home games scheduled for Roos Field in Cheney against Western Illinois on Sept. 12 and Northern Arizona on Sept. 19.

The Eagles are scheduled to open Big Sky Conference play at Southern Utah on Sept. 26, followed by its conference home opener against Montana on Oct. 3.