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Reports: UConn suspends football for the season

Mark Blaudschun of Sports Illustrated and Chris Vannini of The Athletic say UConn won’t be playing football this year, scheduled to be their first as an independent.

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Connecticut running back Dante Black carries the ball against Temple at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019. Temple won, 49-17. Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Mark Blaudschun of SI.com and formerly of the Dallas Morning News reports this morning that the Connecticut Huskies won’t be playing college football in 2020.

This was supposed to be the first season as a college football independent for UConn after leaving the American Conference for the Big East on June 30th. The move was made in the interests of basketball, the primary driver of revenue and fan interest for the school, but it left them with a lease at Rentschler Field that needed to be fulfilled by football.

The Huskies had a schedule of 12 games on the board, including Power Five opponents such as Ole Miss, North Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, and Virginia. When the Big Ten and ACC went to conference only schedules, and the FCS opponent Maine was canceled, they were left with just six games against fellow independents UMass, Liberty, and Army, and three other games with C-USA’s Old Dominion and Middle Tennessee State and the Mountain West’s San Jose State.

No official word yet out of Storrs, but it appears the Huskies will be the first full casualty of FBS this season, though the two New Mexico schools in the Bowl Subdivision might not be far behind.

Update 8:38 a.m. Chris Vannini of The Athletic confirms the original report.