SMU at Texas State season opening game moved up one week to Aug. 29

DALLAS - Two Texas universities announced Monday they will play their season opening football game one week earlier than scheduled.

SMU at Texas State will now take place Saturday, August 29 instead of September 5. The schools received a waiver from their respective conferences to change the date.

The schools said they moved up the date to give their football programs added scheduling flexibility due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"With the season being permitted to start on August 29 as scheduled, this move will give us extra time between our first two home games to manage any variety of possible circumstances that may occur," said Texas State Athletic Director Larry Teis in a statement.

Some conferences, like the SEC and Big Ten, have slashed their schedules to conference-only and delayed the start of play to late September. Reports this weekend indicate that the American Athletic Conference, SMU’s conference, plans to make no changes to its schedule.

SMU and Texas State were allowed to begin fall practices on Monday due to the game being moved up one week.

Texas State said it will announced attendance capacity and social distancing rules later in the week.