NFL, MLB schedules disrupted by Ike

HOUSTON, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The NFL announced Thursday it had postponed the scheduled game between Houston and Baltimore because of the approaching winds of Hurricane Ike.

The hurricane, which is expected to strike the Texas coast late Friday, also forced a disruption in the baseball pennant races and altered starting times for college football games as far north as Stillwater, Okla.

Houston had been scheduled to play its home opener against the Ravens at 3:15 p.m. CDT Sunday. That game will now be played on Monday night, beginning at 7:30 p.m. local time.

The Houston Astros also said the first two games of their weekend series with the Chicago Cubs would be postponed. Chicago is trying to hold onto its lead in the National League Central and Houston is making a late bid for a wild card berth.

No makeup date was immediately announced for the baseball games that were to have been played on Friday and Saturday.

It had been announced on Wednesday that Saturday's college football game between Houston and Air Force would be moved to Dallas and that the Texas-Arkansas game originally scheduled in Austin for Saturday would be postponed until Sept. 27.

The Baylor-Washington State contest set for Saturday in Waco will now be played at 11:30 a.m. CDT on Friday and TCU moved the start of its game in Fort Worth ahead six hours to noon on Saturday.

Oklahoma State, which was scheduled to play Missouri State at 6:05 p.m. Saturday, will kick off that contest at 12:05 p.m.

The football game scheduled in Lake Charles, La., between McNeese and Cal Poly was canceled, as was the contest between Sam Houston State and Prairie View A&M in Huntsville, Texas.