DENVER – Following a recent change in conference affiliation, the WAC released an updated 2022 football schedule on Thursday, immediately altering Sam Houston's slate for this year.
 
Sam Houston is in its second and final year with the WAC and is currently in its first year of transitioning to the FBS level. The Bearkats will officially join Conference USA on July 1, 2023.
 
The 2022 schedule had been intact until UIW withdrew its commitment to join in the league in late June. This week Lamar University announced its intentions to immediately withdraw from the WAC and rejoin the Southland Conference in all sports for the 2022-23 athletic season.
 
"College sports are an ever-changing landscape, and we have been effected by that change in recent weeks," SHSU Director of Athletics Bobby Williams said.
 
On the gridiron, the Bearkats' non-conference schedule remained unaffected, but the Kats did have a pair of games altered against current WAC opponents.
 
The Kats' game vs Abilene Christian, originally scheduled for October 8 at Bowers Stadium, has now been pushed back to November 12. Additionally, the game at Utah Tech originally scheduled for November 5 has now been moved to October 22 in St. George, Utah.
 
"At Sam Houston, every decision we make centers around the student-athlete experience, and changes such as what we are experiencing now only hurts our goal of enhancing that experience," Williams said.
 
"The difficult part of this current process is many of these changes are not in our control, so as a department we are working to make the best decisions that we can for Sam Houston moving forward."