There won’t be a third attempt. Oklahoma’s game at West Virginia has officially been canceled, the Big 12 announced Thursday morning.

The game was initially postponed two weeks ago because of COVID-19/contact tracing issues within the Sooners program, and now it’s flipped. This time it’s WVU going through its own COVID-19 issues and has shut down its facilities for the next seven days.

The Sooners have already clinched a berth in next weekend’s Big 12 championship against Iowa State, but it was clear in talking to head coach Lincoln Riley and players this week that they were fired up about the chance to head to Morgantown.

“I think just for our football team, we need to play games,” said Riley on Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve had so many bye weeks. And obviously had one bye week that was completely unexpected, and it wasn’t a normal bye week.

“Again, having the facilities shut down that long in the middle of the season was a different deal. Just for us to play the quality of ball and to make the improvements that we need to make, we need to play. I’m excited that we have the opportunity to play.”

OU was without numerous members of its team because of COVID-19/contact tracing in last week’s 27-14 win vs. Baylor. But Riley was determined to have that game happen, and it shows just how good of a decision that has turned out to be.

Even though OU will only be 7-2 overall and 6-2 in the Big 12, nothing will change at all with its standing in taking on the seventh-ranked Cyclones again.

OU lost 37-30 in Ames earlier this season.