FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will have to wait two more weeks to play Texas.

The Arkansas-Texas football game originally scheduled for Saturday in Austin has been moved to Sept. 27 because of Hurricane Ike.

Both the Razorbacks and Longhorns have an open date Sept. 27, so it was a logical move, though Austin also is hosting a music festival that weekend and hotel rooms for fans might not be easy to secure.

The Arkansas-Texas game still will be played in Austin at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, but no kickoff time or television arrangements were announced Wednesday night.

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ABC originally was going to televise Saturday’s game.

Speculation about possibly moving the game began early this week and was confirmed by Wednesday night’s announcement by Arkansas and Texas.

“As we worked closely with the University of Texas to consider the options, the safety and welfare of the studentathletes, coaches and fans was everyone’s top priority,” Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said in a statement. “In considering all of the factors, both institutions felt that postponing the game was the appropriate course of action.

“ We appreciate the cooperation of the University of Texas and the various state and federal authorities in monitoring the situation and working together to make this decision.

“ With the decision time, we can now turn our focus to the safety and well-being of the citizens of Texas and others affected by Hurricane Ike.”

Texas Athletic Director De-Loss Dodds said in a news release that after monitoring the situation since Sunday, UT officials “feel confident this is the right thing to do” for all concerned.

“A football game becomes less important when you are dealing with the safety of the people of Texas,” Dodds said.

Moving Arkansas’ game against No. 8 Texas means the Razorbacks (2-0 ) will have an open date Saturday before playing their SEC opener against No. 11 Alabama on Sept. 20 at Fayetteville and won’t have an open date before playing No. 4 Florida on Oct. 4 at Fayetteville.

Texas will play a home game against Rice on Sept. 20 before facing Arkansas.

Arkansas is postponing a football game for the first time since the 2001 season.

All college games scheduled for Sept. 15, 2001, were canceled or postponed because of terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11.

Arkansas was scheduled to play North Texas on Sept. 15, and when another date for both teams couldn’t be worked out, the Razorbacks instead added Weber State to their schedule and beat the Wildcats 42-19 on Oct. 19, 2001.

Weber State had planned to play Carroll College — an NAIA school in Helena, Mont., that is the alma mater of Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino and his younger brother, Paul, the Razorbacks’ offensive coordinator — on Oct. 19, but then opted for Arkansas and a $ 275, 000 guarantee.

According to weather projections Wednesday, Ike will hit land as a Category 3 hurricane between Corpus Christi and Houston and move northwest toward Austin on Saturday as a tropical storm coinciding with the original time for the Arkansas-Texas game before its postponement.

Evacuees from the Texas Gulf Coast likely are headed to the Austin area, which also impacted the decision to postpone the game besides safety concerns for Saturday.

After practice Wednesday, but before announcement of the postponement, the Razorbacks had expressed the hope of playing Texas as scheduled.

“Everybody’s attitude is we want to play no matter what — rain, snow, sleet,” senior linebacker Elston Forte said. “We want to play.”

Senior defensive tackle Ernest Mitchell said the Razorbacks were aware Hurricane Ike could postpone the game, but hadn’t let it affect their preparations this week.

“We’re all ready to play and show what we’re about,” Mitchell said. “We’re working full steam ahead like we’re going to play. We’re not taking a day off or a down off.”

In other college football games affected by Hurricane Ike, TCU has moved its home game with Stanford from 6 p. m. to noon on Saturday and Houston has moved its home game with Air Force on Saturday to Dallas.