Florida & Florida State Cancel Games Due To Hurricane Irma; State’s Other Teams Also Affected

Miami Won’t Travel To Arkansas State

Hurricane Irma has caused schools in Florida to alter their college football plans for this weekend.

Here’s a rundown of affected games.

• A day after moving up the kickoff time from night to noon, the Florida Gators on Thursday canceled their game against Northern Colorado. “There is a tremendous amount of stress currently on the roads of the state, and the availability of gas, water and other supplies are at critical levels,” Athletic Director Scott Stricklin stated in a statement. “Playing a college football game Saturday would only add to that stress.”

• The Florida State Seminoles followed the Gators’ path, first moving up the time of the kickoff and then canceling its game against Louisiana-Monroe in Tallahassee

• The Miami Hurricanes, which play at Arkansas State, have canceled that game over concerns about returning to Miami after the storm.

• Central Florida, located in Orlando, has moved its game with Memphis up to Friday night from its originally scheduled Saturday night.

• Florida International University’s Saturday night home game with Alcorn State has been postponed. FIU is located in Miami.

• Florida Atlantic will play its game at Wisconsin as scheduled. The team is due to arrive in Madison on Friday night.

Earlier this week, the NFL rescheduled the Miami Dolphins-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game to November when both teams have a bye week.

Hurricane Irma, which has devastated islands in the Caribbean, is projected to reach southern Florida on Saturday morning at 8 a.m., at a Category 4 storm with winds reaching 145 mph. From there its projected path is primarily up the eastern coast, tho the entire state will be affected by rain and heavy winds.

As it crawls up the state, it’s expected to be down to a Category 3 – but still with winds of 120 mph – reaching into Gainesville (University of Florida) and Tallahassee (Florida State) Sunday night or Monday morning.

One reason beyond impact of games that school officials looked at was people’s ability to get to and out of the college towns, as well as emergency crews, which will be deployed elsewhere to deal with the hurricane.

If Miami is really hit hard by Irma, then the Florida State-Miami game currently set for Sept. 16, could be rescheduled. The Hurricanes play in Hard Rock Stadium, which is northwest of downtown Miami, east of Ft. Lauderdale, the same venue as the NFL’s Dolphins.

That will not be decided until next week.