The threat of Hurricane Ian caused several sporting events from Florida to South Carolina to make new plans Tuesday.
South Carolina moved up its Week 5 college football game against visiting South Carolina State from Saturday at noon ET to Thursday night at 7 p.m. ET.
“Due to the potential impact of the hurricane on Columbia and the surrounding area, it is in the best interest of safety to play the game on Thursday rather than Saturday afternoon,” South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner said in a statement. “I appreciate the cooperation of South Carolina State head coach Buddy Pough, the South Carolina State administration and the Southeastern Conference officials who worked closely to make the appropriate operational adjustments in order to accommodate this change in the schedule.”
Florida rescheduled its Saturday game against Eastern Washington to Sunday at noon in Gainesville, Fla.
South Florida and East Carolina were scheduled to play at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Saturday night. Instead, they will play in Boca Raton, Fla. at the home field of FAU, which has a road game at North Texas, at 2:30 Saturday.
Later Tuesday, UCF announced its home game against SMU, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Orlando, would instead kick off Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
Other college football games in the region are monitoring the situation. No. 23 Florida State and No. 22 Wake Forest are scheduled to meet Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET in Tallahassee, while No. 10 North Carolina State plays at No. 5 Clemson on Saturday night.
As of Tuesday, Hurricane Ian was a Category 3 hurricane moving north from Cuba toward Florida. Storm modeling projected winds and rainfall could increase and be sustained along the western Florida coastline before potentially bringing more damage inland.
Evacuation orders expanded in Florida on Tuesday and could impact other sporting events in college football and the NFL.
In Major League Baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays, currently in position as one of the American League wild-card teams, are on the road for the next nine games to wrap up the regular season.
The Miami Marlins are scheduled to finish the regular season with a three-game series at home starting Monday against the Atlanta Braves, who are in a tight race for the division with the New York Mets.
The NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers are scheduled to play the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at 8:20 p.m. ET. Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said on Monday that the league has been in touch with the team regarding contingency plans, which include possibly playing the game on another day. Bowles said the NFL did not indicate a location change was being considered.
–Field Level Media
