The rush of cancellations and postponements to football games because of Hurricane Irma reportedly won’t be limited to just Week 2 of the college football season. A report on Monday indicated that Week 3 will also be effected, starting with Georgia Tech vs Central Florida in Orlando.
Per ACC/CFB source, Georgia Tech will not play at UCF this weekend – one less game for Yellow Jackets to become Bowl eligible
— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) September 11, 2017
Adam Rittenberg of ESPN also noted that it does not appear that the game will be made up.
Sources: The Georgia Tech-UCF game scheduled for Saturday in Orlando will not be played, as UCF continues to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. It’s unlikely the game will be made up later in the season. WSB television in Atlanta first reported the likely cancellation. UCF had to cancel last week’s game against Memphis as it braced for the hurricane. Its campus remains closed through Wednesday.
UCF didn’t play their game against Memphis this past weekend because of the hurricane, and the school has just one open date over the rest of the season – the weekend of October 28th. Neither Memphis nor Georgia Tech is free that weekend.
Rittenberg also notes that UCF is currently hosting the National Guard to help aid recovery efforts from Irma, and that many UCF players aren’t even on campus right now.
The main reason for the Georgia Tech-UCF cancellation is that UCF is hosting up to 1,000 National Guard personnel in and around Spectrum Stadium. There are also about 250 vehicles on campus. Florida Gov. Rick Scott asked UCF to host the National Guard as part of the Hurricane Irma recovery effort. Some UCF players also were dismissed to be with their families before the storm hit. “We are in complete agreement with the decision,” Georgia Tech AD Todd Stansbury said.
This is the right call by UCF, as holding a football game with so much going on in the state and around campus just wouldn’t be feasible.
Both UCF and Georgia Tech released statements about the cancellation.
NEWS: Due to the impacts of Hurricane Irma, @UCF_Football vs. Georgia Tech has been called off.
Full release 👉 https://t.co/PtQXjA7n4A pic.twitter.com/5XoCuAeO41
— UCF Knights (@UCFKnights) September 11, 2017
Saturday’s game against @UCF_Football in Orlando is cancelled due to #Irma. It will not be rescheduled.
Details: https://t.co/a2949GOYgP
— Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (@GTAthletics) September 11, 2017
Over the weekend, the ACC announced that this coming weekend’s Florida State-Miami game would be rescheduled to October 7th, while Georgia Tech-Miami would also be rescheduled from October 12th to October 14th.
I don’t think these will be the last cancellations that we’re going to be seeing this week. South Florida is scheduled to host Illinois in Tampa on Friday night, while Florida hosts Tennessee on Saturday afternoon and FAU hosts Bethune-Cookman on Saturday evening. It wouldn’t be surprising if any (or all) of those three games were also postponed or cancelled in the coming days.
[ESPN]
