The Northern Colorado Bears at Florida Gators football game, which was previously moved to noon on Saturday, has been canceled, Florida announced on Thursday.
Hurricane Irma, currently a category 5 storm and packing record winds, is heading for Florida. Due to the need for public safety officials during and after the storm, the Gators decided to cancel the game and it will not be rescheduled.
“We have been in constant communication this week with University and government officials,” said Florida Athletics Director Scott Stricklin. “As the Hurricane’s track has approached the state of Florida, it’s become obvious that playing a football game is not the right thing to do. The focus of our state and region needs to be on evacuations and relief efforts. There is a tremendous amount of stress currently on the roads of this state, and the availability of gas, water and other supplies are at critical levels. Playing a college football game Saturday would only add to that stress.”
“Gainesville is also close to some of Florida’s heaviest traffic points this week, specifically Interstate 75, which is a key statewide evacuation route.”
20th-ranked Florida opened the season with a 33-17 loss to now No. 8 Michigan at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Northern Colorado, a member of the Big Sky Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), opened their season with a 41-14 win over College of Idaho.
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What is the big deal that these games can’t be played Army-Navy week? They can be played on Thursday or Friday so that Army-Navy is still the last game of the year.
I agree with you Z Man
I think the deal is they don’t matter. At least this one doesn’t. As for the needing six wins for a bowl game argument, do you really think the NCAA won’t excuse some of these schools, if they request it? Seriously, it’s really not a big deal to cancel most of these games.
Florida has had a game cancelled for inclement weather in three of the last four years — against Idaho in 2014, LSU last year (rescheduled with a game against Presbyterian cancelled) in 2016 and now Northern Colorado in 2017.