College football

USF, UM games off due to Wilma

Rescheduling is in the works. Meantime, UCF moves its game with Tulane up to Friday night. FSU is still at Duke; UF idle.

By GREG AUMAN
Published October 20, 2005

With Hurricane Wilma strengthening to a Category 5 storm projected to reach Florida's west coast this weekend, the state's college football teams took pre-emptive measures to avoid the threat.

South Florida's homecoming game Saturday against West Virginia has been postponed, with Big East officials expected to announce a new date today. Miami's home game Saturday against Georgia Tech also was postponed, to Nov. 19, and Central Florida's home game against Tulane has been pushed up to 7 p.m. Friday at the Citrus Bowl.

USF called the Tampa Sports Authority on Wednesday to check on two windows for a rescheduled game: a weeknight next week - most likely Tuesday or Wednesday - after the storm has passed, and the weekend of Dec. 3, one week after the final game for both schools. The decision will be made by the Big East.

"With the uncertainty of the path of the hurricane, we have to have everyone's safety as our primary concern," USF athletic director Doug Woolard said.

Both teams have the next weekend off, but a game then won't work because West Virginia has a midweek game on Wednesday, Nov. 2, against Connecticut. USF's next scheduled game is Nov. 5 at Rutgers.

USF coach Jim Leavitt was notified of the scheduling decision by athletic director Doug Woolard after Wednesday's practice and declined to comment.

If the game is postponed until December, the Bulls will go a span of eight weeks between home games. They last played at Raymond James Stadium in a 45-14 upset of then-No. 9 Louisville on Sept. 24 and would not play there again until hosting Cincinnati on Nov. 19.

UCF is the only state school that will attempt to play a home game this weekend, pushing up its Conference USA game with Tulane in time, hopefully, to avoid the hurricane. Tulane was displaced from its New Orleans campus by Hurricane Katrina, and this is the ninth football game to be rescheduled as a result of three hurricanes.

"Moving the contest to Friday should give everyone involved with the game plenty of time to return home safely," UCF athletic director Steve Orsini said.

Because the Georgia Tech game at Miami was switched to Nov. 19, the Hurricanes had to change their Thursday night, Nov. 17 ESPN game at Wake Forest to Saturday, Nov. 12. Times and TV for both games have yet to be determined.

UM athletic director Paul Dee said fans can use their original Georgia Tech tickets for the rescheduled game.

Miami next meets North Carolina at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 29 in the Orange Bowl, then faces Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Virginia on the last four Saturdays of the regular season.

It's the fourth time the Hurricanes have adjusted their schedule to avoid a hurricane, most recently last year's season opener with Florida State.

USF, too, had its season opener postponed by Frances last season. The home game at Pittsburgh was moved to Dec. 3 due to the threat of dangerous weather, and the Bulls also stayed in Fort Worth, Texas, for an extra day after last year's double-overtime win against TCU because of Hurricane Jeanne.

Florida State and Florida should not be impacted by the storm. The Gators are off this week and the Seminoles play at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Duke. The team's itinerary to leave for North Carolina had not been changed as of Wednesday night.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

[Last modified October 20, 2005, 01:20:19]