College football has been secondary to those in the Sunshine State as Hurricane Irma approaches the Florida coast but is still quite a bit of debate outside the area over whether or not to play games this weekend in advance of the front hitting.
While games like Miami’s trip to Arkansas State were cancelled early in the week, Thursday brought word that the remaining games on the schedule were not going to be played as campuses were officially closed by state officials. That does not mean that schools involved explored all avenues to get the games in though, and that was certainly the case in Gainesville as the Gators attempted to play their home opener with Northern Colorado before eventually cancelling the whole thing.
Among the options considered? Long time local columnist Pat Dooley says an empty Swamp was initially considered by the school in order to play the contest without putting too much of a burden on state and local authorities.
Gators also considered playing in front of empty stadium. Mac was on board, I'm told. But how can u say it's safe for teams and not fans?
— Pat Dooley (@pat_dooley) September 7, 2017
Perhaps the more intriguing idea was moving the game elsewhere, as FIU did with their game against Alcorn State, which is being played in Birmingham, Ala. on Friday. While Florida has not played on the Plains since 2011, one option for the team to go was apparently at SEC rival Auburn.
“We’ve had different conversations with people calling asking could they come here and just be here and practice,” Tigers AD Jay Jacobs said on the Tiger Talk radio program Thursday, according to AL.com. “University of Florida contacted me earlier this week, (athletic director) Scott Stricklin, about maybe them playing their game here on Saturday. But they decided, and rightfully so, instead of playing of bringing Northern Colorado this side of the country and probably the issue of possibly getting them back home, they actually canceled the game.”
As Jacobs alludes, it was the right decision for UF to go ahead and cancel the game instead of trying to play it, but the team certainly made a few calls early in the week to at least figure out a few possibilities if Irma was going to take a different track.