The Hugo Bowl:
Posted on 09/08/2017 10:09:58 AM PDT by real saxophonist
Hurricane Irma forces cancellation of University of Northern Colorado vs. Florida football game
Samuel Mustari
September 7, 2017
Hurricane Irma wins.
It might not even make an appearance in Gainesville, Fla., but in the best interest of student-athletes at the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Florida, the football game between the two schools scheduled for Saturday was canceled because of the impending landfall of Hurricane Irma.
Because the schools do not share a common open date, the game will not be rescheduled.
However, UNC's payday — originally set at $625,000 — is being negotiated by officials from both schools, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin told the Gainesville Sun.
In less than 48 hours, the changes regarding the game were multiple.
Early in the week, officials from both schools kept a keen eye on hurricane central, looking to receive an accurate path of the storm.
On Wednesday morning, the conversations between the two schools intensified as they began to develop an alternative plan.
» Moving the game up to Friday night was also discussed, according to Stricklin.
» Stricklin had conversations with Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs about moving the game to Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala.
On his Thursday night radio show, Jacobs said the details of UNC's travel plans — especially returning home on Sunday — was an issue.
» UNC's travel plans were altered as the Bears, originally set to fly commercial, scheduled a charter flight from Denver to Tampa, Fla., for this morning, canceling their original plans to fly to Florida on Thursday morning.
» UNC had it's normal Thursday practice at 7:30 a.m., still anticipating a Friday-Sunday road trip.
» The Bears' return flight, scheduled for Sunday, was in limbo, but Florida officials were working with UNC to arrange a charter flight.
» Late Thursday afternoon, University of Florida officials announced that the game had been officially canceled.
"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," Stricklin said in a news release.
UNC coaches and players were not made available for comment.
UNC athletic director Darren Dunn said the safety and well being of the student-athletes was a priority and that UNC's well wishes will be with the entire state of Florida.
"I know how disappointed our team is," Florida coach Jim McElwain said on his Thursday radio show. "I know how excited they were to play this game. Our administration … my hat's off. We go through life understanding that it's not always about us. It's about other people and what we can give up ourselves for other people."
Typically, a Florida football game includes the hiring of 3,300 workers, enlisting the services of 17 government agencies and outside vendors, who come from Jacksonville and Orlando, Fla.
This is the second straight season a hurricane has altered the Gators' football schedule.
Last season's Florida-Louisiana State University game in Gainesville was postponed due to the threat of Hurricane Matthew. The game was played later in the season in Baton Rouge, La.
On his twitter account Thursday night, Stricklin wrote: "Every possible effort was made to play this game, but given the circumstances, playing the game wasn't the right thing to do. Stay safe, Floridians."
UNC football tweeted: "Disappointing we were unable to play, but wish everyone in Florida the best and to stay safe! See our fans in Boulder on Sept. 16."
The Bears will play a noon game against the University of Colorado — with a $350,000 payday — on Sept. 16 at Folsom Field in Boulder.
The Hugo Bowl:
It’s a cupcake game.
The P5 teams have brutal conference schedules, every week on the highest level of competition. It’s high risk for loss of game and players.
These low-intensity games pose a tune-up scrimmage for the large schools, plus the smaller school gets $500,000 as compensation for the beating.
11 a.m. AST track had the storm passing directly over Gainesville Saturday afternoon.
And Florida is on their own 30 yard line.
No wait, where do everyone go?
Not as if they'd score, anyway.
Last football game I was at was Georgia vs Louisiana ... right after Hurricane Katrina. Half the LA team was homeless at that point. The trouncing was embarrassing.
Is there some reason why they can’t hold the game in Colorado? Just asking...
More a matter of mercy for the FL players.
Here they are having their homes/communities destroyed, and they’re obligated to play a high-stakes _game_.
Watching the LA team, having just gone thru such, get absolutely slaughtered by the GA team on GA turf was just sad.
What is the AST track? The models I’m looking at show the eye over Gainesville on Monday morning.
I asked the same about the Houston game. Probably financial reasons but it would make sense to move the game to Colorado. It would get students and fans out of FL.
The money means a lot to a small program. Plus the players actually like it because it gives them a chance to play in front of a large crowd. And occasionally, the small program team actually wins the game.
I don't get it. If you're going to charter a flight, why fly into Tampa instead of Gainesville?
The less successful programs need to play (and lose) to Power 5 conference schools to kept their football team solvent.
When I was in Mississippi, a lot of folks laughed at Southern Miss’s “anyone, anywhere, anytime” motto regarding football scheduling. True, the Golden Eagles would take on anyone, but it was a fiscal necessity. In-state rivals Ole Miss and Mississippi State stopped scheduling them years ago, and Southern never had much luck in attracting crowds for their home games. In fact, the only time I remember them filling their 35,000 stadium is when Nebraska agreed to a home-and-home with them, and they had to bring in portable bleachers to accommodate the overflow crowd.
Florida and UNC made the right decision. A better question is why Florida Atlantic is going ahead with a road game at Wisconsin this weekend. FAU is another program that benefits from the payday that comes from being a home win for a Power Five school, but you’ve got to believe the team and coaches are more concerned about what’s going on back home.
There’s also the question of how the team will get back after the game. All the major airports in Florida (with possible exception of Pensacola) will be closed beginning tomorrow and they may not re-open for days. So, you assume the team’s charter will land in P-Cola, Mobile, or somewhere in Georgia. After that comes the bus ride from hell; travelling south through the hardest-hit areas will be a hard slog, at best, and there’s no guarantee they can reach the campus, even early next week.
I know the Badgers want a home win they believe will be fairly easy, but they should have done FAU a favor and cancelled or postponed the game. A lot of the Florida Atlantic players will be distracted (for obvious reasons) and that increases the chances of injury.
Atlantic Standard Time...and you are correct.
Rumor UF name is changing from “Gators” to “Florida’s Fightn’ Felons”
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