Two games with Rita effects

[BrutusBobcat]

Edit: What other game?

The other big one is Tennessee at LSU. Here's the latest from LSUsports.net:

No Change in Status of LSU-UT; Conference Call Set
Courtesy: LSU Interactive
Release: 09/22/2005


Courtesy: LSU Sports Information
The field has been painted for the game this weekend at Tiger Stadium.

BATON ROUGE -- As of 4:30 p.m. CDT, there has been no change in the status of the LSU vs. Tennessee football game scheduled for Saturday night in Tiger Stadium at 6:45 p.m.

Officials from LSU, Tennessee and the Southeastern Conference will discuss the status of Hurricane Rita and its potential impact on the football game in a conference call this afternoon.

An update on the status of the football game will be announced on LSUsports.net following the conference call.

Some storm tracks are showing Rita aiming to the north of Galveston, more towards Beaumont, putting Baton Rouge within range of the outer storm bands at the least. My bet is that this one gets cancelled within the next 24 hours.

If not, it's going to be one hell of a wet, windy game.

College Football Gameday has already decided not to go to Baton Rouge, and may be covering GT-VT in Blacksburg instead.

[BuckeyeNation27]

Texas Tech plays Saturday night. Texas A&M plays Texas State......much to the dismay of kinch

[FCollinsBuckeye]

Texas State? Are they even D1-A?

[methomps]

Originally Posted by FCollinsBuckeye

Texas State? Are they even D1-A?

uhh, nope.

[BrutusBobcat]

Doh!!! I was wondering why you'd move a game that had to be in Lubbock or College Station...

Too bad. I was hoping for an interesting Thursday night game.

So anyway, about that UT-LSU game...

Edit: That's right. Texas Tech has that scintillating matchup with Indiana State this weekend...total brain fade on my part.

[O'Rourke]

I saw on sportscenter the UT/LSU game has been moved to Monday at 7:30. I've got my fingers crossed that Rita doesn't hit Galveston head on, my grandparents house is less than a block from the beach on the gulf side of the island. They've already evacuated but I'd hate to see that place get leveled.

[tedginn05]

looks like the game is on monday now

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2169686

Not again: Rita postpones LSU's first home game

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top><!-- begin leftcol --><!-- template inline -->KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- LSU's home opener has been delayed by a hurricane once again, and this time it was Rita that forced the Tigers' game against Tennessee scheduled for Saturday to be moved to Monday night.

The Southeastern Conference made the announcement Thursday after a conference call with school officials. The game will start at 7:30 EDT and be televised by ESPN2.

"After reviewing all of the information I felt this was the best decision for the game," SEC commissioner Mike Slive said. "The safety of our student-athletes, coaches and fans is our priority. I understand this puts a burden on LSU and its administration, however, the travel safety issues necessitate this decision."

Hurricane Rita was heading toward the Texas Gulf Coast and western Louisiana on Thursday. It was expected to make landfall by late Friday or early Saturday.

LSU's first home game against North Texas was scheduled for Sept. 3, just a few days after Katrina ravaged the New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Then LSU's game against Arizona State, slated for Sept. 10 at Tiger Stadium, was moved to Tempe, Ariz., because of the hurricane aftermath that turned the campus into a temporary shelter, hospital and morgue. The Tigers beat Arizona State 35-31 in Tempe and haven't played since.

Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer was opposed to playing this weekend's game on Saturday, believing the conditions would be unsafe for travel.

Even before Rita started making its way toward Louisiana, the Volunteers were going to have an unusual game day. With no hotel rooms available in Baton Rouge, Tennessee planned to fly into the city early Saturday for the night game.

"We've bent over backward to do everything we can to make this happen including going down the day of the game," Fulmer said before the date was changed. "Obviously, if they're sending people out of Louisiana, I don't know why we would be going in. My [university] president will not allow that to happen. I'm sure the conference office will be on the same page."

Fulmer said he advocated playing the game at the end of the season.
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[BB73]

ESPiN showed 'highlights' of the aTm-Texas State game, which aTm won 44-31, and acted like it was a good performance for aTm. They give up 31 to a non-1A school, win by 13, and we're supposed to be impressed?

Oh I forgot, only offense matters.

[sandgk]

Fulmer said he advocated playing the game at the end of the season.

Yeah, I bet he does. 3 good reasons why.

First, the UT Athletic Director was ready to forfeit this game. I'm not kidding!
Second - both teams will have less time to prepare for the following week's contest.
Third, and I think very important - Fulmer & the Vols are looking in the the face of an 0-2 start in Conference play now that Florida has reversed the trend under Meyer.

His only hope (I believe) to beat LSU would be if they caught the Tigers late in the year after Fulmer has a chance to teach his team to play. Right now they look severely dysfunctional. An 0-2 start in the SEC and the Vols season is effectively over. You can put a fork in the Vol fanbase and pass the Kleenex.

I'm glad they are playing this closer to the original scheduled time. Rather have the fates play out as close to realtime as possible.