Weather cancels Florida Gators football game for the third time in four seasons

By Adam Silverstein
September 8, 2017
Weather cancels Florida Gators football game for the third time in four seasons
Football

Image Credit: ESPNI

Mother Earth has not been the biggest Florida Gators fan over the last few seasons. For the third time in four years, Florida football will be cancelling a football game due to severe weather as the program announced Thursday that it will no longer face the Northern Colorado Bears at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida, due to Hurricane Irma.

This comes after the Gators were forced to cancel their showdown with LSU in 2016, a game which was later deemed “postponed” and then moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, later in the season. That adjustment was made due to Hurricane Matthew; luckily for Florida residents, it barely touched down in state and skirted the coastline before heading up north. UF beat LSU 16-10 on a goal line stand when the programs met on Nov. 19.

Three years ago, Florida had no choice but to suspend and ultimately cancel its home game with Idaho due to lightning. The Gators paid the Vandals nearly $1 million, and the programs decided to reschedule the game for 2017; however, Idaho ultimately backed out of that deal. A date was never scheduled for that make-up game, but with UF scheduled to face Michigan in Week 1, it is likely that the Gators may have needed to cancel consecutive games against Idaho had it been played in that Week 2 slot.

Though the cancellation of this 2017 game will likely result in one fewer win for Florida, it should not impact the program in the grand scheme of the season outside of having a confidence-building contest ahead of its showdown with Tennessee. Instead, the Gators can begin game-week prep for the Volunteers a week early as they look to once again come out on top in the rivalry.

One Comment

Leave a Reply to Michael Walker Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top
WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux