With Hurricane Florence bearing down on the Carolinas’ coastline, conferences and schools are monitoring the strengthening storm’s progress and exploring contingencies for games this week.
The National Hurricane Center issued an advisory Monday that the storm is expected to approach the North or South Carolina coast Thursday as an ”extremely dangerous major hurricane.” That would be the same day that Wake Forest hosts Boston College in an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup, and two days before six power conference schools host nonconference games in the Carolinas and Virginia.
For now, the teams are moving forward with gameweek plans until told otherwise.
”We’re expecting to play and proceeding and planning like we will until somebody says we won’t,” said North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren, whose Wolfpack hosts No. 14 West Virginia. ”That’s really the best we can do in this situation.”
Florence had strengthened into a Category 4 storm by Monday afternoon with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph, according to the hurricane center. Its projected path appears headed through the center of North Carolina but could also veer through South Carolina and Virginia. And some forecasts have the storm slowing to linger over the Carolinas, spreading heavy rain all the way to West Virginia while leading to flooding and power outages.
It has already forced at least one change: Coastal Carolina’s Saturday home game in Conway, South Carolina, against Campbell in the Sun Belt Conference has been moved up to Wednesday afternoon and relocated to Campbell’s campus in Buies Creek, North Carolina,
The ACC’s football operations manual allows for games to be delayed, relocated, suspended, canceled or postponed if conditions ”pose a threat to the safety of the game participants and/or fans in attendance.” Meanwhile, UNC, North Carolina State and Wake Forest all issued statements saying they were monitoring the storm, with N.C. State and UNC noting they were also consulting with regional authorities.
In North Carolina, No. 18 UCF visits UNC in Chapel Hill on Saturday around noon followed a few hours later by the West Virginia-N.C. State matchup about 30 miles east in Raleigh.
”I know they’ve been constantly meeting about the hurricane,” Tar Heels coach Larry Fedora said. ”The main concern is for the safety of the fans and the safety of the people who work in the stadium and the safety of the players, so I know the university will do what’s right. I don’t doubt that and I’ll go along with whatever they decide.”
In South Carolina, No. 2 Clemson hosts Georgia Southern on Saturday afternoon while South Carolina hosts Marshall that night. And in Virginia, No. 13 Virginia Tech hosts East Carolina – which has already called off classes for the rest of the week as of Tuesday afternoon – while Virginia hosts Ohio in afternoon games.
”First of all it’s important to get the notion across to the team that they can’t worry or assume anything,” Hokies coach Justin Fuente said. ”We just don’t know what’s going to happen and we have no control over that. We have to worry about the things we can control.”
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AP Sports Writers Pete Iacobelli in Clemson, South Carolina; Hank Kurz in Charlottesville, Virginia; and Joedy McCreary in Raleigh, North Carolina; contributed to this report.
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More AP college football: http://apnews.com/tag/collegefootball and http://www.twitter.com/AP-Top25
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Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap
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