Kelly Hayes
The University of South Florida will face East Carolina University in Boca Raton Saturday, a move in anticipation of Hurricane Ian.
The football game was originally set to be played in Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, but officials have opted to relocate to Florida’s East Coast as Hurricane Ian threatens Florida’s West Coast. The game will now be played at Florida Atlantic University at 2:30 p.m.
“With Hurricane Ian building into a powerful and potentially very impactful storm on the Bay area, the people and resources in our community, we felt it was in everyone’s best interest to move our game out of the Tampa Bay area,” USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly said in a statement.
“We are very grateful to our friends and colleagues at FAU for their tremendous assistance and cooperation in using their facility to play Saturday’s game and to ECU and the Conference for working with us during this time,” it read.
Information on tickets and attendance for the game in Boca Raton, as well as refunds for tickets purchased for the previously scheduled contest in Tampa will be forthcoming.
“Our thoughts are with our Tampa Bay community and others in the state of Florida and beyond that have already or may soon see the destructive impacts of this storm and with the first responders and official agencies tasked with responding to this dangerous event. We hope everyone remains safe and heeds the official advisories as the storm approaches our area,” Kelly continued.
That’s not the only university event impacted by the hurricane. The USF Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony set for Friday at 6 p.m. has also been postponed. Previously scheduled USF volleyball matches this weekend have also been moved to the University of Central Florida campus.
As of Tuesday morning, Ian’s center was over Cuba, 200 miles south of Key West, with sustained winds of 125 mph, making it a Category 3 storm.
On Monday, USF announced that it would cancel classes through Friday, and plan to resume next Monday. The school made the decision to cancel classes to allow students to take necessary precautions or make plans ahead of the storm’s arrival.
All USF buildings, except residence halls, closed and moved to emergency mode at noon Tuesday. Residential students from St. Petersburg who remained on campus as of Tuesday morning have been relocated to the Tampa campus, where residence halls are open. USF staff members are prepared to support residential students through the duration of the storm.
USF Health clinical operations will continue normal business hours on Monday and Tuesday, but will close Wednesday and Thursday. A decision about USF Health clinical operations for the rest of the week will be made at a later time.
Students, faculty and staff are urged to plan carefully, follow local weather reports and monitor updates from county and state emergency management officials.
More information from USF is available here. Additional updates will be shared via USF’s website and official social media channels.
