The many ways college football deals with bad weather

Nobody’s really in charge, so responses to inclement weather vary.

Every outdoor sport has to deal with bad weather. College football has less structure than the rest of America’s major sports, which means it deals with weather in a lot of ways.

Whenever and wherever there’s college football, weather can get in the way.

Lots of college football teams are located in the places that get the brunt of hurricane season. And hurricane season season usually peaks around the beginning of September. This leads to a few early-season games getting canceled or postponed most years. In 2017, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma led to 15 FBS game changes in the first three weeks.

Hurricanes are by far the most common weather events that influence the football schedule, but they’re not the only ones. Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest in 2017 threatened to get a bunch of games postponed due to poor air quality. (In the end, no games were canceled, though some teams moved indoors or to other areas for practice.)

Games aren’t supposed to get played when there’s lightning in the area, either, and a few games per season catch lightning delays. These delays can go on for hours and hours, as one did during 2017’s Penn State-Michigan State game. Players scarfed down pizza and Chick-fil-A during that one, while fans spent the three-hour layoff having lots of fun.

Weather impacts spring ball, too. Even though most programs have indoor practice facilities now, spring games are usually outside. A handful of 2018’s spring games were canceled or moved when heavy thunderstorms and some snow pounded much of the country into late March and mid-April. Coaches aren’t all that inclined to spend a day in terrible conditions for a game that doesn’t count toward anything.

Sometimes, of course, inclement weather makes for an awesome scene.

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If weather affects a non-conference game, it might just get canceled.

Most every game contract has a clause about bad weather. Normally, teams can pull out of a game without financial penalty if weather has made playing or traveling unsafe.

In 2017, Miami canceled a trip to Arkansas State, because Hurricane Irma could’ve made traveling home a dangerous logistical nightmare. That contract said:

This contract shall be void with respect to any of the games in the event that it becomes impossible to play such game(s) by reason of unforeseen catastrophe or disaster such as fire, flood, earthquake, war, [epidemic] confiscation, by order of government, military, or public authority of prohibitory or injunctive orders of any competent judicial or other government authority. Notice of such catastrophe or disaster shall be given as soon as possible. No such cancellation shall affect the parties/ obligations as to subsequent games covered by this contract. Any games not played as scheduled shall be rescheduled as such exigencies may dictate or permit.

(Arkansas State didn’t accept the Canes’ interpretation and sued.)

Athletic departments spend the days leading up to a potential bad-weather game keeping a close eye on The Weather Channel, the radar, or whatever.

“You’re constantly staring at a radar, and you’re constantly getting the best information you can from the experts in the field of forecasting,” South Alabama AD Joel Erdmann told SB Nation during the ‘17 hurricane season. Erdmann’s Jaguars had a game canceled at LSU in 2016, the result of a bunch of SEC politicking. More on that shortly.

“You have foremost in your mind the safety of everyone involved, but also, you know, a game is an important game, and you do the best you can do play it, but you don’t wanna place people in peril in doing so,” Erdmann said. “It can be a time that’s filled with anxiety, but at the same time, you’re prepared.”

If a non-conference game gets canceled, it’s not normally a huge deal. Most commonly, those are games between a Power 5 team and a smaller school that’s getting paid a few hundred thousand dollars to get beat. Maybe the home team will still pay the guarantee amount anyway, as Florida did after lightning limited a 2014 Idaho game to exactly one play.

It’s not always that smooth. After Miami canceled its 2017 trip to Arkansas State, the Red Wolves claimed the Hurricanes acted unreasonably and sued for $650,000 in damages.

Conference games are harder to cancel, so leagues try to figure it out.

In 2016, Hurricane Matthew caused Florida and LSU not to play a game in Gainesville as scheduled. They could’ve just canceled, but the SEC ruled that to be eligible for the conference championship game, a team had to play a full conference schedule. (Meaning: Florida needed to make up the game in order to get drubbed later by Alabama.)

The schools spent a few days sniping at each other in the press, with some LSU people accusing Florida of running scared for putting off a home game and some Florida people (including the head coach) accusing LSU of being insensitive to tragedy.

A whole saga ensued. In the end, Florida and LSU bought out non-conference games later in the year against South Alabama and Presbyterian, who just played each other.

You’d think when there’s a devastating storm or something like that, people would put aside petty rooting interests and support each other instead of insulting each other and claiming they’re scared. Right?

This is college football. No.