Memphis vs USF football moved to Orlando because of Hurricane Milton
The Memphis versus South Florida football game will now be played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on Saturday, the schools and the American Athletic Conference announced Thursday.
The Tigers (4-1, 0-1 AAC) and Bulls (2-3, 0-1) kick off at 2:30 p.m. CST and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
Tampa and the rest of Florida were hit by Hurricane Milton on Wednesday night, and recovery efforts were starting on Thursday. The storm made landfall at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday south of Tampa and brought rain, wind and widespread power outages across the state. Tampa was in a flash flood emergency for hours on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.
The status of the game has been in doubt all week. The AAC announced on Tuesday that the game, originally scheduled for Friday night, would be rescheduled to Saturday afternoon. South Florida's football team relocated to Orlando on Tuesday.
There were widespread evacuation orders in the area. South Florida canceled classes through at least Saturday, while Tampa International Airport closed on Tuesday morning in preparation for the storm. The airport will reopen on Friday morning.
"The most important thing is the people of Tampa, the people of this coast and making sure from a safety perspective we can put our guys in a position to be safe," South Florida coach Alex Golesh said Tuesday. "My thoughts, our thoughts and prayers are certainly with everybody and what's going to happen in the next 48 hours."
Officials were still identifying the extent of the damage on Thursday. Tropicana Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays play, had its roof partially blown off late on Wednesday. The Tampa Bay Lightning postponed a game that had been scheduled for Saturday night.
The viability of playing the game in Tampa this week has been in doubt for days, but there was no obvious solution. Memphis and South Florida each have another open week, but those don't line up.
Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis vs USF football moved to Orlando because of Hurricane Milton
