Hurricane Helene’s effect on college football: Storm could throw Week 5 schedule into chaos

Hurricane Helene is coming, and we could see some college football schedule changes over the weekend as impacted programs figure out alternate plans.

The hurricane, which formed Tuesday in the Caribbean Sea, is expected to approach the Gulf Coast by late Thursday, possibly throwing the Week 5 schedule into chaos.

Helene is projected to travel up through the Florida panhandle Thursday night and follow the state line between Alabama and Georgia overnight, then spend Friday crossing a broad swath of Tennessee before finally dispersing in the western Kentucky/southern Illinois area on Saturday morning.

While the eye of the storm isn’t projected to make landfall in southern Florida, the weather across the state could be affected. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 61 counties ahead of the storm’s arrival.

The Florida Gators are on bye, so they don’t have to worry about hurricane scheduling. Florida State is playing SMU in Dallas on Saturday night, so while their game isn’t expected to be affected, it’s possible their travel plans could be.

But there are several home games in Florida this weekend: UCF is hosting Colorado in Orlando on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET, and the Miami Hurricanes are hosting Virginia Tech on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. And while the storm will have lessened in strength after traveling inland to Tennessee, the weather there is still expected to be atrocious.

Georgia is also traveling to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday night, another matchup that could be impacted by the storm for both teams and fans traveling to the game.

Currently, none of those contests have been postponed, but one has been: Florida A&M University vs. Alabama A&M. That contest has been rescheduled to Nov. 29.