Second-ranked Clemson is the only major conference school in the Carolinas and Virginia that will play its scheduled football game this weekend as Hurricane Florence looms.
Several schools across the three states canceled, re-scheduled or relocated games ahead of the storm, citing safety concerns.
Clemson officials say they are monitoring the storm's path and believe there were no issues in playing Saturday's game against Georgia Southern. Clemson has moved up the start time to 11 a.m. Central from the original 2:30 p.m. kickoff.
Clemson Athletic Director Dan Radakovich not respond to messages left by The Associated Press, but he did say Thursday on Sirius XM radio that fan and team safety is his top priority. He said the information Clemson has is the effects of Florence on the northwest corner of South Carolina (Clemson's location) would not be impacted until late Saturday or early Sunday.
"Everybody would have ample time to get back to wherever their homestead is after the game," Radakovich said.
They'll have to do it with the help of fewer state troopers.
Capt. Kelley Hughes of the South Carolina Highway Patrol said instead of the typically 100-to-110 troopers would help with traffic there will be 16 on site Saturday.
The rest of the responsibility would fall to local and regional law enforcement entities like campus, county or city police near Clemson, Hughes said.
Radakovich said that's happened before, most notably in 2015 when Clemson hosted Notre Dame in a drenching rainstorm that led to historic and fatal flooding in South Carolina.
"We've had a number of times where we wouldn't have maybe the full complement of folks out on the highway helping people get in, but our fan base has been fantastic," Radakovich said.
Other schools around the state did not take any chances with several other Top 25 teams canceling games, including: No. 13 Virginia Tech's home game against East Carolina, No. 14 West Virginia's trip to North Carolina State and No. 18 UCF's game at North Carolina.
Virginia moved its Saturday home game against Ohio to Nashville, Tenn., and Boston College and Wake Forest moved their Thursday night matchup up several hours.
Clemson's state-rival South Carolina also canceled its contest with Marshall on Wednesday.
Sports on 09/14/2018