MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Tigers football game against the University of South Florida Bulls has been moved a day back from its scheduled Friday evening kickoff time as the Tampa Bay region prepares for Hurricane Milton.
The AAC game, originally set to kick off Friday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m., will now take place Saturday, Oct. 12 at 2:30 p.m. at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
U of M officials said the conference and teams could make further adjustments to game time as the storm moves through the region.
The major hurricane is expected to make landfall in the Tampa Bay region early Thursday morning.
If current storm track models hold, it could be the worst storm to hit the region in more than 100 years.
Milton was downgraded early Tuesday to a Category 4 hurricane, but forecasters said it still posed “an extremely serious threat to Florida.” Milton had intensified quickly Monday, becoming a Category 5 storm at midday with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (285 kph) before being downgraded.
Milton's center could come ashore Wednesday in the Tampa Bay region, which has not endured a direct hit by a major hurricane in more than a century. Scientists expect the system to weaken slightly before landfall, though it could retain hurricane strength as it churns across central Florida toward the Atlantic Ocean. That would largely spare other states ravaged by Helene, which killed at least 230 people on its path from Florida to the Appalachian Mountains.
Tampa Bay has not been hit directly by a major hurricane since 1921, and authorities fear luck is about to run out for the region and its 3.3 million residents. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for Florida, and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor said 7,000 federal workers were mobilized to help in one of the largest mobilizations of federal personnel in history.
“This is the real deal here with Milton,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told a Monday news conference. “If you want to take on Mother Nature, she wins 100% of the time.”