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Thursday, October 20, 2005

WVU/USF Game Postponed To Dec. 3

West Virginia University's football game, slated for Saturday night in Tampa, Fla., against South Florida, has been postponed because of the impending threat of Hurricane Wilma.

The Big East office announced Thursday morning that the contest would be made up Saturday, Dec. 3. Kickoff time has not yet been determined.

"There were many factors that we considered," said Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese. "Obviously, the safety of everyone is paramount. Also, there were travel concerns and the potential for missed class time. Our conclusion is that Dec. 3 is the best date for this game to be played."

Both teams had originally be slated to finish the regular season the week before - WVU on Thursday, Nov. 24 when it hosts Pitt and USF on Saturday, Nov. 26 when it was on the road at UConn. Now with this postponement, both will finish a week later than originally scheduled.

Hurricane Wilma is expected to make landfall in Southwest Florida either Saturday night or Sunday morning, and while Tampa doesn't appear to be in the projected path of the center of the storm, the central Gulf Coast city still figures to get hit fairly hard.

Postponements of Mountaineer football games are rare but not unprecedented. WVU’s game at Maryland in 2001 was pushed back a couple weeks to Sept. 29 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Also in 1963, West Virginia's final regular season game against Furman was postponed and played on Nov. 28 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22.

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