Hurricane Helene alters some college football games. Could it affect Georgia-Alabama?

Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall in the Florida Big Bend region Thursday evening as at least a Category 3 storm, bringing severe weather to much of Georgia.

Valdosta State was scheduled to host West Alabama on Saturday, however, the game was canceled Wednesday. Albany State moved its home game against Kentucky State to 4 p.m. Saturday. Earlier this week, Florida A&M — located in Tallahassee, Fla., just south of the Georgia border — postponed its home football game against Alabama A&M.

Additionally, dozens of Georgia high school football games are being moved to Saturday and beyond.

Despite movement in the southeast area sports landscape, there is likely to be no Helene-related impact on college football’s highly anticipated Georgia-Alabama football game.

There is a 25% chance of rain in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, according to AccuWeather as of Thursday morning. The projected path of Helene appears to avoid most of Alabama and most severe weather will have already moved out of the area by the 7:30 p.m. kickoff.

While the game itself should avoid Helene impacts, those traveling from Georgia to Tuscaloosa could encounter heavy rains on Friday and potential storm damage on Saturday.

“As I understand it, and we’ve been following it, watching it with the SEC office and our in-house people at Delta, it looks like it’s trending more and more eastward, which may affect us, but less and less effect towards the game,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “My biggest concern is the travel. And our travel arrangements, being able to get there in a convenient way is my concern.”

Former President Donald Trump is expected to be at the Georgia-Alabama game and ESPN College GameDay will be in town. Game day traffic and security-related delays are expected.

Hurricane Helene path tracker