Georgia Tech-Pittsburgh makeup date set by ACC

Because of a conflict with commencement exercises, Georgia Tech’s game against Pittsburgh is now set for Dec. 10, a Thursday.

The game was scheduled for Nov. 14 but postponed when both teams were unable to play because of rosters hit by injuries, COVID-19 positive tests and quarantining from contact tracing. The initial plan was to play the game Dec. 12, but Thursday afternoon the ACC announced a new date of 7 p.m. Dec. 10 at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The game will be televised on one of the Fox Sports regional networks. This would be either Fox Sports South or Fox Sports Southeast in the Atlanta market.

Before the postponement, the institute had announced plans to honor graduates from the spring, summer and fall semesters with graduation ceremonies Dec. 11 and 12 at the stadium, as the school had not been able to hold in-person commencements because of social-distancing protocols. One option would have been to hold the game following the graduations at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., a tight turnaround to convert the facility for game use.

“So it’s been a week of incredible stress by a lot of people on the athletics side and on the event side, trying to find a solution,” Tech president Angel Cabrera said Thursday at the athletic association’s quarterly board meeting, held online.

Cabrera said that athletic director Todd Stansbury was able to move the game to Thursday to alleviate the conflict. It will be a significant challenge for the football team, which now will be playing the Panthers five days after their Dec. 5 game at N.C. State, while Pitt will be coming off an open date.

Tech’s game at Miami that was scheduled for Saturday was postponed earlier this week. It has a tentative makeup date of Dec. 19.