AMHERST — In an attempt to prevent Hurricane Matthew from affecting the game itself or UMass’ ability to get home afterward, the Minutemen and Old Dominion have moved their football game to Friday at 8 p.m.
The storm is expected to hit eastern Virginia on Saturday in the mid to late afternoon. Even if the game, which was originally scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m., had been rescheduled to noon Saturday, which was considered, UMass might not have been able to fly back after the game in the storm.
Athletic director Ryan Bamford said he and ODU officials had been in regular contact. Once they confirmed that the Minutemen’s charter flight could be rescheduled to accommodate the move, the game was officially changed. The Minutemen’s equipment truck was set to leave late Wednesday to drive down while the team was set to take off at 3 p.m.
“We’re grateful to our leadership and administration at Old Dominion as well as the Massachusetts program for allowing the game to be moved to Friday night,” ODU coach Bobby Wilder told The Virginian Pilot on Wednesday.
Bamford said the two schools would split the cost of changing the flight. He expected it would be around $35,000.
“The flight cost is going to change. We’re going back and forth with the airplane and ODU,” Bamford said. “We did not want to get stuck there for two or three days. Playing Friday will allow us to play the game and get out at a later hour and get home to get ready to Louisiana Tech next week.”
While safety inspired the move, Bamford said he thought a happy bi-product would be a better football game.
“We’re going to get better weather on Friday night. We might not get driving rain or as much wind,” Bamford said.
UMass sophomore cornerback James Allen was keeping an eye on the storm for more than just football reasons. The Ft. Lauderdale native’s family will likely face the hurricane on Thursday.
“We’re so used to it down there that it’s like getting a blizzard up here. It’s second nature,” he said. “It’s tough. You have to take precautions. I’m praying for my family and everyone in the south where the hurricane is hitting. Family is everything for me. I know this weekend is going to be a tough one for them.”
RADIO COVERAGE — The change in kickoff time means it is possible that the game might not get onto the radio in western Massachusetts in time for opening kickoff.
WWEI (105.5 FM) will carry the Red Sox game, which starts at 4 p.m. and is followed by a 25 minute radio show. Due to contracts with advertisers, a radio station is not allowed to air the Red Sox game and not the postgame show.
WWEI will join the broadcast immediately after the postgame show.
A stream of the radio broadcast is available through the Tune-In app.
The entire game will be broadcast in Worcester (830 AM) and Boston (1200 AM).
The C-USA Network will broadcast the game at CUSA.tv, which has a 24-hour subscription for $6.95.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage