What Happens If Severe Weather Postpones Georgia-Alabama?

The threat of a potential hurricane looms over the Alabama-Georgia top-10 clash Saturday. What if the game can’t be played?

A tropical storm is threatening the status of Saturday’s top-10 clash between Alabama and Georgia. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

There’s plenty at stake with Saturday’s top-10 clash between Alabama and Georgia, but it’s possible the game may not happen as scheduled. A storm of action is set to roll through Tuscaloosa, Ala. Saturday, with ESPN’s College GameDay paying the city a visit and President Donald Trump reportedly planning to attend the game. And a literal storm—a potential hurricane at that—looms in the distance, putting the top-10 clash of SEC powers potentially in jeopardy.

Upgraded to a tropical storm and expected to become a hurricane within 24 hours, Tropical Storm Isaias is currently traveling east/northwest at eight mph and is roughly 540 miles south/southwest of the Mississippi River. It’s predicted to make landfall in Alabama on Friday night, bringing with it sustained winds of 90–95 mph and the possibility of surge flooding along the coast and east of landfall, according to meteorologist James Spann.

In terms of its impact on western Alabama, Spann, as of Wednesday morning, forecasts the storm to bring two-to-four inches of rain and gusts of wind in the 40–45 mph range, along with the possibility of a few isolated tornadoes in the morning.

Lending some optimism to the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs getting this game in on time Saturday night is the fact that the storm seems to be trending towards moving rather quickly, meaning the rain may be concluded and the winds diminished by the time the two SEC stalwarts take the field.

Nevertheless, the SEC has its eyes on Isaias.

“Like we do every week at this time, we’re keeping an eye on forecasts and staying in communication with schools with games that could be impacted by weather,” the league said in a statement Tuesday, according to multiple outlets.

While things seem to be trending in the right direction as far as the game’s status goes, it’s worth asking.

What happens if the Alabama-Georgia game is postponed?

While the home team’s athletics director has the authority to delay or relocate a contest and game officials have the authority to suspend play, power to postpone a contest resides in only one place in the SEC. According to the SEC commissioner’s regulations, only commissioner Greg Sankey, or his designee, has the authority to cancel, postpone or terminate a contest.

It’s something Sankey has done before, but not often. The last time an SEC football game was postponed was in 2016, when an Oct. 8 LSU-Florida game was postponed due to Hurricane Matthew, a Category 4 storm.

After some hemming and hawing, the game was eventually rescheduled to November, and what was originally a Gators home game became a road contest with some adjustments made to future meetings between the schools.

If Saturday’s Alabama-Georgia game is postponed before the game begins, SEC rules stipulate that it be played the following day, assuming the weather cooperates Sunday. If not, the two schools, working with the commissioner, reschedule the game to a later date.

If a game is suspended after it began, the referee and commissioner must together determine that it would not be able to be “reasonably be completed” by 1:30 a.m. local time. The game will then be rescheduled to Sunday, and if unable to be played, it’s rescheduled with input from the two schools and the commissioner.

The 2016 game between LSU and Florida had to be rescheduled from October to November and moved from Gainesville, Fla. to Baton Rouge because of a hurricane. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Why the Alabama-Georgia game would have to be rescheduled if it’s postponed

If the game is postponed, both Alabama and Georgia, despite not sharing a common date in their 2026 schedules, would need to find a way to reschedule the contest alongside Sankey.

Here’s why.

SEC rules mandate that all football member teams play and complete all nine conference games to be eligible for the SEC championship game, meaning that the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs would not be eligible to play in the SEC title game if this game isn’t played.

Seeing as the 2026 College Football Playoff awards automatic bids to the four Power 4 conference champions, Alabama and Georgia, the SEC’s second and third-highest ranked teams currently, would not be in line to secure the automatic bid and would instead be at the mercy of the CFP selection committee if they don’t play this game.

Simply put, whether it’s Saturday, Sunday or on a later date, this game will be played. The SEC, which hasn’t won a national title in college football since the 2022 season, simply can’t afford for two of its better teams to miss out on a chance for an automatic bid altogether, given the massive dollar signs that come with entrance to the CFP field.

In a similar situation to Alabama and Georgia, the last time a game between SEC football teams was postponed and rescheduled, Florida and LSU did not share a common date, so the two schools were forced to exercise cancellation clauses for nonconference affairs originally scheduled in order to fit the rescheduled SEC game in.

A similar arrangement would likely need to happen for the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide in the event of a postponement.

The weather seems to be trending in a better direction for this game to be played on time, but regardless of what Mother Nature brings to Tuscaloosa this weekend, expect the contest to be played at some point one way or another.

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