Could Weather Play a Factor in the Orange Bowl?

Bowl season and the college football playoffs are officially here which means the new year is right around the corner, as well as cold frigid temperatures. Well, unless you're in Miami. The Georgia Bulldogs and Michigan Wolverines will be kicking off the second and final playoff game at 7:30 pm EST. The current forecast for kickoff tonight is 77 degrees with 75 percent humidity.

For a team like Georgia who is from the SEC and deals with high temperatures and humidity all summer long this isn't such a big deal. On the other hand, for a team like Michigan where the temperature is currently hovering around the low 30s every day, it is quite a bit of change in environment. I

t's scheduled to snow in Ann Arbor Saturday... There is a real possibility that the heat could begin to play a factor, especially in the later parts of the game.

The temperature throughout the game is currently only supposed to drop down to 75 degrees and humidity is expected to continue to climb up to 84 percent as the game progresses. Michigan arrived two days earlier than Georgia did in Miami which means they have also been running practices and diving headfirst into the Miami heat to make sure they know what to expect for about a week now.

It should also be noted that it has been nearly four weeks since either of these teams has played with that being on December 4th during conference championship weekend. It has been quite some time since either team has played all four quarters of a football game and when that is paired with high humidity and Florida heat it could cause some issues in the latter half of the football game.

Sources have relayed to Dawgs Daily that the heat is noticeable even for the Georgia program, but they've had a tremendous about of energy during practice.

There could come a point in the game late in the fourth quarter where one team needs a stop on defense and the other needs to punch the ball in the end zone, and it is all going to come down to who has the most juice in the tank. If it comes down to that, one has to assume that the team that has the most experience playing in those types of conditions would have the upper edge, with that team being Georgia.

With it being a playoff game, energy and adrenaline are going to be at an all-time high to start off the game, but when both teams hit that second wall about halfway through the game it will be interesting to see how they both respond. With a national championship game appearance on the line, one would hope that energy and effort wouldn't ever become a problem in the game, but with high levels of humidity and warm temperatures, it could be a recipe for some uncomfortable conditions in tonight's playoff game.

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