Hurricane Irma Creates Alteration In UH Football Schedule

HOUSTON, TX — Two hurricanes have officially affected the Houston Cougars football schedule in 2017, with the latest being Hurricane Irma, which devastated the state of Florida last week. The American Athletic Conference Thursday morning announced a number of changes to its 2017 football schedule that affected five of its member schools, including the University of Houston.

Houston will play at University of South Florida on Saturday, Oct. 28 (instead of Nov. 4) and will host East Carolina University on Saturday, Nov. 4 (instead of Oct. 28).

The schedule changes were made due to the postponement of the USF-UConn game a week ago in advance of Hurricane Irma. The USF-UConn game will be played Saturday, Nov. 4, at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford, Connecticut. To accommodate the rescheduled date, games involving three other American Athletic Conference teams have been adjusted as well.

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"I would like to thank our presidents, athletic directors and our head football coaches for their outstanding collaboration and cooperation to resolve this unprecedented situation in as fair a manner as possible," said American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco. "I would also like to acknowledge and thank Ryan Bamford of UMass for his cooperation and understanding. This was not an easy process, but we feel that this revised schedule is a significant step toward giving us the best opportunity to decide our champion on the field."

Houston's season opener at UT-San Antonio scheduled for Sept. 2 was cancelled because Hurricane Harvey's aftermath. The Cougars went on the road and beat the Pac 12's University of Arizona, 19-16, in Houston coach Major Applewhite's debut as head coach. Houston hosts Rice at 7 p.m. this Saturday at TDECU Stadium.

The other changes to the AAC's 2017 schedule for each team are as follows:

UConn
UConn will host ECU Sunday, Sept. 24 (replacing an open date) and will host USF Saturday, Nov. 4 (replacing the original date of the ECU game). The game will be played on a Sunday due to the unavailability of Pratt & Whitney Stadium on Saturday.

USF
USF will host Cincinnati Saturday, Oct. 14 (replacing a previously scheduled game against Massachusetts), will host Houston Saturday, Oct. 28 (replacing the original game against Cincinnati), and will play at UConn Saturday, Nov. 4 (replacing the original game against Houston).

Cincinnati
Cincinnati will play at USF Saturday, Oct. 14 and will have its open date Oct. 28 (replacing an Oct. 14 open date and the game at USF Oct. 28).

ECU
ECU will visit UConn Sunday, Sept. 24 (replacing an open date), will have an open date Saturday, Oct. 28 (replacing a game against Houston), and will play at Houston Saturday, Nov. 4 (replacing the previously scheduled game against UConn).

The AAC is continuing its efforts to reschedule the game between Memphis and UCF, which also was not played due to Hurricane Irma.

Top image: The Houston Cougars perform a pre-game chain chant before playing against the Lamar Cardinals in the first quarter at TDECU Stadium on September 10, 2016 in Houston, Texas.

Photo by Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images