A year after a winter storm forced the postponement of sports in the United States, another major weather system is causing a shake-up of games this week and threatens to wreak havoc on the weekend schedule.
A storm that forecasters say could rival the damage of a major hurricane is expected to bring snow, ice and frigid temperatures from New Mexico to New England beginning Friday.
Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers canceled their annual Fan Fest event scheduled for Saturday due to the weather forecast for freezing precipitation in North Texas and “in the interest of the safety of players, fans and employees.”
The number of states where college games were being accommodated showed the broad trajectory of the approaching storm.
The Sun Belt Conference preemptively changed its women's basketball schedule, shifting start times on several games from Thursday to Saturday. The American Athletic Conference also adjusted its weekend men's and women's basketball schedules, moving some games to Friday.
North Carolina Central has postponed two men's and two women's basketball games scheduled to be played Thursday through Monday in Durham, North Carolina.
Appalachian State moved up its men's basketball home game with Louisiana-Lafayette to Thursday morning and Marshall moved its home game against Louisiana-Monroe to Thursday at noon. The Tennessee swimming meet at Georgia and the USC Upstate women's basketball game at Longwood were postponed from Saturday to Friday because of the forecast.
Other women's basketball games moved up several hours Saturday include No. 20 Princeton at Brown and North Florida at Eastern Kentucky, along with men's games involving Towson at North Carolina A&T and Texas State at James Madison.
Rice adjusted the start times of its men's and women's basketball home games this weekend. The Rice men's home game against Tulsa originally scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. was moved to Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Additionally, the Rice women's game against Tulane originally scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. was moved up one hour to 1 p.m.
