Oklahoma, Tulane to play opening game in Norman due to Hurricane Ida

Hurricane Ida has caused a change in location for the week one matchup between Tulane and Oklahoma. The game was originally scheduled to take place in New Orleans on Saturday, September 4, but it will now be moved to Normal, Oklahoma, according to a report from The Athletic’s Jason Kersey.

“The Athletic can confirm: The OU-Tulane game scheduled for this Saturday is being moved from New Orleans to Norman,” Kersey tweeted on Monday.

Tulane, Oklahoma originally hoped to play the game as scheduled

Tulane relocated to Birmingham, Alabama for the week. They originally hoped that the game would remain on as originally scheduled at home. Instead, the two teams head to Oklahoma and the No. 2 Sooners will get a home game to open their 2021 season.

Over the weekend, Sooners’ athletic director Joe Castiglione released a statement on the status of Oklahoma’s game against Tulane.

“As the National Weather Service tracks tropical storm and hurricane activity in the Atlantic and Gulf regions, and as predictive models are updated, we have received many inquiries from fans planning to follow the Sooners to New Orleans next week when we open the 2021 football season at Tulane University,” Castiglione said. “In the spirit of proactive planning and communication, I have been in regular contact with Tulane Athletics Director Troy Dannen for the past month. In the past few days, we have stayed in even closer contact as we continue to monitor the development of Hurricane Ida.”

Hurricane Ida made landfall on Sunday, exactly 16 years following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The storm has already wreaked havoc on the sports world in recent days.

New Orleans Saints, LSU have also been impacted

The Saints were set to wrap up their preseason with a home matchup against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. That game was originally moved up to Saturday before ultimately being canceled.

LSU faces off against UCLA in Los Angeles on Saturday. The Tigers were forced to evacuate Baton Rouge. They will spend the next week in Houston before heading to UCLA on Thursday. LSU’s bus took over 10 hours to reach Houston. That trip usually takes in around four hours, but was significantly slowed down by evacuation traffic.

Tulane and Oklahoma are now the latest teams to see their opening games impacted by the storm.