UCF, Georgia Tech have rescheduled cancelled 2017 game … for 2022

After Hurricane Irma cancelled their game last year, UCF and Georgia Tech have rescheduled.

Last September, Hurricane Irma devastated Florida. Far less importantly, it cancelled games and altered schedules in the NFL and college football. One such cancelled game on the college football level was UCF and Georgia Tech in Orlando, which had presumably been scheduled years ago.

The Knights went 13-0 last year, capped off by a win over Auburn in the Peach Bowl that led them to stake claim to a theoretical national title. They probably would have beaten the Yellow Jackets, who finished 5-6 in 2017, but we’ll never know if Paul Johnson’s’ squad would have pulled an upset that may not have looked like one in mid-September.

Non-conference schedules in college football are set years in advance, and sometimes schools buy their way out of a game to open up a spot on the schedule (usually for an easier opponent). Home-and-home series are routine, spaced out over years or done in back-to-back years. UCF will play at Georgia Tech in 2020, but a game between the two teams with the Knights as host would have been considered up in the air to some degree.

On Friday, that situation was rectified with a rescheduling of last year’s cancelled game.

After the game at Georgia Tech on Sept. 19, 2020, which was surely originally scheduled and remains intact, the two teams will now play at UCF on Sept. 24, 2022 to complete the home-and-home.

After Scott Frost’s departure for Nebraska, UCF has a new head coach in Josh Heupel this year. He would be in his fifth season in 2022, assuming a Power 5 school doesn’t come calling. Johnson would be in his 15th season at Georgia Tech at that point, but with five or fewer wins in two of the last three seasons, his hot seat will have to cool. A lot will be different for UCF and Georgia Tech in 2022, but things have been made right after last year’s cancellation.