re: How many times has southern heat and humidity been a major factor

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in early season games at home against non-Southern out of conference opponents?

I’m just old enough to remember, in 2003, when a highly ranked Auburn team opened the season against Southern Cal, and a lot of the pregame talk centered around Southern Cal not being ready for the late August heat and humidity in Auburn. It was about 90 degrees that day, but Southern Cal won 23-0.

Obviously Southern Cal won that game because they had a good team that year and Auburn struggled, though had a lot of good players that would go 13-0 the next season.

The logic makes sense, though, as it’s very difficult to play in those conditions if you’re not used to it, but off of the top of my head I can’t remember a high profile game where a team from the north or west wilted in the late summer southern heat.

I guess we’ll see when Utah plays at Florida week one. I think Utah has the better team but I’m not discounting the possibility that the weather does get to them.

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Boise State seemed to struggle with it when they played UGA in Athens. UGA won 48-13 despite BSU being in the top 20.

Not so much when we played them in the Georgia Dome a few years later and lost... but that's a dome.

ASU didn't really seem to be impacted when they came to Athens. Much closer game than it should have been.

Most of our OOC games are against southern teams (or cupcakes).

**edit** forgot ND. They didn't seem to be impacted by the humidity either. It's probably more about depth that a team has to rotate to fight the humidity more than anything else.

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Columbia, SC @ midday--3:30 is the hottest stadium you'll ever be in.

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1:00 kicks in September at the old Legion Field with no shade and that damn astroturf were brutal. EMT's carting off fans all game long.

"Heat and humidity has never caused a football team lose to a less talented one"

1977 Notre Dame might beg to differ when they came to Jackson, MS in September and lost to Ole Miss.

I'd assume that it's not nearly as big a factor as altitude is.

Florida would struggle mightily playing in Boulder or Colorado Springs more than the Buffs and Rams would playing in Gainesville.

But that'll never happen. Florida too pussy to play out of state.

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Now Baton Rouge in 2015 when Fournette went nuts was a fricking miserable experience as far as heat and humidity.

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Yeah that was a miserable game. LSU didn’t allow Auburn to bring their cooling benches and they sat in the sun the entire game, same with the 2017 game. 2:30 games in tiger stadium is a bigger advantage in the early season than night games IMO

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Colorado Springs

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Rams

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How many times has southern heat and humidity been a major factor in early season games at home against non-Southern out of conference opponents?

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Boise State players openly admitted that the humidity overwhelmed them when they came to Athens in 2005. I remember those guys looking like they were breathing underwater by the second quarter.

That was a high profile game and they were supposed to be really competitive.

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Going to SoCal or Colorado (low humidity environments), it is much easier to get dehydrated because you don't sweat as much and do not realize that moisture is still leaving your body.

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I remember Georgia being fine when they went to Arizona State in 2008, but they looked like they were gasping for air when they went to Colorado in 2010.

Even Midwest teams practice through a very hot summer. As a UK fan I'd like to have Florida at home in November some years. It wouldn't have mattered most of my lifetime but when we are within a couple of touchdowns difference in talent it could be enough to sway a couple of games.