What happens when weather makes a college football game unsafe to play?

Even if a game itself could go on, travel and logistical concerns elsewhere around its region could still mean the schedule should be changed.

With Hurricane Matthew nearing the American east coast this weekend, people and their governments have a lot of preparations to make.

Part of that, in some affected areas, includes the alteration or postponement of college football games.

A handful of games around the country this weekend have either had their start times moved or postponed. Safety is more important than getting football games in on schedule, and even in places where the storm might not hit directly, it can make sense to move a game to ease travel concerns or free up government resources (like police and first responders) to help deal with the fallout elsewhere.

September typically brings the most active part of the Atlantic hurricane season, which has continued this year into October. That coincides with even more of the college football season than usual, but this sport is somewhat used to responding to dangerous weather.

Prominent games have been relocated or rescheduled before.

In 1998, Miami and UCLA rescheduled a September game, after Hurricane Georges threatened (but didn't ultimately hit) Miami. UCLA went on to have an excellent season and entered the Dec. 5 game ranked No. 3 in the country, in line for a top bowl berth. But Miami pulled off a 49-45 upset at home, pushing the Bruins to a Rose Bowl they'd lose.

In 2005, the horrors of Huricane Katrina forced changes to everything at LSU, including the football schedule. LSU postponed and then didn't reschedule its opener at home against North Texas, and the Tigers' new first game, against Arizona State, moved from Baton Rouge to Tempe. Tulane played its entire season on the road, with home games throughout Louisiana and Alabama.

LSU was on the other side of this equation in 2015, when Hurricane Joaquin's movement toward South Carolina led the Gamecocks and Tigers to play in Baton Rouge instead of Columbia.

In the NFL, a 2014 snowstorm meant Detroit became a home game for the Bills against the Lions, and a 2010 roof collapse forced the Vikings to host the Bears at the University of Minnesota.

There are lots of good reasons to alter football schedules for weather.

It goes without saying that safety comes first. But safety at the stadium itself is not always the only consideration.

For instance, if there's a storm threatening the southern part of a state on the same weekend a big football game is scheduled in the northern half of the state, the storm can still make traveling to the game dangerous for lots of fans.

And if the game demands a large police or first-responder presence, as some games do, that draws officers away from vulnerable parts of the region. In this sense, it can be socially responsible to move games even when they're not specifically threatened.

As Garnet and Black Attack wrote about 2015's LSU-South Carolina game before it was moved:

Eighteen dams have failed and eight more are in danger. There are collapsing roads and flooded neighborhoods; we have had too many deaths, along with some heroic rescues. It's a nightmare, and it's not going to be fixed by Saturday.

When you take it all in (and it's hard to do even for the areas of the Palmetto State not as hard hit as the Midlands), the handwriting is on the wall that the game should not proceed at Williams-Brice Stadium.

As [athletic director] Ray Tanner explained, the logistics of getting fans safely to and from the game is a primary concern, not to mention having our already overtaxed first responders work traffic and crowd control. Pulling law enforcement and emergency medical personnel away from disaster relief is at best a questionable allocation of our resources, and at worst an indefensibly callous outcome.

But what if the game doesn't get made up?

That happens sometimes. The world keeps revolving.

In 2014, lightning interrupted a Florida-Idaho game after one play, and the schools decided it didn't make sense to schedule a makeup. Idaho still got paid for its trip to Gainesville, and the Gators weren't viewed any differently for not finishing out a game against a team they would've beaten soundly.

LSU had a similar story last year, canceling a game against McNeese State after nearly four hours of a lightning delay. The result was LSU only playing 11 games in the regular season, which is neither ideal nor a huge problem. Had LSU otherwise offered a strong case, the Tigers would not have been kept from the Playoff because of it.

It did, however, cost LSU money up front to cancel, due to a fairly typical arrangement:

LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva said refunding tickets and game expenses will cost the athletic department at least $1.2 million and as much as $3.2 million. LSU's costs include paying McNeese State its $500,000 guarantee for the game, as well as costs for personnel such as police, ushers and ticket takers.

Alleva said the school has an insurance policy for such issues, but he isn't sure how much will be covered because a brief part of the game actually was played.

If the game has higher stakes, teams are likelier to find a way to play it anyway. Conference games have widespread standings ramifications, and the SEC isn't keen to make its own playing field any less level. In 2001, the Tennessee-Florida game was rescheduled because of the tragic events on Sept. 11; the SEC moved its conference title game back and essentially had the two play an SEC East championship game in December.

We'll see how that plays out with regard to the LSU-Florida game that had been scheduled for Saturday. The SEC says it wants to reschedule the game, which is currently postponed, but there's no obvious point on the schedule to do that.