College football Week 3 weather delay tracker: Live updates on Alabama-Florida Sate, Clemson-UNC, more

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College football Week 3 weather delay tracker: Live updates on Alabama-Florida Sate, Clemson-UNC, more originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

College football's Week 3 was set to kick off with several marquee matchups. However, mother nature had other plans. By the time the afternoon window of games were set to kickoff, there were a couple games placed into a weather delay. 

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First it was North Carolina-Clemson, which was already midway through the fourth quarter. Before kickoff, No. 10 Alabama went into a delay while players were warming up for their game against Florida State. The Mississippi State-South Carolina was also placed into a delay. 

Let's track the weather delays across the southeast that are affecting college football. 

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North Carolina at Clemson weather updates

This game was shaping up to be a great finish as North Carolina led 17-15. Clemson had rallied from a 17-6 halftime deficit. But midway through the fourth quarter, the game was placed in a lightning delay. 

Despite the weather appearing to be clear for nearly an hour delay, the rain started pouring in: 

It looks like the weather approaching is pretty nasty: 

The game is delayed until at least 5 p.m. ET: 

Alabama-Florida State weather updates

A little over 30 minutes before kickoff, Bryant-Denny Stadium was placed under a delay due to lightning in the area. Most of the fans cleared out of the stands, and both teams were required to go back to their locker rooms.

The Tide and Nole players were on the field going through warmups when the delay started: 

The local doppler radar showed storm cells moving into Tuscaloosa: 

It sounds like this may be a lengthy delay, according to the ABC broadcast crew. 

Kickoff was tentatively set for 5:15 p.m. ET, with warmups set for 4:35: 

Mississippi State-South Carolina weather updates

This game was scheduled to kick off at 4:15 p.m., but the game was placed into a delay right before the game was supposed to kick off:

Kickoff could start around 5:30 p.m.: 

Anytime there is lightning within the area, officials are required to wait 30 minutes until the last lightning strike or clap of thunder to resume. The 30-minute clock restarts anytime there is another strike or thunderclap. 

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College football lighting protocols

Per NCAA rules, play can resume 30 minutes after the last visible lightning strike. Here's an official excerpt from the NCAA rulebook: 

Electrical charges can linger in clouds after a thunderstorm has seemingly passed, so activity should remain suspended until 30 minutes after the last sound of thunder is heard or the last strike of lightning is seen. This 30-minute clock restarts for each lightning flash seen or thunder heard.  

If the venue is consulting with a professional meteorologist that is using real-time lightning cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground data, other criteria can be considered for determining earlier, safe resumption of play.

We will update this story whenever we get more information, or when there is clarity about when the game will resume. 

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