The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are planning to relocate to the New Orleans area to prepare for Sunday鈥檚 game against the Saints with expected to make landfall along Florida鈥檚 west coast.
The Bucs intend to travel Tuesday and spend the rest of the week out of state instead of practicing as usual at the team鈥檚 training facility in Tampa.
Milton strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico on Monday and could make landfall in Wednesday.
The NHL鈥檚 Tampa Bay Lightning canceled Monday night鈥檚 scheduled preseason finale against the Nashville Predators. The game initially was rescheduled from Sept. 27 due to , which caused extensive damage in the region two weeks ago.
The Lightning open the regular season at Carolina on Friday. There was no immediate word on whether the team would evacuate to Raleigh, North Carolina, ahead of the storm.
The NBA鈥檚 Orlando Magic are on the road this week, playing at New Orleans on Monday night and at San Antonio on Wednesday.
College sports are being impacted, too, with UCF in Orlando announcing all home athletics events on Wednesday and Thursday have been canceled. That includes Wednesday鈥檚 volleyball match against Colorado, Thursday鈥檚 women鈥檚 soccer match against Arizona and the first day of the men鈥檚 tennis ITA Southeast Regionals on Thursday.
The school said Saturday's Big 12 home football game vs. Cincinnati is still scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff.
Coach Gus Malzahn said the Knights plan to practice Wednesday morning before the storm鈥檚 effects are expected to arrive in the Orlando area.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to stay in our routine as best we can,鈥� Malzahn said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l adjust with it. We鈥檒l have a plan no matter what happens. We鈥檝e been talking through that. I think the main thing planning-wise is making sure our players are taken care of and all the people in our program.鈥�
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AP sports:
The Associated Press
