And it could be a big one, for college football.

Hurricane Katrina is picking up power over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters, and current projections have it zeroing in on a path a hair east of New Orleans then up through lower Mississippi.

B-A-D news for Tulane and Southern Miss Universities.

Get this, they're scheduled to play each other next Sunday on the Southern Miss. campus.

Southern Miss doesn't appear as threatened, but the coastal areas of the state could take a beating.  More worrisome is Tulane's plight.  I'm not a hurricane expert, but fellow CFB blogger Brendan Loy is.  And our weather-obsessed colleague is pretty panicked about this one.

Basically, New Orleans has major structural evacuation issues and that whole "prone to flooding" thing that spell doom for the city if a doomsday hurricane condition is met.  Loy fears the worst (check his website for frequent updates.  Due to some technical issues his trackback links aren't working right now).

In theory, Katrina could put the entire of Tulane University underwater.

Yeah.

Here's a scary story Loy links to about the threat to Nawlins.  KYAGB.

Obviously, the lower south remains threatened by Katrina's still-wide path, as she surges and swirls out in the gulf.  Several universities are within range of the storm's powerful winds and rain and damage might be enough to relocate or postpone some games.  Luckily, this storm will hit land sometime around Monday, giving a few days' window to dry out, rebuild, restore power and other services and hopefully keep all games on the schedule.

We'll have more later today, and I'll also try to do some real reporting here, contacting some sources around the region to get a feel for what they're anticipating and what's happening.