Florida State students perform the tomahawk chop during a stadium-wide power outage before an NCAA college football game against SMU, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Noah Lantor)

2026-09-08T00:02:27Z

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The game between No. 19 SMU and Florida State kicked off after a delay of nearly two hours on Monday night due to a power outage at the stadium.

Power went out at Doak Campbell Stadium just minutes before the scheduled kickoff and the delay lasted about 1 hour, 45 minutes. The Seminoles (1-0) and Mustangs (0-0) finally took the field at 9 p.m. EDT for warmups and the game started at 9:15 p.m. under less than ideal conditions.

Not all the stadium lights were operating and the teams were forced to deal with a number of other issues, including no coach-to-player communication, no iPads on the sidelines, no public address announcer and no scoreboard.

There was no public game clock and on-field officials were keeping track of the time. Some replays were being shown on the Jumbotron.

A statement on the Jumbotron inside the stadium during the delay read: “Technical staff are addressing a power disruption to the west side tower due to an electrical short in the main transformer. Electricians are working to restore the power service. The game remains suspended. Update to follow.”

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips chatted with athletic directors from both schools, SMU’s Damon Evans and Florida State’s Michael Alford, for a few minutes on the field before administrators moved inside to further discuss options.

The highly anticipated finale on Labor Day to the weekend’s first full slate of games was put on hold as a countdown clock inside the stadium stopped at 7:30 p.m. and the stadium lights went out.

Florida State and SMU had run out of their respective tunnels and onto their sidelines just moments before the game officially entered a delay. The Seminoles and Mustangs remained on their sidelines before eventually being sent back to their locker rooms.

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A few specialists from both teams returned to the field to warm up. Florida State’s punter encouraged the fans to stand up and cheer, and the school’s band played in one end zone. Fans did the wave and knocked around beach balls.

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