Smoke impacting start of fall sports, putting Friday night football in question

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Friday night is the official start of the high school football season -- and, of course, the return of The Big Playback -- or will it be?

Wildfire smoke has already caused changes for fall sports like soccer, with Caldera canceling its home match Tuesday against Wilsonville. 

For football, each school will decide whether to move the time of the game, the day of the game, where the games are being played, or if it will be canceled. 

Peter Weber, executive director of the OSAA, explained the options. 

"We have people who will sometimes move the site of a contest, and instead of that game being in Central Oregon, maybe it gets moved over to the Valley, if the Valley's okay,” Weber said Tuesday. 

He touched on the difficulty with football, specifically. 

"With soccer, volleyball or even cross country, those games can get moved or be adjusted to later in the season. You're not going to have that with football,” Weber said. “If a game just can't get in, then it's canceled as a non-league game, and you look forward to the next week, and you end up not having a game."

Games could be pushed all the way until Monday, if need be.    

Central Oregon has seven scheduled home games for this Friday.