BATON ROUGE – The LSU-Tennessee football game scheduled for Saturday has been moved to 6:30 p.m. Monday at Tiger Stadium because of Hurricane Rita, the SEC announced Thursday.

The game will be televised by ESPN2.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive made the decision to move the game between the No. 3 Tigers and No. 10 Vols to insure the safety of the visitors traveling to the game. Tennessee was scheduled to fly into Baton Rouge on Saturday at about noon, but Hurricane Rita, a category 4 storm as of late Thursday, was expected to make landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border late Friday or early Saturday morning.

“After reviewing all of the information, I felt this was the best decision for the game,” Slive said. “The safety of our student-athletes, coaches and fans is our priority. I understand this puts a burden on LSU and its administration, however the travel safety issues necessitate this decision.”

LSU athletic director Skip Bertman said he lobbied for the game to be played Sunday night, but he said the commissioner felt the strong winds might not have subsided by then to allow Tennessee to fly in.

“He wanted to err on the side of safety,” Bertman said. “It’s his decision per SEC rules. We’ve got our night game, but it won’t be Saturday night.”

It’s the third consecutive scheduled game affected by hurricanes this season.

LSU postponed its season-opener with North Texas to Oct. 29 and moved it’s second game with Arizona State to Tempe, Ariz., two weeks ago.

The rescheduling will give the Tigers only four days of preparation for the Mississippi State game Oct.1. Tennessee has a home game against Ole Miss that day.