With Hurricane Irma threatening South Florida, the NFL decided to relocate Sunday’s regular season opener between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Miami Dolphins, who were set to host the game at their Hard Rock Stadium. The league made the decision late Tuesday afternoon after monitoring the storm, which was upgraded to a powerful Category 5 hurricane earlier in the day.

“In the interest of public safety in light of the current state of emergency, the NFL, in consultation with state and local officials as well as both clubs, has decided that playing an NFL game in South Florida this week is not appropriate,” the league said in a statement (via ESPN).

The NFL did not immediately offer a solution, but said the game could be made up later in the season or played in a neutral location Sunday.

As the day progressed and meteorologists ran new models of the storm’s possible paths, Hurricane Irma looked increasingly likely to make landfall on Florida’s coast over the weekend.

[Irma intensifies to an ‘extremely dangerous’ Category 5 hurricane on its track toward the U.S.]

Along with dangerous weather conditions, Irma potentially could’ve impacted the game in other ways, including police staffing. Busy with more important matters related to the storm, staffing the Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium with adequate security would have likely proven an issue.

JUST IN: Miami-Dade PD will not be able to staff a Dolphins game once they go on 12-hr shifts, spokesperson tells me. That could start Thurs — Andy Slater (@AndySlater) September 5, 2017

Both teams have bye weeks in Week 11, which on the surface would mean it would be easy simply to postpone the game until Nov. 19. But both the league and the players’ union would be loath to have the teams play 16 straight weeks without a bye, so playing the game at a neutral location on Sunday may be the most likely outcome.

There is past precedent for this: In 2014, a game between the Bills and Jets was moved from Buffalo to Detroit after a significant snowstorm hit Western New York.

One solution that appears unlikely in his situation, but has happened in the past is moving the game up, to either to Thursday, Friday or Saturday. That appeared to be something Dolphins Coach Adam Gase was open to as of Tuesday morning.

Gase on Irma: "It doesn't matter what week it is. They tell you to move the game, you just go with it." — Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) September 4, 2017

[Hurricane Irma could strike East Coast by next weekend — or not]

As noted by the Miami Herald, the Dolphins have moved games to different days of the week in anticipation of a hurricane before: A 2004 game against the Titans was played on a Saturday because of Hurricane Ivan, and a 2005 game against the Chiefs was moved to a Friday because of Hurricane Wilma. With police possibly unavailable to provide necessary security as early as Thursday, however, this appears unlikely. The Herald speculates the final decision will be made Wednesday.

And while few involved with the game itself would be enthusiastic about moving the game to Week 11, when both teams are scheduled to have byes, there is precedent for that, too. In 2008, the NFL reworked the schedule after Hurricane Ike damaged the Texans’ home stadium in Houston. A scheduled game between the Texans and Ravens was moved from Week 2 to Week 9 (Nov. 9), during Baltimore’s bye week. Then the league moved the Texans’ home game against the Bengals from Nov. 9 to Oct. 26, when both of those teams were scheduled to have byes. In other words, both the Texans and Ravens received very early bye weeks that year (Week 2).

As of Tuesday morning, the Bucs thought moving the game to the bye week would be the most likely solution, the Tampa Bay Times’s Rick Stroud reported.

No determination by NFL on TB-Mia game this week but Bucs believe more likely for game to be moved to bye week. — Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) September 5, 2017

Elsewhere in Florida, the University of Miami said it still was planning to play its football game Saturday at Arkansas State, however, that appears as if it could change as more weather models emerge.

Coach Richt is meeting with UM AD Blake James after this press conference to see what the plans could be for the Canes this weekend. — Canes Football (@CanesFootball) September 5, 2017

As of Tuesday afternoon, Athletic Director Blake James told the Miami Herald that the team is prepared to leave early for the game in Jonesboro, Ark., and stay later after it’s finished, as needed (the team actually is staying in Memphis, about an hour away from Jonesboro).

Florida State and Florida both have home football games on Saturday night, with the Seminoles hosting Louisiana-Monroe at 7 and the Gators hosting Northern Colorado at 7:30. Both schools are located well north of Irma’s predicted location at that time, and the schools’ officials told the Orlando Sentinel that they’re monitoring the storm track.

Central Florida hosts Memphis on Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Orlando; school officials there are monitoring the storm track, as well.

Read more from The Post:

Awkward! Brock Osweiler is returning to the Denver Broncos.

With a $20 million fund in his sights, J.J. Watt begins to deliver relief

Ric Flair wants you to know: ‘I ain’t dead yet’

“If you can’t see how God works things out, then I think you’re the blind one”: USC’s amazing long snapper

Cam Newton’s younger brother leads Howard to one of the biggest upsets in college football history

Winners and losers from college football’s first weekend

A few thoughts as the Redskins cut down to their final 53 players