ORLANDO, Fla. — The University of Central Florida (UCF) canceled afternoon classes for a football game Wednesday. UCF's football team will take center stage for a national audience Wednesday night.
The football team will be playing in the only college game on the schedule, and UCF is canceled classes Wednesday afternoon to get ready for the game.
The last classes of the day wrapped up shortly after 12:00pm. The campus will reopen at 2:00pm for tail-gating
"We're the only football game on television today, so all the football fans will be tuned into UCF and our football program," said UCF spokesman Chad Binette. "We have our game day staff, our law enforcement partners, our regular game day staffing, even though it's a weekday game."
It's the first weekday game on campus in the four years the UCF Knights have been playing at Bright House Networks Stadium. For that reason, the university wanted as smooth a transition as possible to its nationally-televised game night.
Staff has known about the half-day since spring.
Staff and students have been given free admission and 40,000 tickets have been distributed. It's hard to put a price tag on the exposure the Knights and UCF expect to get from Wednesday night's game.
The game against the University of Alabama-Birmingham will be broadcast live on ESPN starting at 8:00pm.