Season opener pitting ’Canes, Gators moved up by a week

CORAL GABLES – It’s official — the season will start a little earlier for both Miami and Florida.

The two schools — who are scheduled to renew their longstanding rivalry in August — learned Thursday the NCAA had approved the decision to move their season opener up a week to Aug. 24 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.

The game is set for a 7 p.m. kickoff and will be televised by ESPN.

The game had originally been scheduled for Aug. 31, but last month, the schools, ESPN, Florida Citrus Sports and the College Football 150th Anniversary Organization released a statement confirming the two schools had discussed moving the game and that an NCAA waiver to do so had been requested in January.

“ESPN approached both UM and Florida with the unique idea to broadcast this matchup as the culmination of a daylong

celebration of college football’s 150th anniversary season,” Miami athletic director Blake James said in a statement. “After consulting with [Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz], we agreed this would be a tremendous opportunity to showcase Hurricanes football, both our present team and our long, storied tradition — on a national stage.”

Now that stage is set, particularly because the only other FBS game scheduled to take place that Saturday is Arizona at Hawaii.

The game marks the earliest start to a football season for both schools, according to the Orlando Sentinel. With the move, both schools will also have an additional bye week, the Hurricanes not playing again until their Sept. 7 game at North Carolina and the Gators not playing again until they host UT Martin that same day.

There are story lines and subplots aplenty for the rivals, who haven’t faced off against one another since Miami edged Florida 21-16 at Hard Rock Stadium in 2013.

The game will mark the head coaching debut of Manny Diaz, who took over as Hurricanes coach on Dec. 30 after the resignation of former coach Mark Richt.

In his first game, Diaz will face off against Florida’s Dan Mullen — his former boss when both were at Mississippi State. Two weeks later in his second game as Miami’s coach, Diaz will face off against another one of his former bosses, North Carolina coach Mack Brown, whom he worked for at Texas.

During a conference call with reporters earlier Thursday afternoon, Diaz did not comment specifically when asked about when a decision might be made about moving the game, but said Miami would be ready on either date.

“For that, we’ve been like you. We’ve heard whispers about it now for a while,” Diaz said. “We have a contingency plan for no matter when they tell us to play and we’ll be there and excited to play whatever day they tell us to play.”

Last month, when news first broke about the potential move, officials from both Miami and Florida said fans who had purchased tickets to the game and could not go if it were moved would receive refunds. On Thursday, James also said in his statement that both Miami and Florida have contacted several airlines asking if they can provide assistance for fans who purchased flights for the previous date.

“I want to thank the NCAA, ESPN, Florida Citrus Sports, CFB 150, Inc. and the University of Florida for their cooperation and support during this process,” James’ statement said. “We understand that the new game date could affect Hurricanes fans who had already made travel plans for the original game date. We will work diligently with any of those affected to help ensure that they can still attend the Camping World Kickoff and have a great experience.”

The Hurricanes, who are coming off a 7-6 season, hold a 29-26 lead in the alltime series, which is tied 3-3 in neutral-site games.