Miami-FSU game will now be played Sept. 10

MIAMI — The spectacle of Monday Night Football is now the spectacle of Friday Night Football.

The nationally televised season opener between the University of Miami and Florida State, originally scheduled for Monday at 5 p.m. (PDT), has been postponed to next Friday at 5 p.m. because of Hurricane Frances.

The ABC-aired game will still be the only one televised that night.

“Our biggest concern is for the safety of anyone in the path of Hurricane Frances, and we felt the appropriate thing to do is to reschedule,” UM athletic director Paul Dee said Thursday in a prepared statement.

“We are pleased the game has been rescheduled to such a desirable time period and that it will still be in prime-time television so that college football fans across the nation can watch the Hurricanes and Seminoles play.”

ABC senior vice president/programming Loren Matthews said this ended up being the best scenario for the network, but that the final decision was made by UM, FSU and the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“Somebody said if we’d have played the game Saturday, the hurricane would have gone wide right,” FSU coach Bobby Bowden joked.

This is the third time since 1998 that UM has postponed a football game because of a hurricane.

In 1998 and ‘99, Miami moved its UCLA and Temple games, respectively, to the season finale. Miami won both games.