Florida Gators get a date for season Opener with Utah Utes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators will open the 2023 season on Thursday night in Salt Lake City. The decision to move the game from Saturday to Thursday was announced Tuesday by Utah and the Pac 12 contracts. The game is set to be played on Thursday, August 31. An official kickoff time, expected to be in prime time, has not officially been announced.
The Utah Utes released their schedule on January 18 but the game was listed as either Thursday, August 31, or Saturday, September 2. The game contract allowed for the schools to stage the game on either Thursday or Saturday. When the game was first announced it was slotted for September 2, but the Pac-12 television contracts will have a say in when the game is played.
Ultimately the league’s television contracts drove the decision to play the game on Thursday, rather than on Saturday.
The Gators will be playing west of the Mississippi in a regular season non-conference game for the first time since 2017 when they opened the season against Michigan. Prior to that, Florida hadn’t played a non-conference game out went since 1983. That year Florida tied USC 19-19.
The announcement of the game on Thursday in March should allow for fans to make work and travel arrangements
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Utah had travel issues following 2022 season opener
Travel was a huge issue for Utah in 2022. Since the two campuses are almost as far apart as you can get in the continental United States, traveling back the same night of the game, especially when jumping a couple of time zones, can be taxing on the players. Also, the Utah team plane wasn’t able to leave for several hours after last year’s game due to unforeseen issues. The motivation for moving the game, reportedly, would be to give Florida an extra night in Utah so they could have a whole day for travel on Friday.
Here was the report on the issues from last year as a part of why the game may be moved:
“The report cites travel to Salt Lake City as one of the reasons to make the switch, allowing the Gators to spend the night in Utah before heading back to Gainesville. Following last season’s loss to Florida, airplane mechanical issues delayed Utah’s return home by several hours.”
The Utes spent the night at the Gainesville Regional Airport after an issue with their plane prevented them from being able to leave the town.
Florida Athletic Director Scott Striklin got involved and was able to assist the team. Utah was finally able to get on a different plane and head back to Salt Lake City late Sundary afternoon.
