{"id":136434,"date":"2026-01-29T16:21:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/136434\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:21:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:21:26","slug":"florida-am-planning-to-stay-in-miami-for-back-to-back-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/136434\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida A&#038;M planning to stay in Miami for back-to-back games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/2026\/01\/26\/famu-2026-hbcu-football-schedule\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida A&amp;M is set to open the 2026 season with an extended stay in South Florida,<\/a> turning the first two weeks into a strategic road swing centered in Miami.<\/p>\n<p>Last season,\u00a0Florida A&amp;M Rattlers\u00a0opened against the\u00a0Howard Bison\u00a0in the Orange Blossom Classic, then traveled north the following week to face Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton\u2014just an hour from Miami.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s plan keeps the Rattlers planted even longer. FAMU will open the season against defending HBCU national champion\u00a0South Carolina State Bulldogs\u00a0in the\u00a0Orange Blossom Classic\u00a0at\u00a0Hard Rock Stadium\u00a0on Sunday, Sept. 6. The Rattlers are then expected to remain in Miami before taking on the\u00a0Miami Hurricanes\u00a0on Thursday, Sept. 10.<\/p>\n<p>The decision would significantly reduce travel costs and ease the early-season grind, allowing the team to focus on academics and preparation rather than navigating a compressed travel schedule.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"157610\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/2026\/01\/29\/florida-am-planning-to-stay-in-miami-for-back-to-back-games\/famu-schedule-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/FAMU-Schedule.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1536,2048\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{\" aperture=\"\" data-image-title=\"FAMU Schedule\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/FAMU-Schedule.jpg?w=225\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/FAMU-Schedule.jpg\" height=\"1024\" width=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/FAMU-Schedule.jpg\" alt=\"FAMU Schedule\" class=\"wp-image-157610\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Miami will face its own challenges leading into the matchup. The Hurricanes are scheduled to travel roughly 2,500 miles west to face the\u00a0Stanford Cardinal\u00a0on Friday, Sept. 4, before returning home on a short week to prepare for FAMU.<\/p>\n<p>Sources told\u00a0HBCU Gameday\u00a0that Florida A&amp;M will stay in Miami during the interim week rather than making a quick return to Tallahassee. While the Marching \u201c100\u201d is contractually part of the Orange Blossom Classic, it remains unclear whether the band will also stay for the Miami game. FAMU Director of Bands Dr. Shelby Chipman said no final decisions have been made, noting that band travel plans for the 2026 season are still being finalized.<\/p>\n<p>New head coach\u00a0Quinn Gray\u00a0will be tested early, facing last season\u2019s top HBCU program at the FCS level before squaring off against one of the nation\u2019s premier FBS teams. Before the Miami stretch, the Rattlers will open the season at home on Aug. 29 against the\u00a0Albany State Golden Rams\u2014the program Gray led to an SIAC championship and an NCAA Division II playoff victory. That game is set for Ken Riley Field at Bragg Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida A&amp;M is set to open the 2026 season with an extended stay in South Florida, turning the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1814,589,58707,123,125,124,11995],"class_list":["post-136434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-famu","tag-featured","tag-hbcu-sports","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-swac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}