{"id":228910,"date":"2026-04-12T19:51:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/228910\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T19:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:51:26","slug":"big-12-moves-pair-of-ucf-football-games-to-friday-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/228910\/","title":{"rendered":"Big 12 moves pair of UCF football games to Friday night"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Big 12 has adjusted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/tag\/ucf-knights\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UCF<\/a>\u2019s upcoming football schedule, moving a pair of games to Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>The move means the Knights will play three weekday games this season, with the team kicking things off by hosting Bethune-Cookman on Thursday, Sept. 3.<\/p>\n<p>The last time UCF had at least three weekday games was in 2022, when the Knights played on Wednesday, Thursday (twice) and Friday nights.<\/p>\n<p>UCF\u2019s showdown with Baylor, originally scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 31, has been moved up to Friday, Oct. 30. The game also represents the program\u2019s Space Game, the traditional celebration of the university\u2019s connection to the aerospace industry in Central Florida.<\/p>\n<p>The Knights are 8-1 in Space Games since their inception in 2017, having lost to Houston, 30-27, last season.<\/p>\n<p>This will be the fourth meeting between the two programs, with the Bears holding a 2-1 overall record, including a 30-3 win in Waco last season.<\/p>\n<p>UCF\u2019s regular-season home finale against Iowa State, originally scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 21, has been moved to Friday, Nov. 20.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the second overall meeting between the two schools. The first took place in Ames on Oct. 19, 2024, with the Cyclones coming away with a 38-35 win.<\/p>\n<p>Kickoff times and TV networks will come at a later date.<\/p>\n<p>The Knights hold a 14-9 record in weekday games since the 2019 season, including a 4-7 mark on Friday nights, and are mired in a four-game losing streak in weekday games. The last win on a Friday was against USF on Nov. 26, 2021.<\/p>\n<p>UCF is coming off a 5-7 record in the first season under coach Scott Frost, who returned to the program after an eight-year absence.<\/p>\n<p>Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/04\/10\/big-12-moves-pair-of-ucf-football-games-to-friday-night\/mailto:mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Big 12 has adjusted UCF\u2019s upcoming football schedule, moving a pair of games to Friday night. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,114,1335,139,141,140,76046,110,3865],"class_list":["post-228910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228910","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=228910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}