Big 12 Conference announces kickoff times, broadcast assignments for first three games on UCF 2023 schedule

Kickoff times and TV information for UCF's three non-conference football games of its debut Big 12 season were released Wednesday afternoon.

The Knights will open the season on a Thursday night for the sixth time in the last seven seasons, hosting Kent State at 7 p.m. on FS1. Twenty years ago, UCF and Kent State met head-to-head as rivals within the Mid-American Conference.

Assuming the schedule holds true to form, that will mark UCF's only midweek matchup this season. Last year, their swan song within the American Athletic Conference, the Knights played four non-Saturday games, including a Wednesday night, hurricane-postponed bout with SMU.

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UCF will complete the second leg of its home-and-home contract with a first trip to Boise State on Sept. 9, a 7 p.m. start in Orlando but a 5 p.m. local kickoff in the Mountain Time Zone. FS1 will again carry the television rights for the game.

Finally, UCF hosts Villanova at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 16, with the game found on ESPN+.

All of UCF's nine Big 12 matchups are still to be determined with regards to kickoff times and television listings. Two league games (West Virginia at Houston, and TCU at Texas Tech) are slated for Thursday night, and four more are scheduled for Fridays, including a day-after-Thanksgiving doubleheader (TCU at Oklahoma, and Texas Tech at Texas) on Nov. 24.

The Big 12 championship game will be held at noon on Dec. 2 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, carried on ABC.