How confident is Kentucky that the upcoming college football season will be played on time? Instead of pushing the start of the season back, as some fear may happen, the Wildcats have instead moved up the date for the program’s season opener.

Kentucky was scheduled to open the 2020 season against Eastern Michigan in Lexington on Saturday, Sept. 5 but will instead kick off the 2020 season on Thursday, Sept. 3. The program’s season opener is still scheduled to be played at Kroger Field.

Kickoff time for the game has yet to be decided.

If you can’t make Kentucky’s season opener, the game is set to be broadcast nationally by the SEC Network. Moving the game to Thursday ensures more eyes will be on Mark Stoops’ program than would likely be watching during the Saturday log jam of games from across the country.

Another bonus to moving the season opener up? Horse racing fans should know that the 146th running of the Kentucky Derby has been rescheduled for Sept. 5, 2020.

Moving the program’s opener to Thursday helps avoid that conflict for Kentucky fans.

The 2020 opener against Eastern Michigan will be the third matchup between the two programs, all of which have come in four year’s time. Kentucky is 2-0 all-time against EMU.