TAMPA - The Pittsburgh-South Florida football season opener moved again to Sept. 6, Labor Day. The 4:30 p.m. game will be broadcast by ESPN and serve as a leadin to Florida State-Miami that night on ABC.
"We'll have the lots open early, and we're going to make it a Labor Day festival, with live music and other events," USF associate athletic director Tom Veit said.
As part of the deal, ESPN will pick up USF's season finale vs. Memphis, which is scheduled for Saturday Nov. 27 but could be moved to Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. USF coach Jim Leavitt said he heard the news on his car radio while coming back from an appearance at MacDill Air Force Base. He said he was excited about playing on ESPN but was concerned about attendance on Labor Day and with the possibility of moving the Memphis game to Friday night, where it could conflict with high school games.
The USF-Pitt game initially was moved from Sept. 25 to Sept. 4 at the Panthers' request because they wanted it to be the season opener. Pitt AD Jeff Long said last week he would not move it to Labor Day despite the urging of USF and ESPN because of the short turnaround between games. On Sept. 11, Pitt hosts Ohio and USF hosts Tennessee Tech. A third USF game, Friday Oct. 22 at Louisville, will be on ESPN2. USF also had three nationally televised games last season.
