In anticipation of Hurricane Irma hitting South Florida on Saturday, the football game between Alcorn State University and Florida International University has been moved to Legion Field at 6 p.m. Friday.

The neutral site game will be hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It is the first-ever meeting between the Braves and the Panthers.

The game will be free of charge. The ticket office at Alcorn will refund tickets to those who purchased from the Alcorn ticket office. For refunds, please contact the Alcorn Ticket Office at 601-877-6818, 6822, or 6823. The deadline for refunds is Sept. 15.

The game was to be played Saturday night in Miami, Fla., and the game would have been unlikely to be rescheduled if not moved to a neutral site.

Alcorn opened the season last weekend with a 50-21 victory over Miles College at home.

FIU will leave for Alabama today, and there are plans in place for the Panthers to stay in the Birmingham area through the weekend — if Irma keeps them from returning safely to Miami.

FIU’s swimming and diving, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s golf, women’s soccer and tennis programs are joining football players on the trip, with plans to ride out the storm in Alabama for as long as Irma dictates.

FIU canceled classes as of 11 p.m. Tuesday night and the campus will remain closed for Thursday and Friday.
Alcorn State Athletics and the Associate Press contributed to this report.