The University of Maine’s football team will travel to play the University of Central Florida on Aug. 31, 2028, in Orlando.
The kickoff time has yet to be determined.
The Black Bears, who play in the Football Championship Subdivision, will receive a $575,000 guarantee from UCF, which is a Football Bowl Subdivision team.
FBS schools have 22 more scholarships than FCS teams and many more resources.
The teams have met twice with UCF winning both games, 28-6 in Orono in 1994 and 37-17 in Orlando in 1995.
The Knights were an FCS (Division I-AA) school in 1994 and ‘95 but moved up to Division 1-A (now FBS) in 1996.
The two teams were supposed to play in 2017 but the game was canceled due to Hurricane Irma.
In 2023, UCF became the youngest program to join a Power Five conference when it became a member of the Big-12 after leaving the American Athletic Conference.
The Knights have appeared in bowl games for eight consecutive years, winning at least six regular season games each year.
They have gone 3-5 in those eight bowl games.
UCF went 13-0 in the 2017-18 season and was 12-0 in 2018-19 before having the nation’s longest winning streak snapped at 25 in a 40-32 loss to Louisiana State University in the Fiesta Bowl.
UCF finished 6-7 a year ago including a 30-17 loss to Georgia Tech in the Gasparilla Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
UCF will open its 2024 season by hosting UMaine rival New Hampshire.
In other UMaine football news, Black Bear linebacker Terrance Ganyi was chosen by the British Columbia Lions in the sixth round of the Canadian Football League draft.
He was the 53rd overall selection.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pound Ganyi, who is from Montreal, transferred from the University of Connecticut to UMaine after appearing in 13 games over two seasons and making 13 tackles at UConn.
He played in 12 games this past season as a graduate student and posted 13 tackles including four in the season finale against New Hampshire.
He saw a lot of duty on special teams.
He made his UMaine debut in 2022 and had three tackles in four contests.
Several Black Bears have played in the CFL including linebackers Christiophe Mulumba-Tshimanga and DeShawn Stevens, offensive lineman Liam Dobson, defensive back Sherrod Baltimore and wide receiver-kick returner Earnest Edwards.
The Lions open the season at Toronto on June 9.
