Florida vs. Northern Colorado: Gators’ 2017 home opener set for 7:30 p.m. on SEC Network, white-out

The Florida Gators will begin their home slate under the lights of The Swamp for a fourth consecutive year.

But this time, they might shine a little brighter.

The program announced on Tuesday that their 2017 home opener against Northern Colorado has been scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, September 9, and will be broadcast by the SEC Network.

Florida has been scheduled to play night games at home to begin its last four seasons. A 2014 game against Idaho that was rained out was set to begin at 7 p.m., while 2015 and 2016 contests against New Mexico State and Massachusetts, respectively, kicked off at 7:30 p.m.

Additionally, Florida mentions that it is encouraging fans to wear white in an effort to create the first white-out crowd in program history.

For the first time in school history, all fans are encouraged to sport white attire to ensure a "White Out" for UF's clash with the Bears.

That should do plenty to spur speculation that the Gators will wear their traditional white road uniforms at home, don their white alternate helmets, and/or wear white alternate uniforms.

The announcement of this kickoff time comes in conjunction with the SEC releasing kickoff times for those games of the first three weeks of the 2017 season that had yet to be scheduled.

Thanks to the Gators being in marquee games in Week 1 and 3, we already knew two of those kickoff o’clocks: Florida will open its 2017 season away from home against Michigan in Dallas on September 2 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC, and will host Tennessee on September 16 at 3:30 p.m. on CBS.

The only other scheduled game on Florida’s schedule is its annual neutral-site meeting with Georgia, also set for 3:30 p.m. on CBS on October 28, marking the 15th consecutive year that game has been played at 3:30 p.m. and aired by CBS.