University of North Texas students will get Thursday afternoon off. Classes that begin at or after noon on Thursday, Oct. 29, are canceled so students can attend the Mean Green's home football game against Florida Atlantic, UNT President Harrison Keller told students in an email Monday morning, according to the North Texas Daily.
Kickoff at DATCU Stadium is 6:30 p.m., and the game will air on ESPN.
"I encourage you to come early, enjoy Mean Green Live and student tailgating at DATCU Stadium," Keller wrote, according to the student newspaper. He asked students to help set a student attendance record.
How students earned it
The athletic department tied the day off to student ticket sales. It announced the push, which it called "The Haunting Challenge," during the Oct. 10 home game against Charlotte: if enough students claimed tickets for the FAU game, Thursday afternoon classes would be called off.
Athletic Director Jared Mosley posted on X on Oct. 21 that students were "half way there" and posted again Monday afternoon that the goal had been met. Neither post gave a ticket count, the Daily reported.
University staff had been told to expect the change. In an Oct. 12 email to employees, interim Provost Albert Bimper Jr. wrote that afternoon classes on Oct. 29 were expected to be canceled so students and faculty could take part in pregame activities, the Daily reported.
UNT tried the same approach last October for a game against South Florida. That night drew a reported 31,386 fans, DATCU Stadium's first sellout, with more than 9,300 student tickets claimed. South Florida won 63-36.
