ATHENS, Ga. -- Due to the potential effects of Hurricane Florence, kickoff between No. 3 Georgia and Middle Tennessee State has been rescheduled for 12 p.m. ET. UGA officially made the announcement on Thursday.

"After extensive evaluation involving the uncertainty of weather conditions on the east coast, and consideration of all constituencies involved including fans, support staff, and law enforcement, the Saturday Georgia-Middle Tennessee State game has been moved from 7:15 p.m. to a 12 noon kickoff in Sanford Stadium," read a statement from Georgia's Athletic Association.

The game will be televised on ESPN news and can be streamed live from the ESPN mobile app.

It marks the second time in the past three years that the Bulldogs have had a kickoff altered by a storm. Hurricane Matthew forced the UGA at South Carolina game on October 8, 2016, to be moved back 24 hours to Sunday. The Bulldogs came away with a 28-14 win over the Gamecocks that day.

Earlier this week the storm was projected to have little to no impact on the Athens area Saturday and Kirby Smart didn't seem to think it would cause any issues.

Certainly, my thoughts and prayers go out to the people in the South Carolina community and the area that may be hit by it," Smart said on Monday. "But right now we don't think it's going to affect us a lot other than wind possibly. And there's not a lot we can do to control that. We'll continue to work on Middle Tennessee and get ready for it."

The latest projections have the storm itself hitting Athens on Sunday, but the move to an earlier kickoff almost certainly has more to do with the safety of the fans attending the game. With the game originally projected as an evening start, many fans would be staying the night and heading home on Sunday with others deciding to head home late Saturday evening and into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Now those fans can start exiting the Classic City around 4 pm and get a head start on beating the inclement weather.

Had the game been canceled, an option that's often on the table for non-conference games such as this one, Georgia would have saved the $1.7 million it was set to pay the Blue Raiders for the non-conference home game. UGA would have money at the gate, concessions, and memorabilia sales. Businesses in the Athens-Clarke County would have also felt the impact with one fewer home game this preseason.

Georgia didn't have a home kickoff earlier than 3:30 p.m. ET all of last season. The last time the Bulldogs started a game at noon in the friendly confines of Sanford Stadium was against Georgia Tech in 2016, a game UGA lost 28-27.

With the game time being changed, it'll allow the Bulldogs to kick off at noon ET two weeks in a row. The SEC announced earlier this week that UGA at Missouri on September 22 will kick off at that time (11 a.m. CT locally).

Georgia and Middle Tennessee State have faced off once in the history of each program. That came in 2003 when the Blue Raiders fell to David Greene and the Bulldogs by a score of 29-10.

Fans also have a convenient way to support disaster relief.

'The University of Georgia encourages fans to support disaster relief efforts through the Red Cross by texting “REDCROSS’ to 90999 to donate $10 from your phone, call 1-800-RED CROSS, or by clicking HERE to visit the Red Cross website.