The University of Memphis football team's game against UCF will not be played Friday night as Hurricane Irma nears the Florida coast.

The news was announced by the American Athletic Conference on Twitter just before 6:30 a.m. CT on Friday.

The Tigers flew to Orlando Thursday evening and left just before midnight CT.

Calkins:Canceling Memphis vs. UCF was an easy decision

The decision was made less than 24 hours before the Knights and Tigers were set to kick off at Spectrum Stadium in Orlando, Fla, after Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced Thursday night that all K-12 public schools, state colleges and state universities would be closed beginning Friday.

"Out of an abundance of caution, we agree that the game should not be played on Friday," UCF athletic director Danny White and Memphis athletic director Tom Bowen said in a joint statement on Friday. "We agree with Governor Scott that preparation for Hurricane Irma should be the top priority for the state. While our fans will no doubt be disappointed, we know they understand that safety has to come first."

The game, which would have served as the conference opener for both teams, was originally scheduled for Saturday night and moved up to Friday evening to avoid the Category 4 storm, which is expected to make landfall in Florida this weekend. That decision was made Tuesday, with both schools and the AAC agreeing to continue to monitor the storm and maintain communication throughout the week.

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By Thursday, it appeared that Memphis would be able to fly to Orlando, play the game and depart safely on a charter flight. The Tigers flew to Orlando on Thursday evening with expectations of playing the game.

In an interview with The Orlando Sentinel, AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said that "things came together all at once after Memphis had left (for Orlando)."

"Up to that point, the people at UCF thought the game could have potentially been played," Aresco told the newspaper. "But then everyone realized no. It was absolutely the right decision."

And so, by 11:45 p.m. CT, the U of M's players and coaching staff were back in the air and returning to Memphis.

"Definitely a unique experience," Tigers coach Mike Norvell told reporters upon returning to Memphis. "But our guys, they've handled themselves so well. I think that they understand, everybody understands, what could be coming. If it's not a safe situation for anybody to be playing in, obviously with the evacuations and everything in Florida that's occurring, it's the right thing for us to be back here and continue to offer any support that we can for anybody that will be affected."

Other team staffers took a separate flight and landed in Memphis on Friday afternoon.

It is not immediately clear if a make-up game will be played, but because Memphis and UCF do not share a common bye week, it appears unlikely, Aresco said.

“We’ll look at scenarios potentially for replaying the game, but we’re not optimistic without a mutual bye that that can really happen," Aresco said. "We would hesitate to disrupt our entire conference schedule to get the game in."

Memphis-UCF was one of two AAC games to be affected by Hurricane Irma this week. The conference announced Thursday that this weekend's matchup between Connecticut and South Florida would also not be played as scheduled.

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Read more: Behind the original decision to move the Memphis game to Friday

Related: A look at the worst weather games in Memphis Tigers history ahead of Irma

Florida and Florida State also cancelled their home games this weekend, as did Miami, which was slated to play Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Ark. but cited concerns about whether it would be able to safely return to south Florida afterward.

Florida International moved its home game against Alcorn State to Birmingham, Ala., and an NFL game between the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers was rescheduled for Nov. 19.

While Memphis players regrouped Friday, Norvell and his staff met to finalize a practice schedule for the weekend and begin preparations for the team's next scheduled home game against UCLA on Sept. 16 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.