COLUMBIA -- University of Missouri Athletic Department officials predict more than 70,000 people will show up for Thursday night’s football game between the Mizzou Tigers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

It’s the first mid-week game hosted by Mizzou in 17 years.

Campus parking lots will open at 4:30 with a kick-off time of 8 o’clock.  MU Athletic Department administrators are urging everyone to get to the game as early as possible, especially since the game is on a Thursday night with plenty of rush hour traffic.

“If you want to try and avoid the traffic, just get here as soon as you can," Sports Information Director Chad Moeller said. "Know that we’ve got as much planned as we can to try to account for all of that. It’s probably going to take some patience to get through it, too.”

The game is on Thursday night because it is being nationally televised on ESPN.

Members of the MU Athletic Department are confident that MU Tiger fans will be completely cooperative during this unusual weeknight football game. Their main concern is how cooperative Mother Nature will be.

Forecasts call for an 80 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms during the game. Rain won’t cause any disruptions, but lightning could delay the game.

“Lightning is the only reason that you have to postpone a game or suspend it," Moeller said. "In all of my years here, we’ve only dealt with that one time that I remember. That was down at Texas. Certainly, there are procedures in place that we monitor things like that. If you have a lightning situation and it gets within a certain distance, then you have to visit with the officials and make a determination. If you have to go wait it out, then you do that.”

Umbrellas are not allowed in the game, but most fans wear plastic ponchos these days. Country music star Sarah Evans will sing the Star-Spangled Banner to tens-of-thousands of fans wearing gold. MU Chancellor Brady Deaton sent a campus wide e-mail that gave detailed parking instructions and the authority to professors to cancel classes at their own discretion. The game should be over around midnight. Columbia police want to remind everyone that open containers of alcohol are not allowed in the downtown area.

MoDOT Officials said they will stop work on Interstate 70 to help with traffic flow before and after Thursday night’s game.

They would probably cancel highway construction anyway if we get the storms that are being predicted by forecasters.

For a complete guide to the Mizzou-Nebraska football game, you can click on the link below.