The Sunshine State is definitely living up to its name this bowl weekend in St. Petersburg for the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl showdown between the University of Central Florida Knights and the Ball State Cardinals.

The festivities kicked off today on St. Pete beach with a battle of the bands between the two school’s marching bands and continued with an eating contest, dance-off, and various tug of war competitions between representatives of each school.

UCF, Ball State Cheerleaders do Tug of War

KnightNews.com spoke to many fans, here for both sides, about their predictions of tomorrow’s game. Activities are expected to go on well into the night with fans sprawled out all over the beautiful beach until the game tomorrow set to kick-off from Tropicana Field at 7:30 p.m.

Coverage tomorrow will feature the tailgate fan-cam, where we’ll be getting in depth with both UCF and Ball State fans asking the tough questions around the ‘burg. Make to check out your UCF student news source with the only constant video coverage of tomorrow’s game and live updates feed right from the KnightNews.com website.