HONOLULU — Stanford found a new home Friday morning as the stranded Pac-12 school was voted into the Atlantic Coast Conference for the 2024-25 season.

Meanwhile, Hawaii is still trying to make the most of its on-campus abode.

The Rainbow Warriors host the Cardinal at 5 p.m. Friday in the newly expanded Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. The most notable upgrades for Year 3 of the UH football venue: capacity was raised to over 15,000 seats from 9,300 and UH nstalled the Aloha Stadium video board behind the Diamond Head end zone.

UH also installed a few thousand green seatbacks in the stands along both sidelines. New athletic director Craig Angelos added several dozen premium leather seats in the Ewa end zone and the two new makai corners.

It will be the first football home game for Angelos, a former athletic director at Florida Atlantic who helped clear the way for construction of an on-campus stadium in Boca Raton, Fla.

“I looked up in the scoreboard, first class from Aloha Stadium, and the seating configuration,” Angelos told Spectrum News this week. “Now, we have a lot of chair backs in there in certain sections, almost like a club level now. I mean, it really is a nice little stadium.”

He was hopeful for a sellout against the Power Five opponent. As of Tuesday, UH had distributed over 12,000 tickets. UH closed campus Friday to help clear the way, though there is still no tailgating allowed.

UH (0-1) is feeling confident coming off of an effective performance by the run-and-shoot offense in a 35-28 loss at Vanderbilt in a Week Zero game. Stanford is a three-point favorite to debut the Troy Taylor era; Taylor built Sacramento State, a perpetual also-ran, into an FCS contender in four years.

“It’s going to be fun to play in this new stadium. It looks a lot better,” said quarterback Brayden Schager, who is coming off a career-best 351-yard, three-touchdown, two-interception performance in Nashville, Tenn., six days ago. “We’ve put some good stuff on film and we’re ready to get after it this week, so it’s going to be fun.”

Said linebacker Isaiah Tufaga, who led the defense in that game with three tackles for loss, “I expect this place to be packed out. I expect everyone to have fun. I expect everyone to watch us put on a show and make plays like we did this past Saturday, but more plays to win the game.”

A construction crew completed final clean-up this week and turned it over to UH, which held a formal Hawaiian blessing on the field.

Angelos came up with the idea of selling off his athletic director suite at the 50-yard line for each home game. He said he’s sold it for five of the seven home games at about $10,000 a game. He’s also added his parking stall to an online auction on UH’s website.

The gates will open at 3 p.m. every home game and fans can take in the “Kickoff at the Les” at Les Murakami Stadium. There will be live music, drinks and food vendors, and a keiki fun zone.

“We have Hawaii’s Finest producing all these musical acts every week. So that’s a nice new feature that we have going,” Angelos said. “It's not going to make up for the lack of tailgating on campus. But hopefully, it gives people an opportunity to come and enjoy everything … before the game.”

UH plans to honor the victims of the Maui wildfires pregame. The game is a “whiteout” for fans.

“Everything seems to be ready to go,” Angelos said.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.