GAINESVILLE, Fla. — On the University of Florida campus just named the "No. 1 Party School" in the nation by the Princeton Review, they can't wait for the season opener with the University of Hawai'i to get here.

School has just started and folks are ready to, well, party at UH's expense.

The cheesy blue plastic lei are three for $1 at Gator Fever stores and blue and orange T-shirts that proclaim, "Football and a lei, now that's a game day" go for $16.95.

And the talk isn't who will win — it is a foregone conclusion in these parts the 35-point favorite Gators will clobber Hawai'i — but how early to begin tailgating for the rare 12:30 p.m. East Coast (6:30 a.m. Hawai'i) kickoff.

It is testament to the fervor for football — and partying — that a capacity crowd is expected to squeeze into 88,548-seat Ben Hill Griffin Stadium despite the oppressive 90-degree plus heat and humidity of the midday start.

"People on this campus really get into it," said fan Maggie Lorow. "The yelling, the (two-handed) Gator chop ... everything. It is non-stop."

Indeed, UF was also ranked No. 1 in "Students Pack the Stadium" and "Students Study the Least" by Princeton Review, two ratings the school doesn't publicize nearly as well as its No. 5 ranking for football in the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches' polls.

"I just don't think Hawai'i knows what it is getting into here," said UF graduate Joe Colorio of the experience of playing in The Swamp. "It is going to be unlike anything they have ever seen ... or felt. The heat, the humidity at 12:30 in the afternoon and that pressure of playing in front of all these fans can be overwhelming."

Which is why some fans, such as George Smith, say they expect the Gators to put up "60 points" on Hawai'i. "We saw what Georgia did and that was with last year's quarterback (Colt Brennan)," Smith said.

That Georgia game figures prominently in people's minds here. The two schools are expected to battle it out for Southeastern Conference supremacy and, possibly, the national championship this year, so UH is something of a measuring stick to a lot of folks' way of thinking.

Never mind that Brennan and his four starting receivers are gone, UF fans would like to exceed the 41-10 licking the Bulldogs put on Hawai'i in the Sugar Bowl nearly eight months ago even if only for their own sense of one-upmanship.

Mostly, the UH opener is viewed as the party before The Game with many looking forward to next week's visit by Miami.

For as one Gators fan put it, "Football is here ... it is time to party."

And that might be one thing the Gators do even better than football.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.