MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama Director of Athletics Dr. Joel Erdmann announced Thursday that the school has signed a two-game contract with its first Big Ten Conference football opponent.
The Jaguars will play Nebraska twice in the next seven years, with both contests set to take place in Lincoln. The first match-up is scheduled for Sept. 12, 2015, with the second slated to open the 2019 campaign on Aug. 31.
“We’ve got another team to add to the list of many that we’re playing, big-time schools. This excites our players and everyone else in the football program,” Jag head coach Joey Jones said. “We know that every year we are going to play two or three big-time teams around the country; that’s what we want to do, we are looking forward to it.
“I don’t think it’s so much the conference than just looking to play the top-20 type teams in the country,” Jones added. “We’d love to play USC or Oregon one day too, we want to play those caliber of teams — to get to that level, we have to face them. That’s why we’re doing it.”
Other non-Sun Belt Conference opponents in 2015 include North Carolina State at home on Sept. 5 and a Nov. 14 trip to take on Navy. That will be the first fall the league will feature a nine-game schedule.
In 2019, USA will also play at Tulane on Sept. 28 in addition to nine Sun Belt games.
Beginning with the 2012 schedule, the Jaguars will face Louisiana State, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Mississippi State (three times), Oklahoma State (three times) and N.C. State (twice) as well from current Bowl Championship Series automatic qualifying conferences. In addition to ending the ’12 campaign at Hawai’i, USA has five other NCAA Football Bowl Subdivison (formerly NCAA Division I-A) opponents in the future in non-conference action: Southern Mississippi, Navy, Louisiana Tech, Tulane and Kent State.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
—USA—
