CEDAR CITY, Utah, Feb. 21 - Southern Utah's
football team will face two bowl subdivision and nine Big Sky teams as the
Thunderbirds embark upon their second season in the BSC in 2013. The 2013
season will also present a first for the T-Birds, as they play a 12-game
schedule for the first time in school history.
The two FBS-level opponents are South Alabama and
Washington State. The 2013 season will mark the fifth straight campaign that
the Thunderbirds have faced two FBS opponents in a season and the second in a
row they have faced a Pac-12 team. SUU will also play eight Big Sky conference
games, as well as a non-conference game at fellow BSC member Sacramento State
as part of a home-and-home agreement the two programs had prior to SUU joining
the conference.
SUU opens the 2013 season at South Alabama on
Thursday, August 29. The Jaguars will be in their first season as a fully-classified
FBS program and as a member of the Sun Belt Conference this fall after two
seasons as a non-classified program and two more as a transitional program.
The next week SUU will open its five-game home
schedule on Sept. 7 when the Thunderbirds host Division II Fort Lewis, the only
non-Division I opponent on the schedule. SUU and Fort Lewis have faced each
other 30 times in the past. The two programs spent over two decades together as
members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference before SUU left the RMAC to
move into its NCAA Division I transitional period in 1986 and they have
continued to face each other on an occasional basis ever since.
It's back on the road the next week as SUU travels
to Washington State for a Sept. 14 game that gives the team contests at Pac-12
schools in consecutive seasons. The Thunderbirds played at Cal last year. It
will be the Thunderbirds' first game against Washington State in football.
The visit to Washington State begins a three-game
road stretch that also takes the Thunderbirds to Sacramento State for the final
non-conference game of the season on Sept. 21 and to Northern Colorado on Sept.
28 for the Big Sky opener.
SUU has faced Sacramento State the past two seasons,
last year in a BSC game, and this year's match-up will be the 14th
overall between the two programs.
SUU will be meeting Northern Colorado as a Big Sky
opponent for the first time but the two teams did compete against each other in
the Great West Football Conference prior to the Bears joining the Big Sky in
2006.
SUU hosts UC Davis in its Big Sky home-opener on
Oct. 5, then hosts Portland State in what is shaping up to be the school's
annual Homecoming Game on Oct. 12. The team then travels to Eastern Washington
for an Oct. 19 game before returning home to host Idaho State on Oct. 26.
Following a bye week the Thunderbirds travel to
Weber State on Nov. 9, then to Montana State on Nov. 16 before hosting Northern
Arizona in the regular-season finale Nov. 23.
Southern Utah University Football
2013 Schedule
8-29 At South Alabama
9-7 Fort Lewis
9-14
At Washington State
9-21
At Sacramento State
(non-conference game)
9-28
At Northern Colorado*
10-5 UC Davis*
10-12 Portland
State (Homecoming, tentative)*
10-19 At
Eastern Washington*
10-26 Idaho
State*
11-2 Bye
11-9 At Weber State*
11-16 At
Montana State*
11-23 Northern
Arizona*
All Times TBA
* Big Sky Conference Game
