North Texas Football will host UTSA, Memphis, UAB and Temple in its debut season in the American Athletic Conference next fall, commissioner Mike Aresco announced Wednesday as part of unveiling a scheduling model for the 2023-26 seasons.
Additionally, the Mean Green will make road trips to Tulsa, SMU, Tulane, and Navy. As natural rivals, UNT and SMU will play each season alternating home and home.
Other previously announced opponents for North Texas in 2023 include a visit from California of the Pac 12, a trip to Louisiana Tech and a meeting at Apogee Stadium with Abilene Christian. A final non-conference game for the year will be announced soon.
In 2024, UNT will host SMU, Rice, South Florida, and Charlotte as well as traveling to UTSA, UAB, Florida Atlantic and East Carolina.
During the 2025 season, Tulsa, UTSA, Tulane, and Florida Atlantic will make the trip to Denton. Road contests include SMU, Memphis, South Florida, and Temple.
The last year of this cycle will include home games against SMU, South Florida, East Carolina, and Navy. The Mean Green will visit Tulsa, Rice, Tulane, and Charlotte.
The scheduling model was unanimously approved by The American's athletic directors this week.
The 2023 season will be The American's first with 14 football-playing institutions. The schedule format calls for each team to play eight conference games each year. Each team will face the other 13 conference teams at least twice during the four-year cycle – once at home and once on the road.
Six matchups will be played annually in this cycle: North Texas-SMU, UAB-Memphis, Rice-UTSA, Charlotte-East Carolina, Florida Atlantic-South Florida and Navy-Temple.
"This scheduling model fulfills all of the objectives that we identified as we look forward to competition among our 14 outstanding teams," said Aresco. "Most important, it is a fair model that has the unanimous support of our athletic directors. It allows for all four-year student-athletes to play at all of our venues at least once during their careers. It reestablishes some longstanding geographic rivalries and provides a foundation for new rivalries to develop. It also provides all of our teams with annual access to the state of Texas and other important recruiting areas."
The American will not have a divisional format during the four-year cycle. The top two teams in the final regular season standings will qualify for the American Athletic Conference Championship Game.
The 2023 conference schedule will be announced following the completion of the 2022 season.
2023
Home: UTSA, Memphis, UAB, Temple
Away: Tulsa, SMU, Tulane, Navy
2024
Home: SMU, Rice, South Florida, Charlotte
Away: UTSA, UAB, Florida Atlantic, East Carolina
2025
Home: Tulsa, UTSA, Tulane, Florida Atlantic
Away: SMU, Memphis, South Florida, Temple
2026
Home: SMU, South Florida, East Carolina, Navy
Away: Tulsa, Rice, Tulane, Charlotte
Original source can be found here.
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