The Southern Jaguars will host the Florida Memorial Lions in 2020 and 2021, according to an announcement on Friday.

Southern will host Florida Memorial at Ace W. Mumford Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., on Oct. 31, 2020. The two schools will also meet the following season in Baton Rouge (2021) on a date to be determined.

Florida Memorial is a member of the Mid-South Conference in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The school has relaunched their football program after a nearly 62-year hiatus.

“This is huge deal for our football program and our university as a whole,” said FMU Athletics Director Ernest T. Jones. “This is exactly what you want for your program – to be able to put your student-athletes in position to compete at the highest level against other top programs.”

The Lions mark their return to gridiron action with a home game scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 12 against Keiser University at Betty T. Ferguson Recreational Complex in Miami Gardens, Fla.

As for Southern, the Florida Memorial contest was part of a revised 2020 football schedule announcement made on Friday. The Jags made changes due to the ongoing novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Southern will now open the 2020 season on Sept. 19, two weeks later that originally scheduled. Games canceled include the Detroit Football Classic against Tennessee State on Sept. 5 and a home contest against Florida A&M on Sept. 12.

Morehouse was originally scheduled to play at Southern on Oct. 31, 2020, but that contest was canceled allowing Florida Memorial to slide into that spot.

With the addition of the Florida Memorial contest, Southern now has two scheduled non-conference contests for the 2021 season. The Jags are scheduled to open the season at Troy on Sept. 4.

Future Southern Football Schedules