Marshall and Cincinnati will play a home-and-home series in 2017 and 2019, the schools announced Thursday.
The Thundering Herd will travel to Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium to face the Bearcats on September 23, 2017. The Bearcats make the reasonable trek back to Huntington’s Joan C. Edwards Stadium on September 28, 2019.
Marshall Athletic Director Mike Hamrick voiced his excitement in the release.
“We want to play the best power conference teams we can in home-and-home series, but we also want to play the best in the Group of Five – and Cincinnati certainly is one of those programs,” Hamrick said. “It’s also a fan-friendly game for both schools, since only about 150 miles separate Cincinnati and Huntington.”
Both schools’ 2017 non-conference slates are now complete. The Herd will face Miami (OH) and Kent State at home (September 2 and 16, respectively), sandwiched around a September 9 trip to NC State.
Cincinnati will also host Miami (OH) in 2017 (September 16), after hosting Austin Peay (September 2) and traveling to Michigan (September 9).
Cincinnati is scheduled for 2019 contests at home against UCLA (August 31) and at Ohio State (September 7), Miami OH (September 14) and Boise State (September 21). No adjustments to that docket have been announced.
Marshall still has two open spots remaining in 2019.
This is a great home and home series. Not far from each other.
Marshall also has scheduled a home and home with Boise State.
This is a wonderful fan friendly series for both schools. Great scheduling!!!!
Marshall makes way more competitive sense to be in the American than a Tulsa or Tulane, but unfortunately not from a TV market standpoint.
Good scheduling. Why won’t Kentucky play Marshall? That would be even better, but UK are pussycats rather than wildcats when it comes to non-conference scheduling.