ACU athletics released the football program’s non-conference slate through 2021 on Wednesday afternoon. The schedule includes some of the top programs in the nation along with several familiar names.
Head coach Ken Collums and staff will have the task of preparing future ACU teams for two members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), one from the Big 12, three from the Mountain West Conference, one from Conference USA and one from the American Athletic Conference between 2016 and 2021.
“These games will give us a great opportunity to showcase our brand, our university and our football program on a national stage,” said Lee De Leon, director of athletics. “Certainly these will be extremely tough tests for everyone in our program, but I believe our coaches will be able to use the experience of playing against those teams on the recruiting trail and attract great student-athletes.”
The Wildcats open the 2016 season on Sept. 3 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, against the Air Force Academy Falcons. The following year, ACU will open up its 2017 season on the road against New Mexico on Sept. 2 in Albuquerque, New Mexico and then at Colorado State on Sept. 9 in the first game of the Rams’ new on-campus stadium. The third week of the 2017 season will be the grand opening of ACU’s very own on-campus football stadium.
The Wildcats will play in Waco against Baylor on Sept. 1, 2018 to kickoff the 2018 season in their only non-conference matchup scheduled to date. The 2019 schedule will feature games with North Texas on Aug. 31, 2019 in Denton, and SEC member Mississippi State a month later on Oct. 12, in Starkville, Mississippi.
ACU’s two conference games of 2020 and 2021 will keep them in-state, but will be against vey well known Texas programs. The Wildcats will travel to College Station to take on Texas A&M on Nov. 21, 2020 at Kyle Field. In 2021, ACU has scheduled the Southern Methodist University Mustangs at Ford Stadium in Dallas on Sept. 4, 2021.
Since the move to Div. I in 2013, the Wildcats have already played against several top level programs. ACU has taken on Fresno State, Illinois State, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona and even defeated Troy University in Troy, Alabama, 38-35, on September 13, 2014, in one of the biggest wins of the programs history.
