Sun Belt Conference And USA Football Release Kickoff And TV Times For Three Games
The University of South Alabama and the Sun Belt Conference released kickoff times and broadcast details for three of the Jaguars games this season.
The season opener, and head coaching debut of Coach Wommack, against Southern Miss will kick off at 7pm at Hancock Whitney Stadium and will be broadcast on ESPN+. The September 11th game against Bowling Green in Ohio will kick off at 3pm and will also be broadcast on ESPN+.
The Jaguars conference matchup against Georgia Southern at Hancock Whitney Stadium on Thursday, October 14th will kickoff at 6:30pm and will be broadcast on ESPN3.
According to the University kickoff times and broadcast details for the remaining games will be announced at a later date.
South Alabama vs Southern Miss Scheduled For National Broadcast
The South Alabama Jaguar football team will open the 2020 college football season with a nationally-televised match up against the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles per Conference USA.
The Jags and the Golden Eagles will kick off at 8pm CDT on Thursday, September 3 at M. M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
It will be the first time the Jags have been on CBSSN since their November 13, 2013 game at Navy.
As all South Alabama football games they can also be heard on 96.1 FM The Rocket and 99.5 FM The Jag locally in Mobile. As well as nation wide on the iHeartRadio app.
We will be there to give you in-game updates on twitter at @USAThunderjags.
Jags vs Southern Miss Date Change; Tulane Replaces Grambling For Home Opener
South Alabama Athletics announced two scheduling changes on Thursday.
The season opener against Southern Miss has moved up to Thursday, September 3. It was originally scheduled for Saturday, September 5th.
In an effort to replace the Jags home opener against Grambling, which was cancelled when the SWAC announced the postponement of the football season to the spring, has scheduled Tulane to visit Mobile.
USA was trying to schedule an FCS school to replace FCS Grambling but was unable to find anyone to fill that hole in the schedule. Apparently they did not want to take the chance of forever having a home opening loss in Hancock Whitney Stadium to go down as a loss to in-state foe (can’t really call them a rival…yet) UAB.
As for attendance for the season opener at Southern Miss, or attendance at home this season, there has not been an official announcement. So far it is presumed that home game attendance will be limited to 25% if fans are permitted to attend games at all, at least in the early part of the season.
Take a look at our previous article about attendance numbers and why USA should consider playing their home games at Ladd-Peebles this season due to the reduced attendance numbers because of the pandemic.
Check back for updates as they come.
Go Jags!
SEC Decision Cancels South Alabama’s Game Versus Florida
Another blow to the Jaguars schedule happened today, courtesy of the Southeastern Conference.
The SEC announced they were going to a 10-game, conference-only schedule for fall of 2020. Due to this decision, the Jags game in The Swamp against Florida will happen this fall.
This had been rumored for the last several days and pretty much was inevitable when the Atlantic Coast Conference announced an 11 game season, 10 conference games and one non-conference game.
Additionally, the SEC football season will start on September 26 and the SEC Championship Game will move to December 19.
As it currently stands, the Jags will open against Southern Mississippi on September 5, then would return to action on September 26 against UAB.
However, as we are seeing nation wide this is a fuild situation and Sun Belt Conference peer Conference USA, with members USM and UAB, could go to a conference-only schedule themselves.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Sun Belt Conference could go to a conference-only schedule themselves or collaborate with CUSA for an 8 + 2 schedule, which would allow the Jags to hold steady with the schedule they currently have.
It’s unknown if USA will get any compensation for the game cancellation.
We’ll share more as we get information.
South Alabama’s Game Against Grambling Cancelled; Working On Scheduling New Opponent For Home Opener Sept 12
On Monday, the Southwestern Athletic Conference announced the cancellation of fall sports for the 2020 season. This effectively cancelled the Jags game against Grambling that was set to officially open Hancock-Whitney Stadium.
The SWAC becomes the 5th of 13 overall FCS conferences to announce cancellations their fall schedule due to COVID-19.
The Jaguar Athletics Staff are diligently working to scrounge up another opponent for the September 12th date.
South Alabama isn’t alone in this situation as the cancellation of SWAC and other conference schedules ripple across college football. Some FBS conferences who have announced a conference-only schedule such as the Big Ten and PAC-12.
Most notable is fellow in-state institution, University of Alabama, who had a marquee season-opening game schedule against Southern Cal that was cancelled due to the decision by the PAC-12 conference.
Once we hear something, we’ll pass it along!
Go Jags!
South Alabama And Ole Miss Agree To Home-And-Home Series
The University of South Alabama and Ole Miss have finalized an agreement to meet on the gridiron for a home-and-home series.
The Jags and the Rebels previously met once in Oxford with the Jags losing 47-27.
The meetings are scheduled for September 2, 2028 in Oxford and again the following year on September 1, 2029 at Hancock Whitney Stadium.
Jaguars To Host Alabama A&M In 2018 Football Season
South Alabama Athletics Director Dr. Joel Erdmann announced that the USA football team has signed a contract to play Alabama State in 2018 which completes the Jaguars’ non-Conference schedule for that season.
The Jaguars and the Hornets will play at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on October 13, 2018 marking the first match-up between the two programs. It also marks the second consecutive season that the Jaguars will play an in-state NCAA Division I program outside of conference play as the Jaguars will also host Alabama A&M on September 16, 2017.
The 2018 non-conference schedule for the Jaguars includes games at home against Louisiana Tech on September 1, a road trip to Oklahoma State on September 8, then another road trip to Memphis on September 22 as well as the announced October 13 game against the Hornets.
South Alabama has played two other in-state, non-conference schools prior to joining the Sun Belt in 2012. In their first season of football they defeated Huntingdon College 35-0 and opened the 2011 season with a 20-0 win over West Alabama. The Jags were slated to face UAB in a home-and-home series beginning this season but the announcement to end football after last season curtailed those plans.