North Alabama Moves Forward with Four-Game Fall Schedule
FLORENCE, Ala. -- University of North Alabama Athletic Director Mark Linder announced today that the Lions plan to play a four-game football schedule this fall, beginning on October 3.
Linder announced that the Lions have contracts to play long-time rival Jacksonville State at home on October 17, at Southern Mississippi on November 7 and at BYU on November 21. UNA also has a contract to travel to former Big South member Liberty on October 3.
The Big South Conference previously announced that it was moving its conference schedule to the spring of 2021 but was allowing member schools to play four non-conference games this fall. That left UNA, in its third year of transition to Division I and the FCS, with the option to schedule games this fall.
"We have been meeting continuously with our staff and student-athletes and we plan to move forward with a four-game schedule, starting in October," Linder said. "As we move forward, I can't tell you how proud I am of our university, of our staff and of our student athletes, first of all for getting educated and keeping an open mind, making what I feel is a good sound decision, not only for our football program but for our university and our community."
The schedule allows an off week for the Lions between each game.
The games will mark UNA's first meetings ever with Liberty, Southern Mississippi and BYU in football. The Jacksonville State series dates back to UNA's first football game in 1949 when the sport was revived at the school. The two schools have met 47 times previously but the Gamecocks have not played in Florence at Braly Stadium since 1992.
North Alabama is in its third year of transition to Division I and FCS football and is one of only a handful of FCS teams pursuing a 2020 Fall schedule.
The Lions will be facing FBS programs for the first time since 1997. That season the Lions downed Louisiana Lafayette 48-42 in four overtimes on the road. At the time it was just the third-ever win by a Division II school over an FBS opponent.