IRVING — Conference USA unveiled its 2017 football schedule on Thursday and UTSA will play eight league games, all on Saturdays, this fall.
Following non-conference home games against Houston (Sept. 2) and Southern (Sept. 16) and road dates with Baylor (Sept. 9) and Texas State (Sept. 23), the Roadrunners will enjoy their lone bye of the campaign.
UTSA then will open its fifth season of C-USA play on Oct. 7 at the Alamodome against Southern Miss.
The Roadrunners' first league road tilt will take place the following week at North Texas (Oct. 14). A home contest against Rice (Oct. 21) and another road date, this time at UTEP (Oct. 28), will close out the month of October.
UTSA then will head to FIU (Nov. 4) to start November, but consecutive home games will follow against UAB (Nov. 11) and Marshall (Nov. 18). That will mark the only time the Roadrunners will play two home tilts in a row during the 2017 season.
UTSA will conclude the regular season slate on the road when it heads to Louisiana Tech on Nov. 25. It will mark the first time in program history that the Roadrunners will not host a game after the Thanksgiving holiday.
The 2017 C-USA alignment will feature seven teams in both the West and East Divisions. Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Rice, Southern Miss, UAB, UTEP and UTSA make up the West, while Charlotte, FIU, Florida Atlantic, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion and Western Kentucky comprise the East Division.
Each school will play every team in its division once for six games, while playing two cross-over opponents from the opposite division.
After having stand-alone schedules for the past four seasons due to realignment, the 2017 season marks the return to a multi-year schedule rotation that will be in place for the next several seasons. Due to the move from 13 teams to 14 for 2017, some teams will play division opponents at the same location as 2016, a situation that was unavoidable with the West Division moving from six teams to seven teams.
The 2017 schedule has 13 playing weeks, which provides for one open date for each team. It also complies with C-USA scheduling policies as approved by the Board of Directors. In addition, the schedule provides the following:
· All teams finish their conference schedule with two games of one at home and one away.
· Nearly all teams have two home games and two away games in the first half of the league schedule as well as the second half; and
· All bye weeks take place between Weeks 4 and 9.
A schedule of televised games will be released at a later date and all contests are subject to date changes, as some are expected to move in the coming weeks in order accommodate national television.
C-USA's 13th annual Championship Game, pitting the champions of the East and West Divisions, is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 2.
