PROVO, Utah (Nov. 30, 2017)—BYU today announced agreements for future football games with Houston of the American Athletic Conference, Georgia Southern of the Sun Belt Conference and Hawai’i of the Mountain West Conference.
BYU will host Houston at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Oct. 17, 2020, in the first game of a renewed home-and-home series. BYU goes to Houston for the return game at John O’Quinn Field at Texas Dow Employees Credit Union (TDECU) Stadium on Oct. 7, 2023.
BYU leads the series 2-0 with wins in 2013 and 2014. The Cougars defeated Houston at Reliant Stadium (now NRG Stadium) 47-46 in 2013 before a 33-25 victory in Provo in 2014.
Over its history, Houston has won 11 conference titles and finished in the final national rankings 17 times, including No. 4 in 1976, No. 5 in 1979 and No. 8 in 2015. The Cougars feature six different individual national award winners, including 1989 Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware, and have won 86 games over the past 10 seasons to rank in the top 20 among all FBS programs.
Houston finished the 2017 regular season with a 7-4 record, including a runner-up finish in west division of the American behind No. 20 Memphis. The Cougars are coached by former Texas, All-Big 12 quarterback Major Applewhite, who previously served as an offensive coordinator at Rice, Alabama, Texas and Houston before becoming the Cougars’ 14th head coach last December.
BYU and Georgia Southern will meet for first time in a series scheduled for the 2021 and 2024 seasons. The Cougars will play at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Georgia, on Nov. 20, 2021, and then host the Eagles in Provo on Oct. 12, 2024, at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
A longtime FCS power before transitioning to the FBS level, Georgia Southern won six FCS national championships and produced two Walter Payton Award winners before moving to the FBS as a member of Sun Belt Conference in 2014. The Eagles became only the third program in NCAA history to win a conference title in their first FBS season and the first to do so with an unbeaten conference mark, going 8-0 in their inaugural Sun Belt schedule to finish the year 9-3 overall.
Chad Lunsford was officially named head coach of the Eagles on Monday after serving as the interim coach the past five weeks. Under Lunsford’s direction, the team has achieved a 2-3 record entering Saturday’s season finale after a 0-6 start before he took the helm. Overall, Georgia Southern is 25-23 as an FBS member, including a 1-0 bowl record after defeating Bowling Green 58-27 in the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl to cap off a 9-4 season.
BYU and Hawai’i have added a new home-and-home series in 2024 and 2025. The Rainbow Warriors come to Provo on Sept. 14, 2024, and the Cougars return to Honolulu the next season on Sept. 6, 2025.
The rivalry between Hawai’i and BYU goes back more than 85 years. Coming off BYU’s 30-20 victory at Aloha Stadium on Saturday, BYU now owns a 22-8 advantage in the series that first began in 1930. The Cougars are 9-0 against their former conference foes in Provo and lead the series by a 13-8 margin in Hawai’i. From 1979 to 1999 the Cougars and Rainbow Warriors played regularly as members of the Western Athletic Conference.
Members of the Mountain West since 2012, Hawaii is coached by former UH quarterback Nick Rolovich, who is 10-16 in his two seasons at the helm including a 52-35 Hawaii Bowl victory in 2016 over Middle Tennessee. Overall, the Rainbow Warriors have been to 11 bowl games, including the 2008 Sugar Bowl as only the third non automatic-qualifier conference team at the time to earn a BCS Bowl invitation. Hawai’i has won four conference titles and quarterback Colt Brennan earned the Sammy Baugh Trophy in 2006.
Coached by Kalani Sitake, BYU has been playing varsity football since 1922 and ranks No. 7 among FBS programs in total victories over the past four decades. The Cougars captured the 1984 national championship and have earned 35 bowl invitations and won 23 conference titles during their history. The program also boasts 13 Consensus All-Americans, seven members of the College Football Hall of Fame and 10 recipients of major individual awards, including the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, Sammy Baugh Trophy, Davey O’Brien Award, Outland Trophy and Doak Walker Award.
Kickoff times and broadcast plans for the announced games will be determined at a later date. For more information on BYU football, visit BYUcougars.com.