Utes, Northern Illinois will play home-and-home in 2018-19
A day after announcing a home-and-home series against BYU, Northern Illinois generated more Beehive State buzz with a news release detailing a home-and-home series against Utah in 2018-19.
The third of four announcements in NIU's #SchedulePalooza marketing campaign — San Diego State was the other — Utah is the only team thus far from in a Power 5 conference. NIU AD Sean Frazier said the Utes will become the first Pac-12 opponent to ever visit DeKalb. Previously, Northern Illinois has played only Oregon State, losing 67-28 in Corvallis in 1996.
But NIU isn't a total cupcake, at least not in 2014. The Huskies have won 46 games over the past four seasons and last year had a legitimate Heisman contender in quarterback Jordan Lynch.
Utah will play at home against Weber State on Aug. 30 and BYU on Nov. 24 in 2018. Its Pac-12 slate that season includes home games against Arizona, Oregon, USC and Washington, and road contests at Arizona State, Colorado, Stanford, UCLA and Washington State.
Their only other known non-Pac-12 South opponent on the 2019 slate is Idaho State.
The school has been hinting at its future opponents on social media all week. Would you have guessed it from Thursday's Utah hints?
#SchedulePalooza hint No. 1: No team from this conference has ever played at Huskie Stadium.
— NIU Huskie Athletics (@NIUAthletics) July 31, 2014#SchedulePalooza hint No. 4: The documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys" https://t.co/SNpftqRN4M
— NIU Huskie Athletics (@NIUAthletics) July 31, 2014— Matthew Piper
mpiper@sltrib.com
Twitter: @matthew_piper