Troy Signs Home And Home Football Deal With Duke
By: Stephen Crews
Updated: January 22, 2013
Troy
and Duke will play a home-and-home football series beginning in 2013,
Troy Athletics Director John Hartwell announced on Tuesday. The Trojans
will travel to Durham, N.C., in 2013 and the Blue Devils will make the
trip to Troy in 2014.
The
date for the game at Wallace Wade Stadium will be announced once the
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) sets its league schedule.
The
series with the Blue Devils was prompted by the early departures of
Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic from the Sun Belt Conference. The
Trojans will now
have seven league games in 2013 and five non-conference contests.
"We
knew there was a strong possibility of Middle Tennessee and Florida
Atlantic leaving the league early," Hartwell said. "It was important for
our football
program to be proactive and have a scheduling plan in place for when it
happened. The series with Duke is exciting for our program as we have
the opportunity to play a quality ACC team on the road and then get
another home game against an opponent from an automatic
qualifying conference."
Duke's
trip to Troy in 2014 will be the first ever by a member of the ACC to
Veterans Memorial Stadium and the second by a school from a BCS
automatic qualifying
conference in a three-year period. Troy hosted Mississippi State in
front of a Veterans Memorial Stadium record crowd in 2012. Troy also
hosted Missouri in 2004 and Oklahoma State in 2007; both were Trojan
victories.
Troy's
Sun Belt Conference schedule will feature home games against ULM, South
Alabama and Texas State. The Trojans will travel to Arkansas State,
Georgia State,
Western Kentucky and Louisiana-Lafayette. The dates of the Sun Belt
contests will be announced at a later time.
"Ideally
we'd like to have four Sun Belt home games, however we know this is
just a one-year situation due to the early departures of Middle
Tennessee and Florida
Atlantic," Hartwell said. "We certainly tried to make the best of the
situation by securing the series with Duke which also provides us with a
home game against a BCS conference school in 2014."
Troy's
2013 slate is one of the toughest in school history as it features
games against seven opponents who played in a bowl game in 2012,
including three of
its five non-conference opponents (Mississippi State, Ole Miss and
Duke).
Troy's
other non-conference games for the 2013 season include home games
against UAB (Aug. 31) and Savannah State (Sept. 7); the game with
Savannah State was
signed over the summer of 2012. The Trojans will travel to Mississippi
State (Sept. 21) and Ole Miss (Nov. 16) in addition to the game at
Duke.
