The University of West Florida football program has announced its schedule for the team’s inaugural season in 2016. The schedule will feature eight games against Gulf South Conference opponents, which will be played after the team’s three non-conference games to begin the season. All of UWF’s home games will be played at Community Maritime Park Stadium in downtown Pensacola.
The year will start on the road for the Argonauts, as they travel to Ave Maria, an NAIA opponent in Naples, Florida, on September 3. UWF will then play host to Missouri S&T on September 10, 2016, in the program’s first-ever home game at Community Maritime Park Stadium in Pensacola. Following the home game, the Argos will visit the Chowan University Hawks in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, on September 17. Both Missouri S&T and Chowan will be NCAA Division II opponents for the Argonauts.
“We really feel fortunate to get the non-conference games we’re getting,†UWF football head coach Pete Shinnick said. “Those will be very difficult, and there is lot of competition in those first three games of the season. Everybody’s trying to get games in Division II, so to get two Division II opponents in Chowan and Missouri S&T was huge, and then the ability to stay in Florida against Ave Maria was also very important to us. So I feel great about our non-conference schedule.â€
West Florida finishes September with the program’s first Gulf South Conference matchup, a game at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium against Valdosta State on September 24. The GSC has been a remarkably successful conference in recent history, with VSU winning the national titles in 2004, 2007, and 2012, while Delta State has reached the national title game as recently as 2010.
The Argonauts host GSC football-only member Florida Tech on October 1, and they will travel to Mississippi College and Delta State on October 8 and October 15, respectively. The UWF football program will become the ninth team in the GSC, following Florida Tech and Mississippi College as the newest members of the conference.
“The Gulf South Conference dictates what the in-conference schedule looks like, and no matter where you go on that conference schedule, you’ve got great competition,†Shinnick said. “We believe the Gulf South Conference is the toughest football conference in the country, based on the fact that four teams made the playoffs in 2014, so we’ll be challenged every week in the GSC. I think it’s a very challenging schedule for a first-year program, but we’re very excited to have the opportunity to represent the University of West Florida.â€
The first UWF Homecoming football game will be October 22 against Shorter, and West Alabama will travel to Pensacola the following weekend on October 29. UWF finishes its schedule with a trip to North Alabama on November 5 and a home game against 2014 NCAA DII National Semifinalist West Georgia on November 12.
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The UWF football schedule is slightly different than the one we published in our 2008 April Fool’s edition:
2010 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
(* Home Games)
8/28 Alabama
9/4 Auburn
9/11 Florida State
9/18 Open
9/25 Notre Dame *
10/2 Appalachian State *
10/9 Louisiana Tech *
10/16 Nebraska
10/23 Open
10/30 Tulane *
11/5 Florida
11/13 Baylor *
11/20 South Alabama *
Read UWF Football By 2010