Southern Miss: Future Non-Conference Opponents Confirmed

Southern Miss may not have qualified for a bowl, but the Eagles athletic department made some news of their own.

On Friday, Jason Munz of the Hattiesburg American reported that Southern Miss had finalized their 2015 non-conference schedule by adding FCS foe Austin Peay. The Governors went 1-11 in 2014 and have lost 23 of their 24 games. The game will take place on September 12 and will be the Golden Eagles' second game of the 2015 season. Also on the 2015 Southern Miss non-conference schedule is Mississippi State, who will travel to M.M. Roberts Stadium on September 5 in the season opener for both teams. The Bulldogs last played in Hattiesburg in 1989, which is also the last time that an SEC school has played at Southern Miss.

Southern Miss will then take on Texas State in their first road test of 2015, this will be second meeting between the two schools (2013) and the first in San Marcos. The game is scheduled for September 19. The non-conference portion of the 2015 schedule ends with a September 26 trip to Nebraska. This will be the third meeting in four years between the Huskers and Golden Eagles.

Munz also reported that Southern Miss has inked a home and home deal with the Troy Trojans out of the Sun Belt. The first meeting will be in Hattiesburg in 2016, and Southern Miss will travel to Troy in 2019. Despite the geographic proxmity of the two schools, Southern Miss and Troy have only met once in the past 35 years (2008 New Orleans Bowl). The schools have met eight times, but six of those meetings were in the 1930s and 1940s. The Trojans and Golden Eagles also played in 1977.

Below is a tentative list of out-of-conference games for Southern Miss, the list includes games through 2021. Since many of these games are a few years away, this schedule is fluid and could easily change.

2015: vs Mississippi State (9/5), vs Austin Peay (9/12), at Texas State (9/19), at Nebraska (9/26)

2016: at LSU (9/10), vs Troy (9/17), at BYU (11/19)

2017: at Tennessee (9/2)

2018: at Appalachian State (9/15)

2019: at Troy (9/6), vs Navy (10/12)

2020: South Alabama (9/5)

2021: at South Alabama (9/4)

TBA: vs BYU