UNT learns C-USA details

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North Texas will stay a little closer to home once football season rolls around — both this year and for the foreseeable future in Conference USA.

UNT will play its first season in C-USA next season, when the Mean Green will play host to Rice, Texas-San Antonio and UTEP.

Those three games were announced, along with the league’s full schedule and its divisional lineup, on Wednesday.

UNT will join Louisiana Tech, Rice, Tulane, Tulsa, UTEP and UTSA in C-USA’s West Division. The East Division will include East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Southern Miss and UAB.

“It’s great,” UNT coach Dan McCarney said of C-USA’s lineup. “There is nothing better than football in Texas, and we have four Texas teams and two Louisiana teams. It’s a tremendous conference with teams from all over the South and Southeast.”

UNT announced its schedule for its first season in C-USA in conjunction with the league announcing its divisions and schedule.

UNT will open at home against Idaho on Aug. 31 before going to Ohio (Sept. 7), Ball State (Sept. 14) at home and traveling to Georgia (Sept. 21).

The Mean Green then will play four home games and four road games in C-USA on dates that have yet to be determined.

UNT will play host to Rice, UTSA, UTEP and former Sun Belt Conference rival Middle Tennessee. The Mean Green will travel to Tulane, Tulsa, Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech.

Ohio, Georgia, Rice and Tulsa all won bowl games last season, while Ball State also played in a postseason game.

Louisiana Tech and MTSU finished 9-3 and 8-4, respectively, but were not selected for bowl games. UTSA finished 8-4 but was still in the process of joining the Football Bowl Subdivision ranks and was not eligible for the postseason.

Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20130124-football-notebook-unt-learns-c-usa-details.ece

“This has to be one of the most challenging schedules in the history of our program,” McCarney said.