NCCU's Tough Football Schedule Includes A&T

WRALSportsFan

NCCU's Tough Football Schedule Includes A&T

Feb 26, 2008

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North Carolina Central announced its 2008 football schedule Tuesday, a schedule that includes an Oct. 4 game with North Carolina A&T.

The site of that game has not been announced. Last year, the two rivals played in Greensboro, and a brawl broke out after NCCU players stomped on the Aggie logo at midfield after a 27-22 victory. Coaches were unable to stop the melee, and at least one police officer used pepper spray to break it up.

The school chancellors, in a joint news conference, deplored what happened but stopped short of saying at the time that the 2008 game would be dropped.

The site of the 2008 game has not been announced, since Central's 10,000-seat O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium likely couldn't hold the crowd. About 20,000 fans attended the game last year. The game will be a home game for N.C. Central.

N.C. Central was 6-4 in its inaugural season as an NCAA Division I-Football Championship Subdivision program in 2007. This year, NCCU will face nine fellow FCS opponents, including eight teams with five wins or more last year and two that finished among the top 25 in the nation.

James Madison (Sept. 6 in Harrisonburg, Va.) competed in the NCAA playoffs for the third time in the past four seasons, finishing with an 8-4 record.

Cal Poly (Nov. 8 in San Luis Obispo, Calif.) finished with a 7-4 record to earn a national ranking in the top 25 poll for the fourth consecutive season.

NCCU will also face the nation’s third-ranked offense when the Eagles travel to Presbyterian College (Oct. 11 in Clinton, S.C.). The Blue Hose averaged 480.9 total yards per game in 2007, and defeated NCCU 34-27 last season in the first meeting between the schools.

“This is probably the most competitive schedule we have had in quite some time,” NCCU head football coach Mose Rison said in a statement. “We will be lining up against some outstanding football teams."

The Eagles' five home games include the “Labor Day Classic” versus Fayetteville State on Sunday, Aug. 31, Winston-Salem State (Nov. 15), the “Homecoming” game against Edward Waters on Nov. 1, and a season-ending match-up with Savannah State (Nov. 22).

NCCU’s other road games are against Morgan State (Sept. 13 in Baltimore), Central Connecticut State (Sept. 20 in New Britain, Conn.), and Coastal Carolina (Oct. 18 in Conway, S.C.).

Morgan State posted a 5-6 overall record in 2007, including a 4-5 mark in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC).

Central Connecticut State finished 6-5 overall and placed second in the Northeast Conference. The Blue Devils won league titles in 2004 and 2005.

Coastal Carolina ended last season at 5-6 with a 3-1 record in the Big South. The Chanticleers have won three Big South conference championships in the past four years and boast a record of 39-17 in five years of Division I-AA/FCS competition.

NCCU’s six road games will take the Eagles to five different states, including Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, South Carolina and California. The Cal Poly trip will be NCCU’s first journey to California in 20 years, when the Eagles played Cal State Sacramento in the second round of the NCAA playoffs on Nov. 27, 1988.

In 2005, NCCU played 12 football games and never left North Carolina.