Hilltoppers Complete Non-Conference Schedule Through 2017
WKU has added Houston Baptist to open their 2016 schedule, and the Huskies will join the Crimson Tide, Red Hawks and Commodores as the Tops’ non-conference schedule for that year. Houston Baptist began it’s football program just last year, finishing with a 3-4 inagural record, and will play in the FCS’ Southland Conference this coming year. WKU is paying HBU $300,000 for the impending beat-down. (That means WKU is a big time program…right?)
2015 and 2017’s non-conference schedules are also completely full, with next year beginning the three game Vandy series (the game mentioned above in 2016 is the lone one to be played at WKU), a trip to Indiana against the Hoosiers, the first of a two-year home-and-home with Miami (OH) (to be played at WKU in 2015) and a trip back to LSU, where Willie T. fearlessly lead his troops back in 2011, and at one point had a lead!
2017 match-ups feature a revamping of the WKU/Eastern Kentucky rivalry, another trip to Illinois, the closing of the Vandy series and the beginning of a home and home with Ball State.
Only four games are known for WKU for 2018 and beyond – a game at Ball State (2018), two games with Army (who will be home and away haven’t been decided yet – one game in 2019 and the other in 2021) and a trip to Hawaii in the early parts of, if not the opening game for, the 2022 season.
Man, all of those seem so far away. Think about how much the football program can grow by then, even by the 2017 season. I don’t think it’s out of the question that WKU could take two of three from that Vandy series. But I digress.