PHOTO - Dave Winder - Murray State Athletics
The push to a spring Murray State Football season, because of uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, became complete Wednesday when the Ohio Valley Conference released the schedule that will commence with the first day of play on Feb. 21, 2021. For the Murray State Racers, the 96th season is a conference-only schedule of seven OVC games with four of them happening at home in Roy Stewart Stadium where MSU will be playing its 48th season of collegiate football.
The member institutions of the OVC have designated games will be played on Sunday afternoons, except for Easter, when the league play games on the day before.
“We are excited about this schedule and are looking forward to the football season,” said first-year MSU Head Coach Dean Hood. “We are appreciative to everyone that has worked so hard to put us in position to play, while keeping our players and staff safe. The vision of running on to the field at Stewart stadium and seeing Racer 1 run around the track has kept us going during these trying times.”
It all gets going for Coach Hood and the Racers in the season opener at Southeast Missouri State (Feb. 21) at Houck Stadium in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
MSU’s home opener at Stewart Stadium is against UT Martin (Feb. 28).
The OVC has a league-wide open week (March 1-6) as to not conflict with the OVC Basketball Tournament that will be going on in Evansville, Indiana, at the Ford Center.
The Racers continue with a road trip to play Tennessee Tech (March 14), before getting back-to-back home games with Tennessee State (March 21) and Eastern Illinois (March 28). MSU’s final road game is at Austin Peay (April 3) and it will mark another Battle of the Border clash between the Racers and the Governors. The Racers play their final regular season game at home (April 11) against Jacksonville State.
The NCAA will announce the selections for a revised 16-team playoff field on Sunday, April 18. This year’s field will include 11 automatic qualifiers and five at-large bids. The first round is scheduled for the weekend of April 24 with the FCS National Championship game to be played on either May 14, 15 or 16 in Frisco, Texas.
“It is with great excitement and anticipation that we announce our upcoming football schedule,” said MSU Director of Athletics, Kevin Saal. “I want to thank our student-athletes, Coach Hood and his staff for their patience, persistent preparation and commitment to Murray State despite challenging circumstances. We look forward to playing four home games and competing for an OVC Championship in front of Racer Nation at Stewart Stadium this spring.”
The 2020 football season, now to be played in early 2021, will be the 73rd for the OVC after it was formed in 1948. Murray State was one of the founding members of the league along with Eastern Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Morehead State, Louisville and Evansville.
Schedules for other fall sports competing in the spring and the basketball season will be announced by the OVC in the near future.
Racer Fans may purchase tickets by visiting www.GoRacers.com or by calling the Murray State University Ticket Office at 270.809.3000.
— Dave Winder, Murray State University Athletics
