Miami to Play Florida International in 2006, 2007 at Orange Bowl

Oct. 31, 2005

Coral Gables, Fla. (www. hurricanesports.com) – – The Miami Hurricanes will host the Florida International University Golden Panthers at the Orange Bowl in each of the next two years.

The two games will be played on October 14, 2006 and October 6, 2007. They will be the first games played between the two schools, which are located only 11 miles apart.

“We’re very pleased to play Florida International University,” said UM athletic director Paul Dee. “FIU athletic director Rick Mello had expressed an interested in playing the University of Miami, and as we looked around the country for Division I-A teams, it became clear that Florida International University was a very viable candidate as an opponent. Since the games will be played at the Orange Bowl, we made a few concessions to guarantee FIU a number of tickets.

“Now that we will play 12 games every year, we want to play seven home games if we can, and that increases our revenue and is good for our fans,” Dee continued. “We’ve played Florida A&M many times over the years. We played South Florida this year. And we have games scheduled against Central Florida (in 2008-2010). We play Florida State every year and we play Florida intermittently. All of these schools play good football. It’s important that we all play locally.”

UM football coach Larry Coker added, “Playing FIU is good for both schools. FIU has really upgraded its football program. They have played some Big 12 schools and they traveled to Texas Tech and Kansas State this year. It’ll be good for both programs and the fans of both schools. The travel is non-existent. It’ll be a special game and a fun game. I think our fans like to see local teams, since they know the players, and the players will know each other, too. FIU will give our fans a reason to come, and it’ll draw FIU fans, too.”