UM and USF to Play on Thanksgiving Weekend for Four Years

June 1, 2007

Coral Gables – The University of Miami and University of South Florida will play four games on Thanksgiving weekend from 2010 through 2013.

Two new games have been added to the schedule, on Nov. 27, 2010 in Miami and Nov. 26, 2011 in Tampa. The dates of games already scheduled in September of 2012 and 2013 (which were announced a year ago) were changed to Nov. 24, 2012 in Miami and Nov. 30, 2013 in Tampa.

The schools will play on Sept. 26, 2009, which is the second game of a home-and-home series that began in 2005. That date will not be changed. The Hurricanes and Bulls played for the first time on Oct. 1, 2005 at the Orange Bowl, with Miami winning 27-7.

“Coach Leavitt has done a tremendous starting the football program at USF,” said Hurricanes head coach Randy Shannon. “These games will be a great experience for college football fans throughout the entire state of Florida.”

Miami athletic director Paul Dee said, “We’re pleased that to expand this series by two more games. The University of South Florida is a tremendously successful new program in college football, having just started Division I-A football in the last decade, and in that time they have had outstanding success. We’re playing not only USF, but a Big East Conference school.”

USF director of athletics Doug Woolard commented, “It has been a tremendous pleasure to work with Paul Dee and the management at ESPN in bringing this series to fruition. We have always shared a strong desire with Miami to make a long-term series happen, and at the same time ESPN has expressed it has a strong desire to have rivalry matchups like this one available for its Thanksgiving weekend selections. We think this is a great game for fans of college football.”