BYU, Houston Announce Home-and-Home Series

PROVO, Utah — BYU Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe today announced a home-and-home football series with the University of Houston slated for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

BYU will open the series on the road at Robertson Stadium in Houston on Oct. 19, 2013. The BYU Cougars will then play host to the Houston Cougars at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah, on Sept. 27, 2014.

“We’re excited to play this series with Houston,” said Holmoe. “It allows both schools to have unique travel experiences and play very good competition. Our football team has never played in Houston, so I’m excited that BYU fans in that part of the country will have an opportunity to see our team play in person.”

Although the two universities have never played in football, BYU is 46-19-1 in games versus opponents from the state of Texas (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, UTEP, SMU, Rice, West Texas State, North Texas and Fort Hood) and 41-21-1 in games versus schools from Conference USA (Marshall, Rice, SMU, Sothern Mississippi, Tulane, Tulsa and UTEP).

Houston was a founding member of Conference USA, where it began competing in 1996. The Cougars began playing football in 1946. Houston has made 20 postseason bowl appearances and has captured 10 conference championships, including the 2006 C-USA title. In 1995, Houston defeated the Rice Owls 18-17 in the Bayou Bucket Classic — the final football game in Southwest Conference history.

“We are very pleased to be able to bring such a high-quality opponent to the University of Houston campus,” said Houston Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades. “BYU is a tradition-rich football program and will make for an exciting series. We believe in playing a strong non-conference schedule against teams nationally known to our fans.”

BYU embarks on its first season as a football independent in 2011 and the first of an eight-year exclusive broadcast agreement with ESPN. The Cougars began playing football in 1922. In 86 seasons BYU has earned 23 conference titles and appeared in 29 bowls as members of the Western Athletic and Mountain West conferences. The Cougars won the National Championship in 1984.

Both universities have a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback. Andre Ware of Houston captured the prestigious award as a junior in 1989, and Ty Detmer won the award the following year as a junior at BYU.

Additional details including broadcast plans, game times and ticket information will be released at a later date.