JSU football: Gamecocks, Georgia Southern make official announcement of two-game series
May 27—Jacksonville State and Georgia Southern announced Friday that they'll play a home-and-home football series in 2025 and 2026.
The news leaked earlier this week when FBSchedules.com acquired a copy of the game contract from Georgia Southern. A source confirmed to The Star that the report was authentic.
The two schools made a joint public announcement Friday. The Gamecocks will travel to Statesboro, Ga., on Sept. 13, 2025, and the Eagles will play at JSU Stadium on Sept. 19, 2026.
This is the first announcement of an FBS opponent visiting JSU since the school revealed it will move to the FBS in the summer of 2023 and all JSU sports will join Conference USA.
"To be able to secure this series with Georgia Southern is really exciting for us and our move to FBS," JSU athletics director Greg Seitz said. "When we announced that we were joining Conference USA, our scheduling options increased greatly. To be able to have a regional FBS opponent with such a storied tradition like Georgia Southern come to Jacksonville is a huge step in our process. We look forward to announcing more games like this as we go forward."
The Gamecocks have played Georgia Southern four times and are 0-4, although the two schools haven't met since 2002. The lone meeting at JSU came in 1999.
Georgia Southern is a former FCS school as well, moving to the FBS in 2014 when the Eagles joined the Sun Belt Conference.
Senior Editor Mark Edwards: 256-235-3570. On Twitter: @MarkSportsStar.
