Missouri and Connecticut finalized a deal Thursday to play a home-and-home football series between the programs.
The Tigers and Huskies will meet for the first time ever on the gridiron when UConn visits Columbia for a game on Sept. 19, 2015. Missouri will play at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn., on Sept. 23, 2017.
The Huskies, who have a 2-2 record against current teams in the Southeastern Conference, have played in five bowl games during the past 10 seasons, including an appearance in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl.
The agreement with UConn helps Missouri get closer to finishing out its 2015 schedule, as three of the four non-conference games area now set. The Tigers will host Southeast Missouri State on Sept. 5, before traveling to Arkansas State on Sept. 12 and finishing with the Huskies on Sept 19.
The 2017 schedule has two non-conference games remaining to be filled around a Sept. 16 home date with Purdue and the Sept. 23 road game at UConn.
"We're really pleased to be able to reach an agreement to schedule UConn," said executive associate athletic director Bryan Maggard, who oversees football scheduling. "It's fun to bring new opponents into Columbia for our fans, and this is a program that's had a high level of success in the past decade.
"One of the most challenging aspects of conference realignment has involved football scheduling, and reconstructing things after we moved to the SEC. We're getting really close to having 2015 taken care of and being able to move on to future schedules, so that's very exciting."