The 2017 football schedule is out. Good news is that the Tigers do not have an early bye week.
The season will kick off on a Thursday night.
Thurs. Aug. 31 ULM: Louisiana-Monroe's first trip to Memphis since 2000 and the Warhawks' first visit as a member of the Sun Belt Conference; Louisiana-Monroe's last trip to the Liberty Bowl was as a FBS independent
Sat. Sept. 9 @UCF: Tigers' first meeting with UCF since 2013 and their first trip to Orlando since 2011; also earliest league opener for Memphis since 2008 (vs. Rice; Sept. 6, 2008)
Sat. Sept. 16 UCLA: UCLA's first trip to play Memphis in the Liberty Bowl, but not the Bruins' first trip to play in the Bluff City; UCLA played Alabama in the 1976 Liberty Bowl
Sat. Sept. 23 Southern Illinois: Facing Southern Illinois for the first time in program history; fifth time in the last six seasons Memphis has a first-time foe on its schedule
Sat. Sept. 30 @Georgia State: Tigers' first trip to play in the city of Atlanta since 1981 when Memphis posted a 28-15 win at Georgia Tech
Sat. Oct. 6 @UConn: Memphis' second trip to Connecticut in program history; last played at the Huskies' home in 2013
Sat. Oct. 14 Navy: Tigers welcome Navy, the American Athletic Conference West Division champion, to the Liberty Bowl; Memphis defeated the 2015 AAC West champion, Houston, at the Liberty Bowl in 2016
Thurs. Oct. 19 @Houston: Memphis plays at Houston on a short week (four days between games); since 2000, Memphis has a 5-2 record in "short-week" games, including wins the last two seasons over Cincinnati (2015) and Temple (2016)
Fri. Oct. 27 Tulane: Tigers try to extend win streak in the series with the Green Wave to 11-straight
Fri. Nov. 3 @Tulsa: Head coach Norvell's first trip to Tulsa, where he started his FBS coaching career; served as assistant for the Golden Hurricane from 2007-10
Sat. Nov. 11: BYE/OPEN date; Memphis' latest bye/open since 2002 when the Tigers' bye/open date was Nov. 16
Sat. Nov. 18 SMU: Memphis outscored SMU 162-17 in last three meetings (2014-16)
Sat. Nov. 25 ECU: East Carolina makes first trip to the Liberty Bowl since 2011; match-up is the first between the two programs as American Athletic Conference opponents (last meeting was in 2012 in Conference USA)
The Good-
Bye week isn't in week 2. This year the bye week is in week 11. Some may not see a Week 11 as a good. You play 10 straight games before the bye week. Well, last year Memphis played 11 straight games after the week 2 bye.
7 home games for a second-straight season; first time Memphis played seven home games in consecutive seasons since 2007 and 2008.
As of now, 4 games are set for television: Oct. 6 UConn, Oct. 19 Houston on ESPN; Oct. 27 Tulane on CBS Sports Network; Nov. 3 Tulsa one of the ESPN Networks (ESPN/ESPN2).
4th straight season Memphis opens and closes a campaign with home games.
The Bad-
Playing a home game against Navy and then 5 days later traveling to Houston. That's going to be tough.
Season opener is a Thursday game that's not on TV. Not yet, anyway. Still possible for it to be picked up but as of now it isn't ideal.
