The University of Toledo will play home-and-home football games with Arkansas State and Fresno State, Vice President and Athletic Director Mike O’Brien announced yesterday.
UT will host Arkansas State in 2015 and Fresno State in 2016. The Rockets will return trips to Arkansas and California in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
“We are very pleased to add Arkansas State and Fresno State to our future football schedules,” O’Brien said. “Both programs are very accomplished and have had outstanding football teams in recent years. We look forward to exciting and competitive series with both schools.”
Arkansas State has put together back-to-back 10-3 records, winning Sun Belt Conference Championships in 2011 and 2012. The Red Wolves defeated Kent State, 17-13, in the GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile, Ala., last January. The Rockets have a 2-0 all-time record against Arkansas State, with wins in 1990 and 1992.
Fresno State, a Mountain West school, has had winning records in five of the last six seasons. The Bulldogs are 4-0 this season and ranked No. 21 in the nation in the USA Today coaches poll and No. 23 in the AP poll. In 2012, Fresno State was 9-4 and played in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl vs. SMU. Fresno State swept the Rockets in the previous two meetings between the schools, winning at home in 2005 and in the Glass Bowl in a 55-54 double-overtime thriller in 2008.
