UK, Southern Miss set football series

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky and Southern Miss have agreed to a home-and-home football series, the two schools announced Tuesday. The Golden Eagles will open the 2016 season in Lexington and the Wildcats will travel to Hattiesburg to kick off the 2017 season.

The Sept. 3, 2016, home game for UK replaces UAB on the schedule after the Blazers shuttered their program for six months only to revive it recently – but with a too-be-determined date of return. Southern Miss will be paid $200,000 for visiting Commonwealth Stadium, Kentucky athletic department spokesman Tony Neely said.

The Cats will make their first-ever trip to M.M. Roberts Stadium to face the Golden Eagles on Sept. 2, 2017. While it's unusual for a Southeastern Conference team to play on the road against a team outside the Power 5 leagues, UK will be the second in three years to do so. Mississippi State opens at Southern Miss this fall.

Both previous meetings between the Wildcats and Golden Eagles – a pair of Kentucky wins in 1949 and 1986 – were played in Lexington.

"I'm excited for our team and certainly excited for our fans," Southern Miss athletics director Bill McGillis said in a release. "Given that we have hosted in-state SEC foes Mississippi State and Ole Miss just a handful of times over the last 40 years and have never hosted a member of the SEC outside the state of Mississippi, this qualifies as 'big news.'

"Lexington will also be a super destination for our fans to visit in 2016 – UK has a fan base noted for its great hospitality and its passion for the Wildcats – and I know it will be an exciting trip."

The Golden Eagles were once the picture of consistency, stringing together 18 consecutive winning seasons, including 14 bowl games and punctuated by a 12-2 record in 2011. But they've fallen on hard times the last three seasons, posting a 4-32 record.

Kyle Tucker can be reached at (502) 582-4361. Follow him on Twitter @KyleTucker_CJ.