March 1, 2006
SAN DIEGO - Six home games and a road trip to Wisconsin highlight the 2006 San Diego State football schedule released Wednesday by first-year Aztec head coach Chuck Long.
SDSU will play a 12-game schedule over a 14-week span, beginning with a Thursday night outing at home against UTEP on Aug. 31, at Qualcomm Stadium that will be broadcast nationally on CSTV. This will mark the fourth time in the last seven years that the Aztecs have kicked-off a campaign on a Thursday and is the first time the team has done so at home since playing host to Arizona on Aug. 30, 2001.
"I'm very pleased with our schedule," Long said. "It's a good schedule and a challenging one. It's great top open the season at home on Labor Day weekend in front of a national television audience. It also gives us a couple of open weeks at the right time, especially one in the middle of the year."
SDSU and UTEP meet for the 22nd time overall and the first time in San Diego since 1998. The Aztecs have claimed seven straight versus the Miners, including a 34-0 win in El Paso in 2003.
"The opportunity to play Chuck Long's inaugural game on national television on a Thursday evening is a wonderful opportunity to showcase San Diego State and our football program to a national audience," said SDSU Director of Athletics Jeff Schemmel. "We look forward to making that event a special one for our fans."
After a bye week, San Diego State heads to Wisconsin and Camp Randall Stadium on Sept. 16, for its lone non-conference contest outside of the state of California. The Badgers hold a 3-1 edge in the all-time series with the most recent meeting coming in 1998 in San Diego. This is the fourth straight year and the ninth time in the last 10 seasons that SDSU has played a member of the Big Ten Conference (Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan).
"Wisconsin will be an exciting game for us," Long said. "We have several members of our (coaching) staff who have worked in the Big Ten and are familiar with (Wisconsin). Their new head coach Bret Bielema and I worked together at Iowa with our (SDSU) defensive coordinator Bob Elliott."
The Aztecs return home one week later to begin its 2006 Mountain West Conference slate with Utah on Sept. 23, followed by two straight away contests at San Jose State (Sept. 30) and at Brigham Young (Oct. 7).
San Diego State's second and final open week comes Oct. 14, as the squad prepares for two home games in a row versus Air Force (Oct. 21) and Cal Poly (Oct. 28). SDSU has won three of the last four over the Falcons and takes on the Mustangs for the first time since 1967, when the Aztecs won 26-20 in the two schools' 22nd all-time meeting.
The month of November has the team on the road three of the four weeks with trips to Wyoming (Nov. 4), reigning MWC champion TCU (Nov. 18) and New Mexico (Nov. 25) sandwiching a home outing with UNLV on Nov. 11. The team's regular-season comes to a close at home on Dec. 2, versus Colorado State. This is the fourth straight year that the Aztecs have played their final conference game at home. SDSU is a perfect 3-0 in its last three home finales versus MWC opponents.
"We are pleased that the Mountain West Conference Football schedule is out, primarily because we have had such a demand for that information from people wanting to purchase tickets," said Schemmel.
"We are particularly thankful to the Conference office for accommodating our change in schedule necessitated by Sacramento State's actions, which caused us to replace their game with the Cal Poly game that occurs in the middle of the conference season."
San Diego State completed its 2005 campaign with a 5-7 record, playing six schools which advanced to bowl games. The Aztecs' schedule also includes six bowl teams in 2006.
All kick-off times and television information will be announced at a later date.
2006 San Diego State Football Schedule
(As of March 1, 2006)
| Date | Opponent | Place | Time |
| August | |||
| 31 | UTEP | San Diego, Calif. (CSTV) | TBA |
| September | |||
| 16 | at Wisconsin | Madison, Wis. | TBA |
| 23 | UTAH* | San Diego, Calif. | TBA |
| 30 | at San Jose St. | San Jose, Calif. | TBA |
| October | |||
| 7 | at BYU* | Provo, Utah | TBA |
| 21 | AIR FORCE* | San Diego, Calif. | TBA |
| 28 | CAL POLY | San Diego, Calif. | TBA |
| November | |||
| 4 | at Wyoming* | Laramie, Wyo. | TBA |
| 11 | UNLV* | San Diego, Calif. | TBA |
| 18 | at TCU* | Ft. Worth, Texas | TBA |
| 25 | at New Mexico* | Albuquerque, N.M. | TBA |
| December | |||
| 2 | COLORADO STATE* | San Diego, Calif. | TBA |
All home games in CAPS Home games played at Qualcomm Stadium
* = Mountain West Conference games