UC Davis Will Open 2021 Football Season Against USC

DAVIS (CBS13) - The UC Davis Aggies will open the 2021 football season against USC. The game will be played in Los Angeles.

The September 4th game will be the first time the two teams have competed against one another. It is also the first time the Trojans have scheduled an opponent from the Division I Football Championship Subdivision.

The UC Davis Director of Athletics, Kevin Blue, released a statement saying, "That USC agreed to play UC Davis as its first-ever FCS opponent signifies the respect they have for our team and university. It is deserved recognition of the upward trajectory of our football program under the guidance of Coach Hawkins."

The Aggies went 10-3 last season and won its first-ever Big Sky Conference Championship. The team also competed for the first time in the NCAA FCS postseason tournament. They beat Northern Iowa before losing the next game.

UC Davis has played members of the Pac-12 Conference (formerly Pac-10) six times during the 16 years since beginning its Division I reclassification: Stanford (2005, 2014, 2018), Cal (2010), Arizona State (2011) and Oregon (2016). The Aggies open the upcoming year with Cal on Saturday, Aug. 31.