SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Two of the top football programs in NCAA Division II's Super Region One have agreed to terms on a two-year home-and-home contract for the 2024 and 2025 seasons that will see the University of New Haven travel to Slippery Rock University to open the 2024 season and The Rock travel to New Haven in West Haven, Connecticut to open the 2025 season.
 
"We're excited to be able to get this deal done and add a terrific in-region opponent to our schedule in 2024 and 2025," said SRU head coach Shawn Lutz. "When you look at Super Region One over the last decade, Slippery Rock and New Haven have been playoff contenders almost every year, so we think this will give both teams a great in-region game to boost our overall schedules."
 
Both programs are coming off NCAA Playoff appearances in 2022 and have made at least three trips to the NCAA postseason in the last four seasons. Slippery Rock owns the third longest active playoff streak in Division II at four straight years, while New Haven has made the postseason in three of the last four seasons.
 
Slippery Rock and New Haven have played six times dating back to 1986 with two of those six meetings coming in the NCAA Playoffs. The teams also played a home-and-home to open the 2015 and 2016 seasons and most recently met in the 2018 NCAA Playoffs. Both teams have won three games in the series, with New Haven winning the first three meetings in 1986, 1987 and 1997 and SRU winning the most recent three in 2015, 2016 and 2018.
 
With the way the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference handles scheduling, PSAC teams only have one regular season opportunity to play an out-of-conference game and that falls on the opening week of the season. The Rock will host New Haven Sept. 7, 2024 and will travel to Connecticut Sept. 6, 2025.
 
Slippery Rock will finish a four-year deal with Wayne State University (Mich.) next fall when the Warriors travel to The Rock to open the 2023 season Sept. 2.
 
With the signed New Haven contract, Slippery Rock now has complete schedules for the next three seasons and will play an 11-game regular season schedule in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
 
The Rock will open the 2024 and 2025 seasons with back-to-back playoff contenders as SRU will get Shepherd University in week two PSAC crossovers in each of those seasons. The Rock will then play at Indiana (Pa.) in week five of the 2024 season and host California (Pa.) in week four of the 2025 season, giving SRU three Super Region One traditional powers in the first five weeks of both the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
 
The tentative SRU schedules for the next three seasons are available HERE.
 

 
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