Blue Raiders announce 2008 football schedule

The 2008 Blue Raider football schedule is highlighted with a Tuesday night home game against the defending Sun Belt champs on ESPN2

Murfreesboro- The Middle Tennessee athletic department released the 2008 football schedule on Monday. The schedule consists of seven road games and five home games. The Blue Raiders are scheduled to play on TV no less than 3 times against Sun Belt opponents.

There has been much speculation about the 2008 schedule since Memphis announced last month that they were rescheduling their game against Middle Tennessee for the 2008 season. Memphis was presented an offer to renew their gridiron rivalry with Louisville and jumped at the chance. Replacing Memphis on the Blue Raider's schedule will be the Kentucky Wildcats. The Blue Raiders will travel to Lexington on September 13.

The Blue Raiders will open the season with back-to-back home games. The first is against conference foe Troy on Thursday August 28. The following week to Blue Raiders will host Maryland from the ACC. The Maryland game marks the last game of a 3 game series between the two teams.

Other home opponents are North Texas, Louisiana-Monroe (ULM), and Florida Atlantic. The Florida Atlantic game will be on Tuesday Sept. 30. The game will be the first nationally televised game to be played at Floyd Stadium as the crew from ESPN2 will be televising the game. The Blue Raider athletic department is already billing this game as a "Black-out" and encouraging all fans to wear black to the game. There will be special shirts made available in the spring that fans may purchase to wear to this game.

The Blue Raiders will play teams from the ACC, Big East, and SEC in 2008.

2008 MIDDLE TENNESSEE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Aug. 28 *TROY (ESPN Regional)
Sept. 6 MARYLAND
Sept. 13 at Kentucky
Sept. 20 *at Arkansas State
Sept. 30 *FLORIDA ATLANTIC (ESPN2) ('Black-Out' night)
Oct. 4 OPEN
Oct. 11 *at Florida International
Oct. 18 at Louisville
Oct. 25 at Mississippi State
Nov. 1 OPEN
Nov. 8 *LOUISIANA-MONROE
Nov. 15 at Western Kentucky
Nov. 22 *NORTH TEXAS
Dec. 3 *at Louisiana-Lafayette (ESPN Regional)
Dec. 19 New Orleans Bowl (ESPN2)
*Sun Belt Conference Game