GEORGETOWN, Texas – The Southwestern University Pirates football team released its 2020 schedule today and will kick off its eighth season at home on Saturday, Sep. 5 at 7:00 p.m.

Southwestern is looking to bounce back from an injury-plagued season in which the Pirates went through five different quarterbacks and weekly wholesale changes on the defense; finishing with the program's first losing record since 2015 at 4-6.

This season's schedule offers a unique shot at redemption.

"Our schedule for 2020 is the mirror image of 2019 in that we play the same teams in the same order, only the home team and the location is flipped," Head Coach Joe Austin said.

The Pirates will host the Sewanee Tigers in the season opener. Last year, Southwestern defeated the Tigers 47-7 on the road.

"We're excited to host Sewanee: The University of the South," Austin said. "They were great hosts to us last year. We like when we can play other excellent academic institutions with our one and only non-conference game."

Southwestern has an early bye in Week 2 before starting conference play on Saturday, Sep. 19 on the road against Louisiana College. The Pirates defeated Louisiana College 50-3 last season to open the year at 2-0 with a combined 97-10 score.

The Pirates will follow that alternating home and away games, playing at Sul Ross State on Oct. 3, hosting Belhaven on Oct. 10, traveling to face defending national champion Mary Hardin-Baylor on Oct. 17, and hosting McMurry on Oct. 24 during homecoming weekend.

Southwestern then has back-to-back road games, playing at East Texas Baptist on Oct. 31 and Howard Payne on Nov. 7, before returning home to finish the season against Hardin-Simmons on Nov. 14.

This will be the Pirates' fourth season competing in the American Southwest Conference.

"The ASC is always difficult. Like every year, there will be several ranked teams and no game is ever easy," Austin said. "The conference has changed a lot during the time that we have played in it. Some of the teams that used to be at the bottom have brought in new coaching staffs and they have really raised their quality.

"The top of the conference is always elite and now we have very good teams from top to bottom. It is the SEC of Division III.

For more SU Pirate photos, please see Carlos Barron Photography