Feb. 9, 2005

MEMPHIS, TENN. - ESPN announced today that the network will carry the 2005 football season opener between the Memphis Tigers and the Ole Miss Rebels. The game will be played on Monday, Sept. 5, and kick-off is slated for 3:30 p.m. CT.

The Labor Day meeting marks just the third time in two years that the Tigers will play a regular season game on a weekday. Memphis hosted Louisville last season in an ESPN game played on Thursday, and returned the following week to host Southern Miss in another ESPN match-up on Friday. The Tigers, who finished last season at 8-4, played four of their last five games of the season in front of a national audience.

"It's great to have Ole Miss and Memphis as part of our Labor Day programming," said ESPN's Dave Brown. "We are pleased to be able to show the head coaching debut of Ed Orgeron at Ole Miss and the return of Memphis running back DeAngelo Williams, who could have entered the National Football League draft early.

"We had a great game between Ole Miss and Memphis two years ago on ESPN2 and we had a full house at the Liberty Bowl."

The Memphis-Ole Miss match-up is one of the oldest rivalries in Tiger annals. The two squads have met 54 times since 1921, and Memphis has won the last two straight meetings. The Tigers defeated the Rebels, 44-34, at the Liberty Bowl in 2003, and traveled to Oxford last season, handing Ole Miss a 20-13 defeat.

Conference USA officials have indicated that member schools could have their schedules for 2005 as early as Feb. 15. The Tigers are slated to host Ole Miss and Chattanooga in non-league contests, and East Carolina, Marshall, UAB and Texas-El Paso in C-USA action. Memphis will travel to Houston, Southern Miss, Tulsa and Central Florida for league play, and will head to Knoxville for a Nov. 12 meeting with the Vols.

Conference USA has undergone major changes heading into 2005. The 12 schools will be split into two divisions for football with Memphis joining ECU, Marshall, USM, UAB and UCF in the East Division. Houston, Rice, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa and UTEP will make up the West Divisions. Beginning this season, C-USA will host a championship game between the two division leaders.