The Saint Xavier University football team recently unveiled their new spring football schedule. The team was supposed to play a normal fall schedule, but the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to that and forced SXU to postpone all fall sports (including football) to the spring.
The team will start their nine-game regular season on February 5th, 2021, when they travel to Joliet, Illinois, to play the University of St. Francis Fighting Saints.
The Cougars played the Fighting Saints twice last season, beating them 44-28 in their first game and 29-27 in the second game. Saint Xavier will then travel to Davenport, Iowa, to play the Saint Ambrose University Fighting Bees on February 13th. The Cougars played the Bees once last season, a 38-17 winning effort on a cold day in Davenport.
Saint Xavier will then travel back to Illinois the next week to play the Roosevelt University Lakers in Arlington Heights. The Lakers have never played SXU before, so this will be an exciting matchup to watch.
The Cougars will wrap up their first half of the season on February 27th, when they travel to Deerfield, Illinois to play the Trinity International University Trojans. The Trojans lost to Saint Xavier 26-58 last year and have not beaten SXU since October 2004. The Cougars officially kick off their home schedule on March 6th, when they welcome the Roosevelt University Lakers to Deaton Field.
There is no say on if fans will attend these home games. On the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, this information is yet to be determined.
Saint Xavier will then play the Missouri Baptist University Spartans on March 13th, also at Deaton Field. The Cougars beat the Spartans 45-34 last year and have never lost to them in the three games. After taking a week off, the Cougars get back to action on March 27th when they play the Saint Ambrose University Bees at Deaton Field.
Saint Xavier’s penultimate regular-season game comes on April 4th, when they travel to Bourbonnais to play the Olivet Nazarene University Tigers. The Cougars beat the Tigers 55-42 in last year’s competition and have not lost to them since 2005.
Saint Xavier wraps up the regular season on April 10th when they play the University of St. Francis Fighting Saints at Deaton Field. If SXU has a good season, they will get to play in the NAIA Football Championship from April 17th to May 10th.
The Cougars made the tournament last season but were eliminated in the quarterfinals by the eventual champions, Morningside College, who have eliminated the Cougars in the playoffs three years in a row. The last time SXU failed to make the NAIA Championship was 2016, while the team has not won the NAIA Championship since 2011.
This whole year has been very crazy, especially in the world of sports, but it will be nice to regain some sense of normalcy when football comes back in the spring.
*Correction: October 1. An earlier version of this article had an incorrect headline stating: ‘SXU Football Unveils New Spring Schedule 2020’. We have changed the headline to say 2021.