Football Announces 2013 Schedule

2013 Schedule

PHILADELPHIA – Its never too early to reserve your Fall Saturday's for the University of Pennsylvania football team. The Quakers, who are defending Ivy League champions for the third time in the last four years, officially announced their schedule for the 2013 season on Thursday.

Penn begins its title defense on Sept. 21 against Lafayette at Franklin Field. Homecoming is set for Nov. 9 against arch rival Princeton, while Family Weekend coincides with Dartmouth’s first visit to Franklin Field since the 2010 season on Oct. 5.

The Ivy opponents visiting Franklin Field in 2013 are Dartmouth, Yale, Princeton and Cornell, while the Red and Blue travel to Columbia, Brown and Harvard. On the non-conference slate is the season-opener against the Leopards, the annual Schuylkill Showdown with the Wildcats at Villanova Stadium (Sept. 28) and the second-consecutive meeting with William & Mary (Oct. 12).

On Sept. 21, Penn will open its 137th season inside the friendly confines of the nation's oldest college football stadium. The Leopards and Quakers have a budding rivalry. This will be the eighth straight season in which the two teams have met and five of the previous six have come down to the final drive of the game.

A week later is the annual tilt against city-rival Villanova. Penn's road opener will mark the 18th all-time meeting between the schools, including each of the last 10 years. Villanova has won 12 straight encounters dating back to 1911.

After unorthodox back-to-back trips to Hanover, N.H., the last two seasons, the Big Green will return to Franklin Field for the first time in three years. Last season, in front of a national audience at Memorial Field, the Quakers ran for over 200 yards and three touchdowns for their first win of the season.

William & Mary concludes Penn's non-conference season on Oct. 12. This will mark the seventh meeting all-time between the schools and the first in Williamsburg, Va., in 19 years. The Quakers lost to the Tribe at Franklin Field, 34-28, last season. Penn fell in its last visit to Zable Stadium, 48-34, in 1995.

The Ivy League schedule resumes in New York City against Columbia on Oct. 19. Then, Penn plays Yale (Oct. 26), Brown (Nov. 2), Princeton (Nov. 9) and Harvard (Nov. 16) in four consecutive weeks. The Ivy title is usually decided during that month-long grind. Either Penn, or one of those teams, has won every single Ivy League championship since 1997.

In the season finale on Nov. 23, the Quakers take on Cornell for the 95th consecutive year. In the fifth-most played rivalry in Division I, Penn holds a 69-45-5 advantage through the first 119 meetings.

Penn is in search of its fourth outright Ivy title in five years - a feat that has never been accomplished before. The Quakers finished 6-4 overall – 6-1 in league play – last season, winning their third title in four seasons after winning back-to-back undefeated Ivy titles in 2009 and 2010.

Game times as well as radio and television dates will be announced at a later date. Dates, opponents and locations are all subject to change.