JACKSONVILLE – Jax State's move to the Football Bowl Subdivision continues to pay dividends on the Gamecocks schedule after a home-and-home series with UAB was announced on Tuesday.
 
The Gamecocks and Blazers will play in the Blazers' Protective Stadium on Sept. 11, 2027 before playing at Jax State's Burgess-Snow Field one year later on Sept. 2, 2028. The series adds to a list of home-and-home agreements with FBS foes that have been announced since the Gamecocks made the decision to move up just over two years ago.
 
The 2027 meeting at UAB will be the seventh all-time between the two teams and the sixth in Birmingham. The Blazers, who hold a 4-2 lead in the series, will make their first trip to Jacksonville in 2028. 
 
They played four-straight seasons at Legion Field from 1994-97, with Jax State winning the first two meetings while both teams were FCS members. UAB won in 1996 and 1997 and then edged Jax State 35-28 in a 2005 meeting. The last game was in the 2021 Montgomery Kickoff in Cramton Bowl.
 
The Blazers join Eastern Michigan, Southern Miss, Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern as FBS teams that have signed to play non-conference home-and-home series with the Gamecocks. EMU played in Jacksonville in 2023, while Southern Miss and Coastal Carolina are scheduled to pay their visits in 2024. Georgia Southern is on the Gamecocks' home schedule in 2026.
 
The Gamecocks are coming off one of the most successful debut seasons in FBS history in 2023, when they went 9-4 and won the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. They became just the fifth program in FBS history to play in a bowl game in its debut season and the first two win, while also becoming the sixth team in FBS history to win nine games in its transition season.