For the second straight season, the college football season will get underway Down Under. Rice announced on Monday that they would face Stanford on August 26 (August 27 in Australia) to open their season.
The two teams will face off at Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia as part of the Sydney Cup. In last year’s Sydney Cup, Cal defeated Hawaii 51-31.
This is the first time in school history that Rice will be playing a college football game overseas. Per a release, athletic director Joe Karlgaard called the game a “unique opportunity for us (and) one that I’m not sure we will have again in the near future.”
Head coach David Bailiff also said in the release that the game is “an amazing opportunity for our players to represent Rice on such a unique stage and also expose them to a part of the world that most of them might otherwise never get to visit in person.”
The two teams faced off in the regular season finale on November 26, 2016 in Palo Alto. Stanford knocked off Rice 41-17 in that contest.
