Trying to bring nationally known Football Championship Subdivision programs back to Lake Charles, McNeese State signed a home-and-home series with Weber State starting next fall.

The Cowboys will travel to Ogden, Utah, next season and the Wildcats will return the favor in 2025. The Cowboys will make the trip on Sept. 28, 2024, as part of a 12-game season.

McNeese will open next year with a home game against Southern University. They will also host Alcorn State at Cowboy Stadium as part of five nonconference games.

The Cowboys will travel Texas A&M to play a Southeastern Conference opponent for a second consecutive year. They will also go to Tarleton State, trying to avenge this year’s 52-34 season-opening loss in Lake Charles.

The series against the Wildcats is part of an attempt by McNeese to elevate the profile of the football program back to a national level and bring better competition to campus.

“There are a set of expectations for our program and we need to meet those expectations,” said McNeese Athletic Director Heath Schroyer. “Weber needed a game and we needed a game and it just worked.

“They are a solid FCS program well respected, but they are a challenge and one we really need to be ready for.”

McNeese owns a 3-1 record against Weber State, having won the last three times the teams met. The last game was in 2013 when the Cowboys toppled the Wildcats 43-6 in Lake Charles.

McNeese has won both previous games played in Utah.

Weber State is out of the Big Sky Conference and has made the FCS playoffs six times in the last seven years.

For Weber State, the series will be one of three against Southland Conference teams. The Wildcats also signed home-and-home series to play Lamar and Northwestern State, two programs they’ve never played.

The Wildcats will play at Lamar (Sept. 14), at Northwestern State (Sept. 21) and host McNeese (Sept. 28) in succession next season.

The Wildcats were national semifinalists in 2019. Getting them back in Cowboy Stadium is something Schroyer says he’s been trying to do since taking over as AD in 2019.

Schroyer says he has wanted to upgrade the home schedule in the hopes of attracting larger crowds.

“The opportunity to have them back in 2025, when we open our new press box, was an opportunity too good to pass up,” he said in a news release.

The 12-game FCS schedule next year will be the first on that level since the 2019 season when McNeese finished 7-5 under Sterlin Gilbert, who left after one year to be offensive coordinator for one season at Syracuse before winding up on staff at Ole Miss.