CORRECTED
DATE: May 8, 2006
11-game grid campaign features eight NSIC contests with league debut Upper Iowa

BEMIDJI, Minn. - Bemidji State University head football coach Jeff Tesch today unveiled BSU’s 2006 football schedule, an 11-game slate featuring five home contests and a season finale against Upper Iowa in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Metrodome Classic.

Bemidji State’s 2006 schedule kicks off Thursday, Aug. 31 with a 7:00 p.m. kickoff against Minnesota Duluth at Chet Anderson Stadium. BSU will be opening its season at home for the first time since 2003, just the second time in the last seven seasons and for only the fourth time in 11 seasons at BSU in the Jeff Tesch era. The Beavers will be playing the Bulldogs for the first time since UMD left the NSIC for the North Central Conference following the 2003-04 competition season, and the contest will mark the first non-conference game between the Beavers and Bulldogs since Sept. 22, 1951.

Following the home opener, BSU takes to the road for three of its next four games including a continuation of the “Beaver Bash” rivalry with Minot (N.D.) State. The Minnesota Beavers and North Dakota Beavers square off Sept. 9 in Minot, N.D. The “Beaver Bash” has been a part of BSU’s non-conference schedule each year since 1999; the nine-year run continues the longest consecutive non-conference series in BSU’s football history.

The Beavers open the 72nd season of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference competition on Sept. 16 when it renews its long-time “Battle for the Axe” rivalry against Minnesota State-Moorhead. The Beavers and Dragons have been duelling for the Battle Axe, the fourth-oldest traveling trophy in NCAA Division II football, since 1948. BSU will look to extend its series-best streak of six consecutive victories in the Battle Axe rivalry.

BSU tackles Minn.-Crookston in its NSIC home opener Sept. 23, then travels to Northern State (S.D.) on Sept. 30.

Oct. 7 delivers another home game to BSU’s Chet Anderson Stadium, where the Beavers will welcome the University of Mary for the first-ever meeting between the programs. Mary will be making its NSIC debut in 2006 after elevating its athletics program from the NAIA ranks, but the contest will not count as a conference game this season as its existing schedule left Mary unable to commit to a full NSIC schedule until 2007. The addition of Mary and Upper Iowa return the NSIC to a 10-team conference for football, where it has not been since Minnesota-Morris dropped its athletics program to NCAA Division III after the 2002-03 season.

BSU travels to Wayne State (Neb.) on Oct. 14, then hosts long-time nemesis Winona State on Oct. 21. The Beavers welcome Southwest Minnesota State to Bemidji on Oct. 28 to mark the program’s only back-to-back home games for the 2006 season. BSU’s last true road contest of the year falls Nov. 4 against defending NSIC champion Concordia-St. Paul.

The NSIC will end its 2006 season at the NSIC Metrodome Classic against the second NSIC rookie, Upper Iowa. The NSIC has hosted the Classic at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn. since 1986. The Beavers and Peacocks will square off in the second game of the 2006 Classic, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 10.

Bemidji State ended its 2005 regular season at 7-3, 4-3 in NSIC play. BSU extended its school-record streak of consecutive winning seasons to eight, dating back to 1998, and tied a school record by winning seven or more games for a third consecutive season.

--beavers--