Minnesota is creating quite the annual tradition: playing opponents from the Mountain West Conference.
That'll continue into the future, as the Gophers announced Monday a home-and-home series with Fresno State with games set for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Mountain West teams are becoming an annual staple on the Gophers' schedules. They played and beat San Jose State in each of the past two seasons, and there was a home-and-home with UNLV in 2012 and 2013. This season and the next will feature games against Colorado State.
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These games against teams from a Group of Five conference are hardly the highlight of Minnesota's year-to-year non-conference schedules. This season, for the second straight year, the Gophers will clash with national-title contender TCU. In 2016 and 2017 it's a home-and-home with Oregon State of the Pac-12. The 2021 and 2022 seasons will feature another Pac-12 home-and-home with Colorado.
The newly announced series with Fresno State has the Gophers hosting the Bulldogs in 2018 and traveling to California in 2019.