INDIANA, Pa. - The IUP football program has announced a future four-year home-and-home series with Ashland University. The series will start in 2023 and run through 2026.

The teams will meet first in Indiana on the opening weekend of the 2023 season. IUP will also host in 2025 with games played at Ashland in 2024 and 2026.

"This four-year series with Ashland is great for both schools and we're excited to share this with our fan bases," said Todd Garzarelli, IUP Director of Athletics. "It is definitely a huge opportunity to bring together two regional institutions with histories of great academics and athletics. And for us to have stability in our opening series and build a rivalry with Ashland, a team that is well-respected and always nationally competitive, is second to none when you talk about home openers. Thank you to Al King and his team at Ashland for helping to make this happen."

"We are ecstatic to renew our opening game series with Ashland University," said IUP head coach Paul Tortorella. "It is an honor to compete against a class program that we have had two outstanding games with in the past. Coach Lee Owens always produces very well-coached teams that play with great effort. We look forward to the opener in 2023."  

These teams last met to open up both the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The Crimson Hawks won both meetings, including a 26-23 victory on a last second field goal in Indiana during their 13-1 national semifinalist season of 2017. IUP also won 21-17 in Ashland in 2018. 
 
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