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Got a press release from my favorite FCS football conference this week about a nice little showcase for the league to start the 2025 college football season.

In fact, the Southland Conference isn’t waiting around for college football’s official opening weekend—it’s kicking the door down a week early.

The league announced today that Nicholls will host UIW in a nationally televised Week 0 matchup on Saturday, August 23, at 12 p.m. CT. The game will air live on ESPN2, giving the Southland a rare spotlight on the national stage to kick off the 2025 college football season.

And for longtime fans of Southland football—like yours truly—this is more than just a scheduling win. It’s a well-earned nod to a league that’s been grinding, growing, and quietly producing some serious football over the past decade.

“To open the season on ESPN2 with two championship-caliber teams is more than just a game — it’s a showcase,” said Commissioner Chris Grant. “Gritty, passionate, and unapologetically Southern.”

He’s not wrong. This one has all the makings of a classic: two recent Southland champions, a developing rivalry, a national audience, and the energy that only a Week 0 spotlight can bring. Even though it’ll still be blazing hot in late August, fans will be ready for some college football.

Nicholls comes in with the league’s crown from 2023, when they ran the table in conference play. UIW, also no stranger to championship hardware, took the 2024 title with a perfect Southland record of their own.

Between them, the Colonels and Cardinals have combined for seven conference titles since 2018. It’s safe to say, they’ve set the standard for the SLC in recent years.

The August 23 matchup will mark the first game played on U.S. soil in the 2025 college football season—preceded only by Kansas State and Iowa State squaring off in Dublin earlier that morning.

It also opens the FCS calendar and gives the Southland a historic moment: its first in-conference game ever aired on a national linear TV network.

Clint Killough returns for his third season leading the Cardinals. He has already compiled a 19–5 record, a conference championship, and a postseason trip in his first years at the UIW helm.

Nicholls will be under new leadership, as Tommy Rybacki steps into the head coaching role after ten seasons as defensive coordinator. And that coaching change deserves a moment of reflection.

Tim Rebowe’s retirement at the end of 2024 quietly marked the end of an era—and I don’t say that lightly.

When Coach Rebowe took over at Nicholls in 2015, the program was floundering. They hadn’t won a single game the season before.

What Rebowe built from that foundation is nothing short of remarkable: three Southland championships, multiple FCS playoff appearances, and a culture of pride and toughness that brought credibility back to Colonel football.

Rebowe is, in many ways, solely responsible for the turnaround in Thibodaux. He didn’t just win games—he changed the narrative.

And now, his longtime lieutenant takes the reins. Safe to say that no one knows that program better than Rybacki, but there’s no doubt: he has big shoes to fill.

As someone who spent ten years behind the mic calling Southland football—and still keeps close ties to this conference—I love seeing it get this kind of spotlight. The national stage is long overdue.

I just hope it opens up more opportunities for the other schools in the league.

Either way, though, this release reminds me that football season can’t get here fast enough!