NIU football adds Kansas to 2011, 2012 schedules

DeKALB - Northern Illinois and Kansas will play a home-and-home football series in 2011 and 2012, officials from both schools announced Tuesday.

The Huskies will travel to Lawrence, Kan. to play the Jayhawks on Sept. 10, 2011, and KU will visit Huskie Stadium on Sept. 22, 2012.

"Getting a home-and-home series with a BCS conference opponent has been a priority since I came to NIU a year ago," said Jeff Compher, NIU's director of athletics. "We appreciate the willingness of (Kansas AD) Lew Perkins and his staff to work with us on these games."

Northern Illinois head coach Jerry Kill is a native of Cheyney, Kan., and he attended Southwestern College in Winfield, spent seven total seasons on the coaching staff at Pittsburg State (1985-87, 1990-93) and was the head coach at Emporia State in 1999 and 2000.

"Bringing a team like Kansas to DeKalb for a home-and-home series is huge for our program and great for our fans," NIU head coach Jerry Kill said. "For me and the guys on our staff, not only do we get to play them here at Huskie Stadium, but when we go to Kansas, we get to go 'home' where we were born and raised, where many of us coached before and have a lot of friends and family, so that is a neat aspect of this deal."

In addition to Kill, six members of his staff have played and/or coached in Kansas.

The only previous meeting between Northern Illinois and Kansas came on Sept. 3, 1983 with NIU claiming a 37-34 win in Lawrence to kick off its 1983 MAC Championship and California Bowl season.