IRVING, Texas — The Rice Owls of Conference USA will open their 2017 season facing the same opponent they met in the 2016 finale — but in a far more exotic local — as Rice and the Pac-12 member, the Cardinal of Stanford, will inaugurate the 2017 college season by meeting in the second annual Sydney Cup in Sydney, Australia, on August 26.
The game in Australia will mark the first time the Owls have played a football game outside the United States and also marks the earliest they have opened a season. Rice and Stanford met for the first time since 1964 to close out the 2016 regular season, with the Cardinal taking a 41-17 decision.