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Maryland has added another piece to their future footballing schedule, as Brett McMurphy is reporting the Terps and Northern Illinois have agreed to a home-and-home series in 2020 and 2021. The teams will first play in College Park at Byrd Stadium before travelling to DeKalb the next year.
Maryland, NIU schedule home/home series, source told @ESPN. 2020 at Md, 2021 at NIU; 1st B1G team to visit NIU
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) August 1, 2014
Northern Illinois is one of the top non-power conference programs in the country, making six straight bowl games with four straight double-digit win seasons. They play in the MAC, home of Bowling Green, Buffalo and assorted other schools. They've had a succession of successful quarterbacks -- namely Chandler Harnish and Jordan Lynch -- as well as a pair of coaches (Jerry Kill and Dave Doeren) who were swiftly hired by bigger programs (Minnesota and NC State, respectively).
This isn't the first time Maryland has scheduled a series several years in the future. In 2010, the Terps and Texas scheduled a two-game series to be played during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.