Georgia State’s full 2015 football schedule released

Georgia State will open its Sun Belt football season at New Mexico State on Sept. 12, according to the conference schedule that was released on Friday.

In a challenge for Georgia State’s operations staff, the game in Las Cruces comes a week before the Panthers must travel to Oregon for a non-conference game.

“It’s a schedule,” coach Trent Miles said. “We already knew who were going to play. Now we have the dates. Let’s go play.”

The Panthers went 1-11, 0-8 in the Sun Belt last year.

Georgia State will host Appalachian State in its home conference opener on Oct. 10 and its conference schedule will wrap up at Georgia Southern, which won the league last year, on Dec. 5.

The Panthers will have bye weeks Sept. 26, giving them time to recover after the consecutive trips west, the week before hosting Liberty, and Oct. 24, the week before they are at Arkansas State.

Only Troy will have a true bye week before facing Georgia State on Nov. 28. Arkansas State will play on a Tuesday and South Alabama a Thursday the week before playing the Panthers.

Still, Georgia State is the only team that will play all six Sun Belt teams that finished with a record of .500 or better in the conference last year: Appalachian State (6-2), Arkansas State (5-3), Louisiana-Lafayette (7-1), Texas State (5-3), South Alabama (5-3) and Georgia Southern (8-0). Georgia State was outscored 283-130 by those teams.

Georgia State will play seven teams with winning records overall: Oregon (13-2), Liberty (9-5), Appalachian State (7-5), Arkansas State (7-6), Louisiana-Lafayette (9-4), Texas State (7-5) and Georgia Southern (9-3).

Georgia State is considering moving the home game against Troy from Saturday, Nov. 28 to Friday, Nov. 27.

In other scheduling news, Georgia State has asked the NCAA for permission to play its opening game against Charlotte on Sept. 2 at the Georgia Dome.

Georgia State’s 2015 schedule

Sept. 2 or 4 vs. Charlotte

Sept. 12 at New Mexico State*

Sept. 19 at Oregon

Oct. 3 vs. Liberty

Oct. 10 vs. Appalachian State*

Oct. 17 at Ball State

Oct. 31 at Arkansas State*

Nov. 7 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette*

Nov. 14 at Texas State*