San Diego State is beefing up its non-conference slate. Instead of the many FCS opponents who have come to town or fellow mid-majors, the Aztecs are lining up to play multiple home-and-homes against the Pac-12.
The latest high-profile series has San Diego State scheduling a two-game series against the Stanford Cardinal. The two will begin the series in 2017 at San Diego State and the game in Palo Alto, California, will be the following year in 2018.
San Diego State and Stanford have met four times ever with the last meeting was in 1988 where Stanford won 31-10, the Cardinal are 3-1 all-time against the Aztecs.
Adding Stanford continues the trend by playing Pac-12 opponents and part of it has to do with the needed boost in strength of schedule, so that the Aztecs can have a competitive schedule to be considered for a New Year's Day bowl game.
San Diego State now has their schedule set up where they will play at least one Pac-12 opponent through the 2022 season, and more importantly these are home-and-home contests.
San Diego State goes on the road this upcoming season to face Cal, 2016 they host Cal, host Stanford in 2017, another road game at Arizona State in that same year, in 2018 those two teams flip flop, go to UCLA in 2019 and host them in 2020, in 2021 they to to Arizona and then host the Wildcats in 2022.
Not a bad schedule to have at least on Pac-12 school on the schedule into the next decade.