Series with UConn returning in 2021

UCF and UConn will renew their football series at Spectrum Stadium on Nov. 20, 2021.

The Huskies will travel to Spectrum Stadium for the fourth time since 2013, but the first as a nonconference opponent.

The move was first reported in October by Twitter user @DruuuVannn, who obtained UConn Board of Trustee minutes and posted them online. According to the minutes, UConn is guaranteed a $1 million payout from UCF for the game, which would be the eighth between the two schools.

With UConn leaving the American Athletic Conference to return to the Big East in 2020, the series between the Knights and the Huskies appeared to end with UCF’s 56-21 win on Sept. 28. But with the Huskies forced to operate as an independent football program because the Big East does not support the sport at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, UConn has been working to fill out 12-game schedules for the next few years.

UCF has nonconference showdowns with Boise State (Sept. 4) and at Louisville (Sept. 18) set for the 2021 season.

AAC commissioner Mike Aresco told the Orlando Sentinel earlier this year that league teams have had discussions with UConn about scheduling future games, but nothing has been planned at the conference level.

“We’re not going to get involved,” Aresco said of the AAC. “But if individual teams want to play UConn, we’re perfectly fine with that. We don’t know if they will or not, but again, they’re on their own.”

UCF holds a 5-2 mark against UConn, including a four-game win streak in a series that former UConn coach Bob Diaco dubbed the Civil Conflict.