TIGERS 2012 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE RELEASED
LOS ANGELES — The Occidental College football team's 2012 schedule is set.
The Tigers, which finished the 2011 season 5-4 overall and 3-3 in SCIAC play, begin at home against Pacific of the Northwest Conference on Sept. 8 before traveling to Menlo on Sept. 15 for their second and only other non-conference game of the season.
The opener against Pacific will be the first time the Tigers play the Boxers in Oxy head coach Dale Widolff's 30-year tenure.
Pacific, a school of 3,200 students in Forest Grove, Ore., finished the 2011 season 1-8, but in the very competitive NWC that includes NCAA West Region power Linfield.
The Boxers and the Tigers shared three common opponents in 2011. They both beat Puget Sound by more than 10 points and lost to Menlo. Oxy beat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a team that Pacific lost to 28-9.
Menlo, a NAIA school from the Cascade Conference, is annually one of Oxy's non conference opponents. Oxy's taken three of the last five meetings.
The Tigers open the SCIAC season at Redlands, which finished second place in 2011, on Sept. 29.
Oxy plays four of its nine games at home and five away, but two of its home games carry some added significance. The Tigers will play their homecoming game against Pomona-Pitzer in the Battle of the Drum on Oct. 27, widely regarded as the longest standing college football rivalry in Southern California. Then, the week later, they'll host their second most hated rival, Whittier College, in the Battle for the Shoes on Nov. 3.
Traditionally, the Tigers have played three non-conference games and six conference games. Next season Chapman University is officially a SCIAC member, bumping the conference schedule to seven games annually.
