HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall University Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick announced Tuesday that Marshall will play a home and home football series with longtime Mid-American Conference rival Miami University beginning in the 2013 season.

“We have a great history with Miami and this is a regional non-conference game that is in line with our scheduling philosophy,” Hamrick said. “The close proximity of the two campuses will also allow our fans the chance to easily travel to a road game and this series will renew the Marshall-Miami rivalry.”

The two-game series is schedule to begin with Miami traveling to Huntington on August 31, 2013. Marshall will return the game to Oxford, Ohio, on August 30, 2014.

The Thundering Herd and the RedHawks have met 41 times and Miami owns a 30-10-1 advantage in the series that dates back to 1905.  Miami dominated the series for the better part of the last century, however when Marshall returned to the Mid-American Conference and Division I-A status in 1997 the series shifted dramatically with the Thundering Herd winning six of eight meetings between 1997 and 2004. In the last meeting between the two schools, Marshall scored a 33-25 win in Huntington on Sept. 29 of 2004. The Thundering Herd moved to Conference USA following that season and the two schools have not met since.