It’ll take a few more years, but Ole Miss and Alcorn State have scheduled a date with destiny on the gridiron.

The two schools announced Thursday that they have scheduled their first-ever football game against each other. It will be played on Sept. 9, 2028 at Ole Miss’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Alcorn has played Mississippi’s two other Football Bowl Subdivision teams, Mississippi State and Southern Miss, but this will be the first time it has played Ole Miss. It will also be the first time Ole Miss has played a historically black college or university.

Alcorn played Southern Miss in 2014 and 2019. It played Mississippi State in 2010 and 2013, and has another trip to Starkville scheduled for 2025.

“This will be a great opportunity for our both our student-athletes and fans to experience the first-ever game between Ole Miss and an HBCU institution, especially one within the state of Mississippi,” Alcorn State head coach Fred McNair said in a statement. “We’re happy to have this opportunity and to continue to strengthen our relationships with the other schools within the state,” said head coach Fred McNair.

Keith Carter, Ole Miss Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics, said he and his Alcorn counterpart Derek Horne have been working on the matchup “for quite some time.”

Horne, who was a four-year letterwinner for the Rebels’ basketball team from 1983-86, also spent 15 years in the Ole Miss athletic department as both an assistant athletic director and senior associate AD.

“To play an HBCU from our state is something we’ve been wanting to do for quite some time, and hopefully this will open the door for other meetings with HBCU institutions in the future,” Carter said in a statement. “We look forward to this contest and know it will be exciting for our fans at Ole Miss as well as the fans at Alcorn State.”