BOONEVILLE, Miss. - The Northeast Mississippi Community College football program hopes to benefit from a light travel load during the fall of 2022.
The Tigers will host five games for the second consecutive season as part of their 63rd all-time campaign on the gridiron.
"We're excited about it," said Northeast head coach Greg Davis. "We have a phenomenal fan base and the crowd really helps us out. Hearing the community support behind us is a huge thing for our kids."
The Tigers' away contests are about as good as it gets in terms of distance from the City of Hospitality. Northeast visits the Jackson metro area twice during the first month of the season to tangle with Hinds Community College and Holmes Community College.
Short treks to archrival Itawamba Community College on September 15 and Coahoma Community College for the annual "Battle of the Tigers" on October 20 round out the road slate.
The 1,200 combined miles to-and-from the Booneville campus over those four dates is the fewest for Northeast in nine years with the exception of the pandemic affected 2020 season.
The Tigers' week one matchup with defending co-Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference (MACCC) South Division champion Hinds is their first trip to Raymond since 2015.
Pearl River Community College serves as Northeast's home opener on September 8. East Central Community College also rotates onto the schedule as the Tigers' final non-division opponent on October 6.
Northeast's homecoming game versus Mississippi Delta Community College on September 22 is one of its earliest in school history. It is the second straight year that the Tigers have welcomed the Trojans for this special evening.
Three of the final four contests for Northeast take place inside Tiger Stadium. That includes matchups with MACCC playoff participants East Mississippi Community College and Northwest Mississippi Community College on October 13 and 27, respectively.
The Tigers will play each of their games on a Thursday night for just the third time ever. Northeast has participated in at least one weekend contest each season except for the 2016 and 2018 campaigns.
"The anticipation this year is we're going to be very competitive," Davis said. "The travel is not as bad as what it has been in the past, but there are no gimmes. We've just got to go out there and put all the puzzle pieces together."
All but one game this season features a 6:30 p.m. kick off. The Tigers' homecoming matchup will begin at 7 p.m. due to the extra activities planned for that day such as the sports and alumni hall of fame induction ceremony.