Kennesaw State will open its spring 2021 football season Feb. 27 with a home game against Shorter.

The school also announced Thursday that the Owls will play Dixie State, a first-year FCS program located in Utah, at Fifth Third Bank Stadium on March 20. The Owls will play at Dixie State in the 2025 season.

Dixie State’s football program plays as an FCS independent during its transition from Division II to FCS. The school’s other sports play in the FCS Western Athletic Conference.

Kennesaw State and Shorter have meet once previously, in 2015. The Owls won 18-10 in the first season, and third game, of KSU football.

The Big South Conference announced in August that it was delaying its football season – and all its fall sports -- because of the coronavirus pandemic, with the intention of playing in the spring. While no announcement of a spring schedule has come from the conference, several of its schools have alluded to playing a spring schedule, and Kennesaw State announced Thursday that a Big South spring football schedule will be released “in the coming days.”

A few Big South schools have played games against FBS schools this fall.