LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The 2018 season for New Mexico State football begins to take shape as it announces a home-and-home series with Georgia Southern Thursday morning.
 
The Aggies will first host the Eagles Oct. 20, 2018, in Aggie Memorial Stadium before returning the trip to Statesboro on Oct. 19, 2019, to complete the series. NM State trails the all-time series 3-0 after dropping a 22-19 contest this past season in Las Cruces.
 
New Mexico State will wrap up its tenure in the Sun Belt Conference in 2017 with a meeting with Georgia Southern in Paulson Stadium this upcoming season before going independent in 2018.
 
"We are happy to announce a series with Georgia Southern University, who not only has a rich football tradition but also one that we are very familiar with," Director of Athletics Mario Moccia said. "Our goal in building an independent schedule was to secure as many games with Group of 5 opponents as possible and this is a big step in completing our 2018 schedule, which we have been diligently working on. In addition to thanking Georgia Southern AD, Tom Kleinlein I'd also like to thank Deputy AD, Braun Cartwright – who is the point person for our scheduling as well as Dave Brown, President of Gridiron, who has been a tremendous help to us in this process."
 
With Thursday's announcement, New Mexico State has now secured six games for the 2018 season after signing deals with Wyoming and Louisiana back in December. NM State will also return to TCF Bank Stadium as part of its two guarantee game set with Minnesota in addition to its usual rivalry games against New Mexico and UTEP (dates still to be determined).