Last April, Northwestern and Stanford announced plans for a four-game series. On Wednesday, the two schools announced plans for earlier meetings.
NU athletic director Jim Phillips announced that Northwestern and Stanford have finalized plans for a home-and-home football series, the first matchup in Evanston on Setp. 5, 2015, and on Sept. 24, 2016 in Palo Alto.
The Wildcats and Cardinal will also play a four-game series starting in 2019.
"This was a great opportunity for Northwestern to expand on our upcoming series with Stanford and allow an exciting matchup to take place even sooner," Phillips said in a statement.
Northwestern is also scheduled to meet with Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Boston College, California, and Notre Dame in the coming years. The Cardinal is now added to that impressive slate.
"We're thrilled about the quality of our future nonconference opponents, with schools such as Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Boston College, Syracuse, California and now Stanford," Phillips said. "Couple that with our traditional Big Ten schedule and it is safe to say there will be plenty of exciting action in Chicago's backyard for years to come."
NU and Stanford have played six times, the most recent meeting in 1993, a 41-41 tie. The Cardinal owns a 3-1-2 series lead.