LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska Wesleyan will kick off their 2016 football season this Saturday (Sept. 3) when they host McPherson College.  Kickoff between the Prairie Wolves and Bulldogs is set for 3:00 pm at Abel Stadium.
 
This game begins the first season of NCAA III competition for the NWU football program as they have joined the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  The Prairie Wolves will play two non conference opponents before beginning league play. 
 
NWU is coming off a 2015 season where they finished 4-6 overall and 7^th in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.  The Prairie Wolves return seven starters on offense and six on defense from that 2015 team.  NWU was picked to finish 7^th in the IIAC Coaches Preseason Poll.
 
McPherson College, an NAIA institution located in McPherson, Kan., was picked to finish 10^th in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) coaches poll for the 2016 season.  They finished 0-10 in 2015 under first year coach Paul Mierkiewicz.  Coach Mierkiewicz was the head coach at Hastings College for ten seasons, going 5-5 in meetings with Coach Brian Keller.
 
This will be the first ever meeting in football between Nebraska Wesleyan and McPherson.  It is just the fifth time NWU has played a non conference home game to begin the year under Coach Keller.  The Prairie Wolves are 4-1 in those games and have lost just one non conference home game dating back to the 1997 season.
 
Once again this season, all 10 Nebraska Wesleyan football games can be heard on KFOR 1240 AM & KFOR 103.3 FM or kfornow.com with veteran play-by-play announcer Dick Janda returning for his eight season as the voice of the Prairie Wolves. 
 
All home games can all be seen live via webcast courtesy of the NWU Sports Network.  The games will then be aired tape delayed Saturday night at 8 pm, and on Sundays at 11 am and 7 pm on Lincoln educational access channel.  They can be seen on Time Warner Channel 80 or 71.16, or on Windstream's Kinetic Channel 80.