After Saint Mary's College eliminated its football program due to a lack of funding on March 3, members of the Penn football team worried that the program's first trip to California since 1955 would have to wait at least another year.
But their worries were quickly dismissed, as the team has replaced St. Mary's on the schedule with a trip to the University of San Diego.
The Quakers will take on the Toreros on Sept. 18 in La Jolla, Calif.
"The stars lined up right," Penn football coach Al Bagnoli said.
The Quakers had originally intended to schedule San Diego, as more football players are from Southern California than the Bay Area, where St. Mary's is located.
"They were our first choice of a West Coast school," Bagnoli said.
However, when the Penn Athletic Department contacted San Diego two years ago to discuss a game, the Toreros were not interested.
"We thought we were very close to an agreement for an opening game," Bagnoli said. "Right at the end, for whatever reason ... they opted not to agree to that game."
When St. Mary's informed Penn that it was dropping its program, Bagnoli immediately checked San Diego's calendar. When he saw that the same date was still open, Bagnoli called Toreros coach and former National Football League quarterback Jim Harbaugh.
"We're very lucky," Bagnoli said.
Harbaugh agreed to the game and the two athletic departments drew up a contract.
For the time being, the two schools have only arranged to play this one game in San Diego; however, Bagnoli hoped that the two teams could agree on an eventual meeting in Philadelphia.
St. Mary's was scheduled to play at Franklin Field for Penn's 2005 season opener; however, San Diego already has a game scheduled on that date.
No team has officially been scheduled to replace the 2005 opener, but Bagnoli indicated that "Duquesne has popped up."
Bagnoli hopes that September's season opener will be the first of many West Coast trips for the football team.
"I would like to at least have an attractive game -- West Coast or Florida --at least once every four years," he said. "Because we're going to recruit out there and we have lots of alumni out there, I think it's in our best interest to try to get out there on a somewhat regular basis."
Previously, the farthest that Bagnoli has traveled with his team for a nonconference game was to Richmond, Va., in 1998, when the Quakers fell to the Spiders, 34-18.
While Bagnoli was disappointed with St. Mary's dropping its program, he was not surprised.
He had heard a week to 10 days ahead of time from various other programs on the West Coast that the Gaels were considering dropping their program.
This will be Harbaugh's first season as head coach at San Diego. For the previous two years, he served as the quarterback coach for the Oakland Raiders.
He played 14 years in the NFL, including a stint with the San Diego Chargers from 1999-2000.
Bagnoli credits Harbaugh and new San Diego Director of Athletics Jo-Ann Nester for scheduling a game that the previous coach and athletic director would not. Nester served as associate director of athletics at Dartmouth for nine years before coming to San Diego.
The Toreros are no stranger to Ivy League football.
The last game they played against an Ancient Eight foe was on Sept. 21, 2002, when Yale topped San Diego, 49-14, at Torero Stadium.
Princeton is scheduled to play at San Diego a week after Penn travels to the Golden State. San Diego has agreed to play Princeton at Tigers Stadium on Sept. 24, 2005.
Last season, the Toreros went 8-2, earning them a tie atop the Pioneer Football League North Division.
Bagnoli described San Diego as an "NFL style, West Coast offense."
