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University of Washington Huskies Football

Eastern Washington sets 2024 football schedule, opens Big Sky at home against Montana

Eastern Washington Eagles head coach Aaron Best looks on during a game against the Idaho Vandals in the second half at Roos Field on Sat. Sept. 30, 2023 in Cheney, Wash. (James Snook/The Spokesman-Review)
By Dan Thompson The Spokesman-Review

Each of the last two seasons, the Eastern Washington football schedule has been heavy on heavy-hitters and light on nonconference home games.

The 2024 schedule, released Monday, is more balanced – though it still features five FCS playoff teams and one FBS opponent.

For the first time since 2014, the Eagles will play their first two games at Roos Field in Cheney against FCS opponents Monmouth (4-7 in 2023) and Drake (8-4), which lost 66-3 to North Dakota State in the first round of the most recent playoffs.

Eastern has never played either program in football. The Monmouth game will be played on a Thursday (Aug. 29) with the Drake contest nine days later, on Sept. 7.

From there, Eastern will travel to Southeastern Louisiana (3-8), which the Eagles beat 40-29 in Cheney last fall, and then on to Nevada, the lone FBS team on their schedule. Nevada, of the Mountain West Conference, went 2-10 last year, including a 33-6 loss to Idaho.

Because of how the weekends land this upcoming season, teams are able to schedule a 12th game. The last time they lined up that way was in 2019.

The 2024 nonconference schedule appears to be less daunting than in the 2023 season, when Eastern played eventual FCS semifinalist North Dakota State (11-4) in Minneapolis and then Fresno State (9-4) in California. The year before that, in 2022, Eastern played both at Oregon and at Florida.

The beginning of Eastern Washington’s conference schedule, however, looks more daunting.

Eastern opens the Big Sky schedule at home on Sept. 28 against national runner-up Montana, followed by a game at FCS playoff team Sacramento State. After that is another home game against UC Davis, and then the Eagles play at Idaho, which reached the FCS quarterfinals.

For the last four games, Eastern will host Montana State (another FCS quarterfinalist), play at Northern Colorado, host Idaho State and then finish at Northern Arizona.

Game times will be released at a later date. Ticket package renewals and new season ticket deposits are now available at goeags.com