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Vandals to host EWU this fall

in nonconference football game

MOSCOW — Idaho’s football team will host Eastern Washington in a nonconference game during the 2019 season, Idaho interim athletic director Pete Isakson announced recently.

The game will take place Sept. 21 in the Kibbie Dome.

“There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to scheduling,” Isakson said. “We worked through a number of scenarios for our 12th game and in the end we got the game we wanted.”

FCS schools are permitted to play a 12th regular-season game during years in which 13 Saturdays fall between Labor Day weekend and Thanksgiving. The next time the calendar will allow 12 regular-season games is 2024, and again in 2025.

“There was a void to fill with Eastern Washington not being on our Big Sky schedule this year,” Isakson said. “We wanted to correct that. Credit to (EWU athletic director) Lynn Hickey and her staff for feeling the same way and wanting to make it happen.”

With the return of Idaho to the Big Sky Conference in 2018 and the departure of North Dakota, Eastern will annually play the Vandals in a league game. However, 2019 was left out as a league game because of schedules already in place. It worked out that both the Eagles and Vandals had the same open date in their non-conference schedule.

The game between the Vandals and Eagles completes each school’s 12-game schedule for 2019, and guarantees an annual meeting between the regional foes for the foreseeable future. Beginning with the 2020 season, the Big Sky Conference will institute a scheduling policy that guarantees each school will play its two protected rivals every year. Idaho’s two rivals will be EWU and Montana. EWU’s other “rival” is Portland State.

Eastern will play five home games this fall, one of them Sept. 28 versus North Dakota, which will be the last game for EWU that counts in the league standings versus the Fighting Hawks. North Dakota is in transition after leaving the Big Sky for the Missouri Valley Conference, and will begin play in that league in 2020.

Idaho’s 2019 football season kicks off Aug. 31 at Penn State. Idaho’s home opener is Sept. 7 against NCAA Division II Central Washington.

Eastern opens the 2019 season Aug. 31 at Washington, and will also play a non-conference road game at Jacksonville State of the Ohio Valley Conference on Sept. 14. That game is part of a home-and home series that will also include a home game for EWU at Roos Field on Sept. 11, 2021.

Eastern’s home opener is Sept. 7 vs. Lindenwood, a NCAA Division II school in St. Charles, Mo.

The FCS Playoffs will begin on Nov. 30.

2019 IDAHO FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Home games in CAPS

Aug. 31 — at Penn State

Sept. 7 — vs. CENTRAL WASHINGTON

Sept. 14 — at Wyoming

Sept. 21 ­— vs. EASTERN WASHINGTON

Sept. 28 — at Northern Colorado*

Oct. 5 — vs. WEBER STATE*

Oct. 12 — at Portland State*

Oct. 19 — vs. IDAHO STATE*

Nov. 2 ­— vs. CAL POLY*

Nov. 9 — at Montana*

Nov. 16 — vs. SACRAMENTO STATE*

Nov. 23 ­— at Northern Arizona*

*Big Sky Conference Game

Times to be announced at a later date

2019 EASTERN WASHINGTON FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Aug. 31 — at Washington

Sept. 7 — vs. LINDENWOOD

Sept. 14 — at Jacksonville St.

Sept. 21 — at Idaho

Sept. 28 — vs. NORTH DAKOTA*

Oct. 5 — at Sacramento St.*

Oct. 12 — vs. NORTHERN COLORADO*

Oct. 26 — at Montana*

Nov. 2 — vs. NORTHERN ARIZONA*

Nov. 9 — at Idaho State*

Nov. 16 — at Cal Poly*

Nov. 23 — vs. PORTLAND STATE*

*Big Sky Conference Game

Times to be announced at a later date