EMU 2024 Football Schedule Released
EMU 2024 Football Schedule Released
EMU gets a full bye week *and* the 10-day MACtion bye. Season ends on a Saturday at Western Michigan.
The full MAC football slate is out.
Eastern Michigan, which has already solidified its four non-conference games to begin the year, will see its first season in the conference’s new four-pods-of-three structure. (That, of course, will change when UMass joins the MAC in 2025.) In a naturally-fitting pod with Central Michigan and Western Michigan, EMU will see its two biggest foes on Saturdays — Week 8 in Ypsilanti, and the regular season finale in Kalamazoo.
This football schedule includes something else worth saying out loud: One less midweek game; one more Saturday game. While midweek games are an understood necessary evil for the MACtion brand to exist, fans everywhere can agree that less is more. The gameday atmospheres need to be prioritized, and every opportunity to play on a Saturday instead of a Tuesday or Wednesday is a win in my book.
Small potatoes, maybe. But college football’s meant to be played on Saturdays. That includes EMU’s season finish at Western Michigan.
That includes hosting Central Michigan.
That includes hosting Toledo. Miami.
Below is the complete EMU football schedule for the 2024 season:
Week 1: EMU at UMass (8/31)
Week 2: EMU at Washington (9/7)
Week 3: EMU vs. Jacksonville State (9/14)
Week 4: EMU vs. St. Francis (FCS) (9/21)
Week 5: EMU at Kent State (9/28)
Week 6: Bye
Week 7: EMU vs. Miami (10/12)
Week 8: EMU vs. Central Michigan (10/19)
Week 9: EMU at Akron (10/26)
Week 10: EMU vs. Toledo (11/2)
Week 11: Bye
Week 12: EMU at Ohio (Wed., 11/13)
Week 13: EMU vs. Buffalo (Wed., 11/20)
Week 14: EMU at Western Michigan (11/30)
MAC Championship (12/7)
Notes
The non-conference schedule isn’t great for how it opens the year: two road trips before coming back home to face a team that’s only in its second FBS season. Then an FCS squad comes to Ypsilanti to finish the first four games. If proved to be capable enough, EMU could be happy with its record through that portion of the schedule, but fans aren’t watching EMU line up against the most-exciting Group of 5 teams out there this year.
EMU will really see what it’s all about when the defending MAC champions come to town. Week 7, Miami will play at EMU for the first time since 2021, the fifth match between the two since 2015. Miami won the first two games in 2015 and 2016, but EMU has won the last two in 2017 and 2021. Miami holds the all-time record of 19-6 in the series.
Midweek MACtion games will dip from 3 to 2 this year. while 3 may feel like the norm, that hasn’t always been the case. Since 2016, the first season after UMass initially left the conference, there have been just four full-seasons where EMU had 3 midweek games. In 2021, EMU had 4 non-Saturday games (1 Friday game), and in 2017 it had 5 non-Saturday games (no Fridays). In 2018, EMU’s one and only non-Saturday game came on Black Friday.
It will be EMU’s first time playing Ohio since 2021 when it was still coached by Frank Solich. EMU’s last win against the Bobcats came in 2016 on the road. The road team has won in each of the last four contests.
Pete Lembo, new head coach of Buffalo, only lost once to EMU. In 2010, his first year with the Cardinals, his team slipped from a 21-0 lead to lose 41-38 in overtime, EMU’s first win of the year. Lembo is 2-0 over Crieghton at EMU.
The season will end with EMU at WMU. The MAC’s other game that day: CMU at NIU. Which, honestly, that’s not a bad choice. But the mind wanders, could the MAC be setting up future pods adjustments with further expansion plans? Could NIU be in its pod with Bowling Green and Toledo today and, eventually, move to the Directionals pod? (Yes I just made that name up myself.)
The last time EMU played its regular-season finale on a Saturday? The year was 2005, EMU traveled to Buffalo to beat the Bulls 38-14. EMU’s 12th game of the year has since either been played the Tuesday before Thanksgiving or on Black Friday.
The team’s spring practices will begin March 11 and the spring game will be on Friday, April 12. The game will be held inside the indoor “bubble” practice facility due to construction inside Rynearson Stadium.
