Thursday saw a dizzying release of kickoff and television information for the early part of the 2024 season. Included among the releases were four separate FCS conferences that will have conference matchups televised on national television. The Missouri Valley Football Conference will have two conference matchups televised nationally by ESPN in 2024. The first game to be televised is South Dakota State’s trip to North Dakota State in the annual Dakota Marker Game on Saturday, October 19. The second game that ESPN will televise is the following week on Saturday, October 26 when South Dakota travels to play at South Dakota State. The kickoff time and network for each game will be announced at a later date.
The Big Sky will also have two games nationally televised on an ESPN network in 2024. Idaho at Montana State on Saturday, October 12 is the first matchup that will be shown followed by UC Davis at Montana on Saturday, November 9. Like the MVFC, kickoff time and network will be announced at a later date. The SWAC will also have two games televised by ESPN in the upcoming season. The Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Prairie View A&M game will kick off at 9:15 PM Eastern Time on ESPNU on Friday, October 11 while the Grambling State at Alabama A&M contest on Thursday, November 14 televised on ESPNU with kickoff set for 7 PM Eastern Time.
The Ivy League will have six games televised by ESPN with five to be shown on Friday nights via ESPNU and all 8 Ivy League schools will be featured at least once. Harvard at Cornell (10/11), Brown at Princeton (10/18), Yale at Penn (10/25), Yale at Columbia (11/1), and Dartmouth at Princeton (11/8) are the five games scheduled for Friday evening ESPNU showings. The sixth game is Yale at Harvard in the 140th version of “The Game” which is set for Saturday, November 23 but the kickoff time and network will be announced later.
For the 2024 season, two FCS versus FBS matchups were moved from Saturday to a weekday. Howard’s season opener against Rutgers was moved from Saturday, August 31 to Thursday, August 29, and will be shown on the Big Ten Network at 6 PM ET. The Western Illinois at Indiana matchup originally slated for Saturday, September 7 has now been moved to Friday, September 6, will kick off at 7 PM ET, and be televised on the Big Ten Network.
West Georgia has added a new FBS opponent in 2026 as the Wolves will play at Arkansas State on Saturday, September 12. It will be the first meeting between the two programs on the gridiron with West Georgia set to receive $300,000 for the matchup. West Georgia now has three FBS opponents on its future schedules. The Arkansas State contest is the first one scheduled to be played but the Wolves also have games against Cincinnati on Saturday, September 4, 2027 and Troy on Saturday, September 9, 2028. West Georgia is moving up from the NCAA Division II Gulf South Conference to the FCS United Athletic Conference in 2024.
Over 440 FCS versus FBS games have been scheduled through the 2034 season including a record 121 contests in 2024. A full list of all future FCS-FBS matchups can be found here.
Photo Credit to North Dakota State University Athletics
