A steep challenge
Eastern Washington has added a second Division I opponent to next season’s football schedule: Big East champion West Virginia.
The Eagles will play at West Virginia on Sept. 9 against a Mountaineers team that finished last season 11-1 and with a No. 5 national ranking after defeating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
The Eagles open at Oregon State on Aug. 31.
“It got down to a tough scheduling situation,” EWU coach Paul Wulff said. “We were doing everything we could to buy another home game. We didn’t want to play another Division II game. We were looking to have another I-AA home opponent. As late as we were in this process, we couldn’t find anybody.
Buffalo backed out of a game with West Virginia, which is paying EWU $450,000 to go to Morgantown. Eastern gets $300,000 from Oregon State but that money doesn’t go directly into the football budget.
“Usually the money games are part of the line-item budget,” associate athletic director Mike Allen said. “We developed the budget in February. Games we have agreements for are factored in. This came in after.
“What it allows Paul to do, a large portion of these funds will be set aside for program enhancement for his program. Playing two I-A games is not the model we’re used to. Every year we want to play one (money game). We really let Paul make the decision on this one.”
“For the first time we have the opportunity to have (a money game) enhance our football program,” Wulff said. “Based on the current funding of our overall department right now, we could not pass that up if we want to continue to grow our program.”
The kickoff for the Parent’s Weekend game at West Virginia’s 60,000-seat Milan Puskar Stadium has not been set.
Eastern has 41 lettermen, 16 starters, back from a 7-4 team that shared the Big Sky Conference championship and made the I-AA playoffs for the second straight season. The Eagles were 13th in the final I-AA poll.
Eastern starts spring practice Monday.
EWU’s home opener is Sept. 16 against Division II Central Washington with the Bobcat game the next week.