EKU’s new conference reveals plan that will give Colonels a path to 2021 FCS playoffs
When the 2021 college football season kicks off this fall, the Eastern Kentucky Colonels will have a chance to earn an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs after all.
That had been uncertain after EKU announced earlier this year that it was leaving its ancestral sports home in the Ohio Valley Conference to join the ASUN Conference.
Even with the pending additions of Eastern, Jacksonville State and Central Arkansas, the ASUN will have only five teams — Kennesaw State and North Alabama are the others — in 2021 that are playing scholarship, FCS football.
Five is one below the required conference threshold to be eligible for an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.
However, the ASUN announced Monday that is has entered into a scheduling alliance with the WAC for 2021 only that will create a seven-team entity whose winner will be eligible for a playoffs automatic bid.
“There is going to be a group called the ‘AQ7’ that will play for a new, automatic bid (to the FCS playoffs),” ASUN Commissioner Ted Gumbart said Tuesday on a football announcement telecast broadcast via Facebook Live.
The alliance will be made up of the three new schools joining the ASUN plus four Texas schools who are leaving the Southland Conference to join the WAC.
Those schools are Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin.
Existing ASUN members Kennesaw State and North Alabama will compete for the Big South Conference’s playoff bid in 2021 as part of a preexisting scheduling alliance.
“In (20)22 we will have all of our schools (competing) together, minimum of five,” Gumbart said.
EKU Coach Walt Wells said the Colonels are looking forward to facing a new crop of opponents.
“This is a great opportunity for us to play a bunch of teams we haven’t really been familiar with in the past,” Wells said on the ASUN broadcast.
As for the competitiveness level of the new scheduling alliance, in 2020, Stephen F. Austin went 6-4, Central Arkansas 5-4, Jacksonville State 3-1 (the school is also playing a spring schedule), EKU 3-6 and Abilene Christian 1-5.
Both Lamar and Sam Houston State are also scheduled to play a spring schedule.
In 2019, the last “normal year” of college football, Central Arkansas was 9-4; Eastern Kentucky and Sam Houston State were both 7-5; Jacksonville State was 6-6; Abilene Christian 5-7; Lamar 4-8; and Stephen F. Austin 3-9.
EKU reveals 2021 schedule
Following the announcement of the ASUN/WAC scheduling alliance, Eastern revealed its 2021 schedule.
The Colonels will open with back-to-back road games at Western Carolina (Sept. 4) and Louisville (Sept. 11).
EKU will then play four straight home games at Roy Kidd Stadium — Indiana State (Sept. 18), former OVC foe Austin Peay (Sept. 25), Tarleton State (Oct. 2), and Abilence Christian (Oct. 9).
Eastern will then play at Central Arkansas (Oct. 16), have an open date (Oct. 23), face Lamar (Oct. 30), travel to Stephen F. Austin (Nov. 6) and Sam Houston State (Nov. 13), and conclude the regular season vs. Jacksonville State (Nov. 20) in Richmond.
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 12:58 PM.
