CHENEY, Wash. — Eastern Washington once again has their sights set on a deep run in the playoffs this year. The Eags are ranked No. 4 in the FCS Stats preseason poll. However their schedule is actually very interesting, especially because of who they aren't playing.
BREAKING DOWN THE NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Eastern plays Washington, Lindenwood, Jacksonville State, and Idaho in their non-conference. I know it's weird that they play Idaho, but the Big Sky always has one team in the league that they put in non-conference play instead of conference play on everyone's schedule. Right now, we're putting EWU at 2-1 after non-conference, and we're going to get back to Jacksonville State in just a second.
BIG SKY PLAY
Before we get in to Big Sky play, I want to take a look at the Big Sky preseason poll.
Why is the preseason poll important?
Well, Eastern plays none of those teams in conference play, which is insane. They will not play the top three teams in their conference this season.
"It's just hard to prognosticate three or four years from now because the Big Sky schedule is set through 2023," said Aaron Best of the team's Big Sky schedule. "All the sudden, those teams in 2023 that are on our schedule may be higher, may be lower, may make the playoffs, may not. It's unfair to kind of evaluate them when they do it four or five years in advance. It's unfortunate. If we all got a 13th game, I'd love to see where we go with that. If we get to face each other in a common opponent, in a post season type of situation, but a lot of work to do before then."
"I think it's unfortunate. I'd rather play them because I like player the tougher teams," said senior defensive end Jim Townsed of not playing the top ranked teams in the conference. "I like the challenge of facing a good opponent that you really have to be prepared for. I wouldn't mind playing Weber State again after that ugly, ugly game down there, but it is what it is. There's nothing we can do about it. We just got to focus on our schedule and maybe we see them in the playoffs some time."
In fact, Eastern's hardest game of the season is going to be at Montana on October 26th. Eastern has gone 5-1 over Montana in their last six meetings, so I'm always going to pick Eags in that match up until further notice.
Basically, unless someone shocks Eastern this year, I think they go 8-0 in conference play.
JACKSONVILLE STATE
So right now I have the Eags at 10-1 on the season, but there's one more game.
I wanted to talk about conference play first, to illustrate just how important this Jacksonville State game is to Eastern's schedule.
Right now, it's EWU's lone game against a ranked FCS opponent according to the Stats FCS preseason poll. The Eags are ranked fourth in that poll, while Jacksonville State is ranked sixth.
Eastern really needs to win this game in order to remain high in the FCS polls. That would help guarantee one of the top eight seeds to get a bye in the playoffs and a nice stretch of home-field advantage. Winning this game would pretty much solidify Eastern for the season barring some sort of bad loss. Without it, their schedule may seem pretty week to the FCS committee.
Unfortunately, because this is an away game and the fact that Jacksonville State returns their quarterback, top four rushers, top four wide receivers, and four of their top five tacklers, I'm picking Jacksonville State.
FINAL RECORD
I am picking Eastern to finish 10-2 on the season. A respectful finish for sure, but they could definitely be on the bubble to get a top 8 seed to the playoffs.
Last Friday we broke down WSU's schedule and what we think the Cougar's record will be. If you'd like to see that, click below.