The Ball State Cardinals have added the Western Illinois Leathernecks to their 2021 football schedule, FBSchedules.com has learned.
Ball State will host Western Illinois at Scheumann Stadium in Muncie, Indiana on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021. The Leathernecks will receive a $350,000 guarantee for the game, according to a copy of the contract obtained from BSU via a public records request.
Western Illinois is a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Last season, the Leathernecks finished 6-5 overall and 3-5 in conference play.
The addition of WIU tentatively completes Ball State’s non-conference schedule for the 2021 season. The Cardinals are also scheduled to travel to Penn State (Sept. 11) and Wyoming (Sept. 18) and host Army (Oct. 2).
Ball State’s non-conference schedules are also complete in 2018 and 2019. They need one more opponent to complete their slate in 2020, and that will likely be an FCS team.
Holy cow! The match-up we’ve all been waiting for! Is it 2021 yet? If Akron schedules Valparaiso for that same weekend, it will be a ratings bonanza!
I realize your sarcasm, but who cares about ratings, man. This should be a good fun regional matchup between decent MVFC and MAC programs.
OMG!!!!! I CANNOT WAIT 5 MORE YEARS FOR THIS EPIC MATCH-UP!!!!! THIS IS GOING TO BE AMAZING!!! JUST THINK ABOUT IT…BALL STATE &…WESTERN ILLINOIS!!! WHAT AN ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!! ANYONE OTHER THAN WESTERN ILLINOIS WOULD HAVE BEEN TOO WEAK, UNCHALLEENGING, AND FAR LESS INTERESTING!!! BEST PART, TRUMP MIGHT NOT BE PRESIDENT ANYMORE!!!!