The Indiana Hoosiers have added the Eastern Illinois Panthers to their 2019 football schedule, FBSchedules.com has learned.
Indiana will host Eastern Illinois at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington on Sept. 7, 2019. The game will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the gridiron.
The Hoosiers will pay the Panthers a $375,000 guarantee for the game, according to a copy of the contract obtained from Indiana University by FBSchedules.com via a state public records request.
Eastern Illinois is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Panthers finished the 2017 season 6-5 overall and 5-3 in OVC play.
EIU is the second FCS opponent added to Indiana’s future schedules since the Big Ten relaxed their policy on strength of schedule. The Hoosiers previously announced the addition of games against Indiana State in 2025 and 2027.
Indiana’s 2019 football schedule was previously complete with three non-conference games: at Ball State on Aug. 31 (in Indianapolis), vs. Western Kentucky on Sept. 7, and vs. UConn on Sept. 21.
The Eastern Illinois game took the place of the Western Kentucky game, but it’s not immediately clear if the WKU game will be the one moved to another season.
In Big Ten action in 2019, Indiana is scheduled to host Ohio State, Rutgers, Northwestern, and Michigan and travel to Michigan State, Maryland, Nebraska, Penn State, and Purdue.
Update (3/6/2018)
Indiana’s home game vs. WKU in 2019 has been pushed back to Sept. 17, 2022.