Kent State replaces Wagner with CCSU on 2023 football schedule

By Kevin Kelley -

The Kent State Golden Flashes have replaced the Wagner Seahawks with the Central Connecticut Blue Devils (CCSU) on their 2023 football schedule, it was announced on Wednesday.

Kent State was previously scheduled to host the Wagner Seahawks on Sept. 16, 2023. However, Kent State’s season ticket on sale release on Wednesday revealed that they will host Central Connecticut on that same date at Dix Stadium in Kent, Ohio.

The Golden Flashes and Seahawks signed a contract for their football contest in 2023 back in November of 2021. Kent State was slated to pay Wagner a $325,000 guarantee for the game, per the copy of the contract.

Central Connecticut was previously scheduled to play at the Marshall Thundering Herd on Sept. 16, 2023, so that game has likely been postponed to another season or canceled altogether.

Central Connecticut and Wagner are both members of the Northeast Conference (NEC) in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). It’s possible that the game switch is due to a date conflict with the 2023 NEC schedule, which has not yet been released.

Marshall now has a non-conference opening or has already scheduled a replacement opponent, likely from the FCS.

Football Schedules

Comments (5)

Are you sure the Central Connecticut-Marshall wasn’t just moved up to September 2? Both teams are open that weekend.

Pretty sure. If they also play at Marshall, all three non-conference games would be away and they would only have three home games. Their NEC slate was 4 home/3 away in 2022 so it should be 3 home/4 away in 2023.

CCSU will open the 2023 season on September 2, at Arute Field under the lights. The presumed opponent is American International (D-II).

Sep. 16 at Kent State (MAC)
Oct. 7 at Brown (Ivy)
and a fourth currently unknown non-conference opponent

Plus a 7-game NEC schedule:
HOME (3) Long Island, Saint Francis, Stonehill
AWAY (4) Duquesne, Merrimack, Sacred Heart, Wagner

Some of this happened, I believe, because Wagner did have five non-conference games scheduled. So one of those needed to be ditched. Marshall could still be set-up with Central Connecticut State for September 2, but it’s not shown anywhere. At least not yet.

CCSU probably needs at least one of their non-conference games at home. As Kevin mentioned, they only get three NEC home games in 2023. One would guess they likely have a home game coming from Division-II, but maybe they’re able to get a home date with Penn, as Penn isn’t slotted for two non-con games yet. Harvard is missing a game also. Who knows?