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NEC revises 2024 football schedule with addition of Mercyhurst

By Kevin Kelley - April 19, 2024
Northeast Conference

The 2024 Northeast Conference (NEC) Football Schedule has been revised following the addition of the Mercyhurst Lakers, the league announced on Friday.

Mercyhurst is currently a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) in Division II, but is moving up to the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and will begin play in the Northeast Conference this fall.

Mercyhurst will be ineligible to compete for the NEC championship in its first season, so the Lakers will play only four conference opponents. The four NEC opponents that Mercyhurst will play in 2024 are listed below, along with information on existing contests that were replaced:

Robert Morris

Mercyhurst will travel to take on Robert Morris on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, and the game will kickoff at noon ET.

As a result of that addition, Robert Morris will no longer host Frostburg State on Sept. 28 and will be open that day instead.

Central Connecticut

Mercyhurst will travel to play Central Connecticut on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. For Central Connecticut, the game replaces a previously scheduled contest at home against Sacred Heart on the same date.

Duquesne

Mercyhurst will travel to face Duquesne on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, and the game will kickoff at noon ET.

As a result of that addition, Duquesne will no longer host Sacred Heart on Nov. 2.

Saint Francis U.

Mercyhurst will host Saint Francis U. on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024.

As a result of that addition, Saint Francis U. will no longer host Sacred Heart, an FCS Independent, on Nov. 23.

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Mercyhurst will join former NEC member Robert Morris as new members of the conference in 2024. With the addition of those two coupled with Merrimack and Sacred Heart taking their football programs Independent, the NEC will have eight football-playing members in 2024: Central Connecticut, Duquesne, LIU, Mercyhurst, Robert Morris, Saint Francis U., Stonehill, and Wagner.

Three NEC members kick off their 2024 seasons on Thursday, Aug. 29 with non-conference contests. Northeast Conference play begins on Saturday, Sept. 14 with Central Connecticut at Saint Francis U. and Mercyhurst at Robert Morris.

2024 NEC Football Schedules

NEC Football Schedule (Composite)

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Comments (8)

Mercyhurst is a terrible addition to the FCS, but they fit right in with the worst conference in D-I. The last time they made the D-II playoffs was 2010 when they were one and done. They may dominate the NEC, but so many teams that don’t make the playoffs in a given year could say the same thing and these guys still get an automatic bid. 2024 Duquesne for one example.

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I have numbers to back up the futility! The current NEC members have racked up all of two wins ever in the post-season and are a pathetic 2-9 with the two wins coming in the first round in 2018 by Duquesne and 2012 by Wagner. We won’t even get into the sad record they have against teams outside of the conference in the regular season, they struggle to have a qualifier over .500 regularly. You can’t polish a turd, but year after year the NEC keeps sending invites out to teams like Mercyhurst, Stonehill, Long Island and Merrimack and reaching for the shine-ola just to prove the point.

I did mean the 2023 Duquesne squad that won the NEC, then got blasted by Youngstown State who finished in the middle of the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

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They should have thought about that before they left to become an independent. Obviously, they are worried about the playoffs, so they can get a bunch of D-II games, Virginia Lynchburg, Lincoln (CA), North American might fill in some of those and they don’t play home games so you could get them to come to Fairfield.

SFU only had four home games as it was.

They are the only NEC team to travel to Mercyhurst.

SFU’s administration let the NEC walk all over them.

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