The non-conference analysis is simply a look at who each FCS team is playing as of late May / early June. Occasionally schedules change, FBS schools buyout contracts and swap opponents, causing a domino effect. So these are tentative opponents, subject to change.
Northeast
Bryant: vs. Merrimack, @ Maine, @ Brown, vs. Fordham, @ New Hampshire
Central Connecticut State: @ Syracuse, vs. Fordham, @ Youngstown State, vs. Walsh, vs. Penn
Duquesne: @ South Dakota State, @ Valparaiso, @ Dayton, vs. West Virginia Wesleyan, @ Liberty
Robert Morris: vs. Dayton, @ Youngstown State, vs. Virginia Military, @ North Dakota State, @ East Tennessee State
Sacred Heart: vs. Stetson, @ Lafayette, @ Stony Brook, @ Bucknell, vs. Dartmouth
St. Francis: vs. Lock Haven, vs. Towson, @ Liberty, @ Presbyterian, @ Eastern Kentucky
Wagner: vs. St. Anslem, @ Columbia, @ Western Michigan, vs. Lehigh, @ Stony Brook
With thirty-five non-conference games to be played, the Northeast spreads the love around and takes on just about someone from every conference in their vicinity. Somehow they missed a match-up with someone from the Mid-Eastern, but they get everybody else who’s predominantly east of the Mississippi River. As a whole, only two games will be played against the FBS. One is CCSU, the other is Wagner, who always seems to have one of these games. There’s also only five games against sub-Division I teams, so overall, the conference is doing a better job of integrating with their FCS brothers. Surely, it will come with growing pains, but scheduling this way can only make the conference stronger in the future.
