The Eastern Athletics department gets about 50 calls from non Division I-A schools wanting to play the Eastern basketball team every year.

The calls come from Division III, Division I-A Division I-AA and IA Division III schools. The schools are always looking for games to fill their schedules.

“The schools also call us because they get a financial reward for scheduling to play us,” head men’s basketball coach Rick Samuels said, “And they are looking for a challenge outside of their division.”

Eastern, a Division-I mid-major school, recently played the Aurora Spartans, a Division III School. Eastern barely scraped by for an 80-72 win over the Spartans.

Eastern plays Division III schools and non Division I schools because they are trying to balance out their schedule. They try to go on the other end of the spectrum in how deep the talent pool is for their opponents. Eastern plays teams with the stamina of Hawaii and Cal Poly, and to keep their spirits bright they play D-III schools like Aurora.

Samuels said the games against teams like Hawaii and Cal Poly are hard to win and hard on the players.

Eastern also had two open Saturdays in a row and did not want to go consecutive Saturdays without a game.

Saturdays are better days for games because of the attendance rate. The fans are more likely to pack the gym on a Saturday than any other day.

Samuels also said that finding games to play in January and February is hard.

Eastern is just one of the many schools that play outside of their division.

The Eastern Kentucky Colonels also plays non Division I schools. Colonels head basketball men’s coach Travis Ford said they chose to play Division III schools because it evens out their schedule.

“We have to go and raise a certain amount of money from guarantee games against tough teams.” Ford said. “We have tough games against teams like Louisville, Xavier, Kentucky and Ohio State.”

The Colonels are playing more Division-III schools around the Ohio area because it is closer to home and they also want easier wins.

“We come back and pay others, and we are supposed to win the games of the teams we have payed,” Ford said.

Ford also said that Division-III schools play Division-I schools for the experience.

Schools like the Aurora Spartans would agree with Ford.

Aurora Head Men’s Basketball Coach James Lancaster said, “It was a great experience for the kids playing in front of a larger crowd and against Henry was a good challenge, and we get that by playing Division-I schools.”

Lancaster hopes that his team’s exposure against teams like Eastern Illinois will carry over whenever the Spartans play other Division-III schools.

Aurora also gets a guarantee of money for playing Division-I schools.

“If we can compete with Eastern Illinois University, we can play with any Division-III school, and we won’t be in awe of the crowd size,” Lancaster said.