The 2020 football season, which has been pushed back to Spring 2021, is set to begin later next month.

In the meantime, Eastern announced the non-conference games that have been scheduled for the 2021 season beginning in September.

The season will open Sept. 4 when the Panthers travel to play South Carolina. This will be the second time that Eastern has played a team from the SEC, with the first instance happening against Arkansas to open the 2018 season.

The next game for Eastern will be on Sept. 11 against Dayton, the first-ever matchup between the programs. In return, Dayton will visit Eastern for a game in 2025.

Eastern will then play host to rival Illinois State Sept. 18 in what will be the 109th edition of the Mid-America Classic.

The 2020 installment of this annual matchup was canceled as a result of COVID-19.

The conference schedules for the teams of the OVC will be announced in the coming weeks.

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