Bridgewater, NJ — The 2024 Northeast Conference (NEC) football schedule was unveiled on Tuesday. The slate will provide six conference games per squad, as each of the seven teams that comprise the league will face each other one time throughout the season.

Core members Central Connecticut, LIU, Saint Francis U and Wagner will vie for an automatic bid to the 2024 Division I FCS Playoffs with affiliates Duquesne and Robert Morris. Stonehill, which joined the NEC for the 2022 season, remains ineligible for the FCS Playoffs until 2026. The postseason is set to kick off on Saturday, Nov. 30.

With the potential addition of non-conference games, the 2024 schedule is subject to change.

Central Connecticut will ring in the new conference slate for the third straight year when the Blue Devils make the trip to DeGol Field to face Saint Francis U in the first NEC contest of the season on Saturday, Sept. 14.

With just two league games inked for September, conference play goes into full into full swing in October and November as seven of the final eight weeks of the campaign feature at least two scheduled NEC contests.

Three Saturday dates — Oct. 26, Nov. 16 and Nov. 23 — consist of a full slate of NEC games.

Entering the final game of the 2023 regular-season with at least a share of their sixth NEC regular season crown to their names, Duquesne took care of business in a winner-take-all championship game with a 26-14 win over Merrimack in North Andover, MA.

Going 6-1 in conference play, the Dukes captured the NEC title outright to qualify for the FCS Playoffs for the third time in program history.  

For the first time in the 28-year history of NEC football, second place in the league standings was shared by four teams as Stonehill, Merrimack, Saint Francis U and LIU each finished with 4-3 marks in conference play. The Sharks and Skyhawks closed out the slate as two of the hottest teams in the circuit, ripping off wins in three of their final four games.  

In November, Robert Morris accepted an invitation from the NEC Council of Presidents to rejoin the conference as a football associate member in 2024. Having helped launch NEC football in 1996, the Colonials, who will be immediately eligible to secure the league’s automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA FCS Playoffs, claimed the first five conference crowns and secured its sixth NEC title in 2010 during their time as a full-time member from 1981 to 2020.

2024 NEC FOOTBALL SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS