NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State football team completed its 2012 schedule with the addition of a Sept. 8 game against Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Mid-American Conference foe Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti, Mich., as announced by Illinois State head coach Brock Spack Thursday.
The Redbirds will not play a FBS team in 2011 for the first time since the 1994 season, but the hiatus will only last one season. The exception snapped a streak of 16-consecutive seasons in which the Redbirds played an FBS foe. When the Redbirds face off against the Eagles in 2012, it will start a three-year stretch in which ISU will play a team from the MAC, with a home-and-home series against Ball State already on the books for 2013-14.
Spack was pleased to add the game against Eastern Michigan and is eager to see how his team will match up against a MAC opponent in 2012.
"Eastern Michigan is a program that is improving and plays in a very solid league in the Mid-American Conference," Spack said. "We played against a few MAC schools while I was at Purdue and they were always very good games and teams. Coach (Ron) English has done a great job recruiting and they are much improved. I think it will be a lot of fun for our players to play against a FBS team again here in the Midwest and fairly close to home. Our players enjoy these games against FBS opponents and it will be a lot of fun for them to play in a big stadium against a good MAC program."
Illinois State and Eastern Michigan are not strangers, having played 30 games against each other in the series history. The all-time series is tied 12-12-6, with the last game being played in 1981 and ISU coming away with a 28-7 victory at Hancock Stadium. The Redbirds have won the last four games against the Eagles and seven out of the last nine contests overall.
The Redbirds are 3-32 all-time against FBS opponents and have not knocked off a FBS team since 1991, when ISU earned a 25-3 win at Akron.
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