DeMarcus Dixon
Staff Writer
The Big South-OVC Football Association announced its 2024 conference football schedule on Tuesday.
The second-year of the joint Association between the Big South Conference and the Ohio Valley Conference features nine league teams each playing an eight-game conference schedule. League play will begin on Saturday, September 7, and Association games will primarily take place between Weeks 5 and 13, with one game apiece during Weeks 2 and 4.
Each team will play four home conference games and four road conference games, with the home/road opponents being flipped in 2025.
The Big South-OVC will also see some changes within the league as well. Bryant University and Robert Morris University are no longer members of the league, but Western Illinois will join the league next season.
Lindenwood will begin its Big South-OVC schedule on September 28, when it goes on the road to play Eastern Illinois. Following that, the Lions will play their league home opener on October 5 against Tennessee State.
The Lions will be home again the following week with a game against Charleston Southern. Lindenwood’s next game will be on the road on October 19 against Gardner-Webb. The Lions will close out October with their first game ever against Western Illinois at Hunter Stadium on October 26.
November will feature three games and a bye week for the Lions. They’ll play at Tennessee Tech on November 2, at home against Southeast Missouri State on November, before enjoying their bye week on November 16.
Lindenwood will close out the 2024 regular season with a road game at Tennessee-Martin on November 23.
Kickoff times and formal dates of non-conference games have been made official yet, but are expected to get done in the coming months.
Last year, in an injury-riddled season, Lindenwood went 3-7 with a 1-5 mark in conference games.
2024 Big South-OVC Football Schedule
Saturday, September 7
Tennessee-Martin at Southeast Missouri
Saturday, September 21
Tennessee State at Tennessee Tech
Saturday, September 28
Charleston Southern at Tennessee State
Lindenwood at Eastern Illinois
Tennessee Tech at Gardner-Webb
Saturday, October 5
Western Illinois at Charleston Southern
Southeast Missouri at Eastern Illinois
Gardner-Webb at Tennessee-Martin
Tennessee State at Lindenwood
Saturday, October 12
Charleston Southern at Lindenwood
Eastern Illinois at Tennessee State
Tennessee Tech at Southeast Missouri
Tennessee-Martin at Western Illinois
Saturday, October 19
Southeast Missouri at Charleston Southern
Lindenwood at Gardner-Webb
Tennessee Tech at Western Illinois
Saturday, October 26
Charleston Southern at Tennessee Tech
Eastern Illinois at Tennessee-Martin
Gardner-Webb at Southeast Missouri
Western Illinois at Lindenwood
Saturday, November 2
Gardner-Webb at Charleston Southern
Western Illinois at Eastern Illinois
Lindenwood at Tennessee Tech
Tennessee-Martin at Tennessee State
Saturday, November 9
Tennessee-Martin at Charleston Southern
Eastern Illinois at Gardner-Webb
Southeast Missouri at Lindenwood
Tennessee State at Western Illinois
Saturday, November 16
Charleston Southern at Eastern Illinois
Tennessee State at Gardner-Webb
Western Illinois at Southeast Missouri
Tennessee Tech at Tennessee-Martin
Saturday, November 23
Eastern Illinois at Tennessee Tech
Gardner-Webb at Western Illinois
Lindenwood at Tennessee-Martin
Southeast Missouri at Tennessee State
ABOUT THE BIG SOUTH-OHIO VALLEY CONFERENCE ASSOCIATION
In February 2022, the Big South Conference and Ohio Valley Conference announced the creation of an association of their football member institutions, which began in the 2023 NCAA Division I football season and has an initial term of at least four years. The unique agreement combined the two conferences’ football membership to ensure NCAA championship access and stability for the multisport conferences. In creating the association, presidents from each of the multisport conferences pointed to the similarities of the OVC and the Big South, with their complementary geographies and intercollegiate athletic philosophies, as key to making this association possible.
Schools comprising the Association are Charleston Southern University (Charleston, SC), Eastern Illinois University (Charleston, IL), Gardner-Webb University (Boiling Springs, NC), Lindenwood University (St. Charles, MO), Southeast Missouri State University (Cape Girardeau, MO), Tennessee State University (Nashville, TN), Tennessee Technological University (Cookeville, TN), University of Tennessee at Martin (Martin, TN) and Western Illinois University (Macomb, IL).