The Lions went 7-3 in their first season as D1 FCS members last year. (Photo: Thomas Grove)

Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

ST. CHARLES, MO — The Lindenwood University athletics department put the finishing touches on its 2023 football schedule recently and announced what it had done on Thursday.

The Lions, who went 7-3 in their first season as members of Division I FCS and the Ohio Valley Conference last season, will play 10 regular season games (five at home and five on the road) in 2023.

Along with games against fellow OVC members, Lindenwood will also see matchups against teams from the Big South Conference, as the two leagues agreed to merge for the 2023 season.

Lindenwood will open the year on Thursday, August 31, with a home game against longtime NCAA Division III power Wisconsin-Stevens Point. That contest will be played at Hunter Stadium and is set to kickoff at 7 p.m.

LU’s other home games will be October 7 against Austin Peay, October 14 against Tennessee Tech, November 4 against Eastern Illinois, and November 11 against Bryant.

The 2023 road games will include three straight road matchups against Southeast Missouri State (September 9), Western Illinois (September 16), and Illinois State (September 23).

The other two road contests will be in October against Charleston Southern (October 14) and Tennessee State (October 28).

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, to begin with the 2023 NCAA Division I football season and have an initial term of at least four years. The unique agreement combines 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.
 
This year the conferences combined for 13 finalists for the 2022 FCS National awards (Walter Payton, Buck Buchanan, Jerry Rice, Eddie Robinson and Doris Robinson), with four individuals finishing in the Top 10 of voting.
 
Schools included in the association include Bryant University (Smithfield, R.I.), Charleston Southern University (Charleston, S.C.), Eastern Illinois University (Charleston, Ill.), Gardner-Webb University (Boiling Springs, N.C), Lindenwood University (St. Charles, Mo.), Robert Morris University (Moon Township, Pa.), Southeast Missouri State University (Cape Girardeau, Mo.), Tennessee State University (Nashville, Tenn.), Tennessee Technological University (Cookeville, Tenn.) and University of Tennessee at Martin (Martin, Tenn.).