It has been five years since Eastern Washington played a 12-game regular season, a slack adjustment that is only possible when the schedule is right.

This season and next, the Eagles can play an additional nonconference game, four instead of three, giving Eastern a second home game in this case before the eight-game Big Sky schedule begins, a luxury the division can’t always afford.

This year’s schedule is notable for another reason: It is the first in Eastern history to begin with two home games against other FCS teams.

While this comes with a downside – classes have not started yet and so students are unlikely to be on site – it should help the Eagles get off to a better start than in years past.

“Our goal every year is to create a schedule that helps us reach the playoffs,” said EWU athletic director Tim Collins.

After hosting Monmouth on Thursday and Drake on Sept. 7, the Eagles will play at Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 14 — in the second half of a home-and-away game between the two teams — and then at Nevada on Sept. 21.

In Nevada, it’s all about the so-called “money game,” because the Wolf Pack writes the Eagles a check for $400,000 for the trip.

From a travel perspective alone, this year’s schedule is far less strenuous than the last two seasons, which featured several early road trips that gave EWU a payday. Last year, there was a game in Minneapolis against North Dakota State followed by a trip to Fresno State. The year before that, the Eagles played at Oregon and Florida during non-conference play.

“We always want to play a game that gives us that revenue opportunity,” Collins said. “Then you fill your other games with either home-and-away games or, like this year, a home-and-away game and two FCS teams coming to us.”

With the Eagles spending the first two weeks at home, they have a little more time as coaches to put together a traveling group, and it gives them a chance to play on the red turf of Roos Field and build some momentum for their next away games.

“We love playing at home,” Collins said. “Any time we get the opportunity to be with the Reds, we love it.”

This year’s four games were scheduled before Collins became athletic director, but Collins has much more control over future dates, especially, he said, because of the chaos that COVID and conference realignment have wreaked on Western teams’ nonconference dates in 2025 and 2026. Simply put, more teams have weekends to fill, and Eastern is available to fill them.

Part of the Eagles’ 2025 schedule has been set for several years: a game at Boise State University that will pay EWU $360,000 and a home game against Western Illinois that will offset Eastern’s trip there in 2021.

Collins was able to add home-and-away games against Incarnate Word and Northern Iowa. While both games will be away games, Eastern expects to play home games against those FCS schools in 2027 and 2026, respectively, and will travel to both schools in 2025.

“It’s tough in 2025. We have three away games that are going to be tough and then we come home,” Collins said. “But I think the idea and what the Big Sky has proven is that it’s the strongest FCS conference from top to bottom.”

Following this logic, Big Sky wins could be enough for the Eagles to make the playoffs, even if Eastern only wins one of those games but still performs well in Big Sky play afterward.

Eastern’s “cash games” – those in which another program sponsors participation in an away game – are scheduled through 2028. The Eagles will play in Washington in 2026 and 2028 and in Oregon in 2027.

These regional matches are important, Collins said, because they are in the EWU’s recruiting area and give players the opportunity to compete in stadiums where they may have attended games as a child and where it is easier for their family members to get to games.

But Collins doesn’t want to schedule games just for the money: A win in these games is always worth a smaller paycheck.

“Do you deserve the $400,000 more and potentially lose in a tough way to a College Football Playoff team or is it a closer game with a Group of Five opponent?” Collins said. “That’s the debate (head coach) Aaron Best and I talk about. Because a win is worth more than the bigger paycheck.”

One Big Sky team, Montana State, pulled off such an upset on Saturday, beating New Mexico 35-31. Eastern will get a chance to beat another MWC team, Nevada, in its fourth game. Idaho, another Big Sky team, beat Nevada 33-6 last season.

But until then, the Eagles want to win three more games against teams from their subdivision.

Then they will worry about Nevada.

“When we evaluate our FBS game, it’s undoubtedly a turnover opportunity,” Collins said. “But our program has proven that it’s not just turnover opportunities. It’s an opportunity to win.”