Mid-America Football Classic Canceled

Eastern Illinois and Illinois State have jointly announced that this year’s Mid-America Classic will be not be played between the two schools. The game, which was scheduled for Sept. 12 at Hancock Stadium in Normal, was to be the 109th meeting between the two in-state rivals.

Earlier today, the Ohio Valley Conference, in which Eastern Illinois plays football, postponed fall sports competition with the hope of teams participating with a spring conference schedule.  The Missouri Valley Football Conference, in which Illinois State plays football, had postponed its conference slate of games on August 7 allowing members to play up to three non-conference games.

EIU and ISU had previous games on their schedule for this season already canceled based on conference only scheduling alliances.  EIU was slated to play at Kentucky (SEC) on Oct. 10 while ISU was set to open the season at Illinois (Big 10).

Administrators at both schools stated that based on what other institutions of higher learning in the region where doing, it was not in the best interest of the health and safety of either teams student-athletes to try and play the Sept. 12 contest. 

The last time EIU and ISU did not meet during the season for the Mid-America Classic was during the 2001 season when the annual contest was canceled due to the 9/11 tragedy.

EIU’s other non-conference opponent for the 2020 season, Indiana State, announced late last week that the Sycamores would not be participating in fall football games.

ISU’s other non-conference opponent for the 2020 season was Dixie State, which announced earlier this week that NCAA FCS Independent program would not play games this fall.