WKU Football: Hilltoppers Announce 2024 Schedule
The 2024 WKU football schedule has been unveiled. Here are our initial thoughts on what lies ahead for the Tops.
Western Kentucky, along with the rest of Conference USA, dropped their 2024 football schedule Thursday as the calendar flipped to the second month of the year, and one month closer to spring ball.
While we wait for kickoff times and TV information to be announced, there’s still a lot to discuss when it comes to the slate itself.
Let’s dive in.
Alternating Schedule
I’ll admit, this was not the first thing I realized when I saw the schedule. In fact, it was one of the last. But, when laid out by the WKU recruiting Instagram account, it became something I could not unsee.
While the idea of a “homestand” doesn’t necessarily mean much when it comes to a football schedule compared to a sport like baseball or even basketball, it is still a bit of a unique anomaly that not once during the next year will the Tops play back-to-back games inside the Houch.
The other side of this, of course, is that the Tops won’t have back-to-back road games either.
To keep it simple: Every odd-numbered game will be played on the road, every even numbered game will be played at home.
More Midweek Fun!
This year, the Hilltoppers will host two of their three midweek games, although one is on a Thursday, so it shouldn’t get the same kind of fan backlash in year two of CUSA’s midweek scheduling strategy.
WKU’s midweek schedule begins on Thursday Oct. 10, against UTEP before they head to Sam Houston State for a Wednesday showdown, on Oct. 16.
Following the second bye week of the season, WKU returns to the field at home against CUSA newcomer Kennesaw State on Halloween Eve, another Wednesday. Of the five newcomers into the conference since the start of last year, Kennesaw State will be the fourth to play WKU for the first time in Bowling Green.
A Strange Omission
With Kennesaw State’s inclusion in the conference, growing the league’s membership back to 10 and slots for only eight conference games, one team was going to get left out of playing the Hilltoppers.
That team was drum roll FIU!
2024 will mark just the third time since the 2008 season that the Tops and Panthers won’t get together on the gridiron. Since WKU’s entry into CUSA, the two programs have played every year, with the Tops winning seven of the nine meetings including having won five straight.
Even with there not being divisions in a 10 team league, WKU not playing one of the more eastern teams makes very little sense, especially since they’ll play both Texas-based teams and New Mexico State.
Stray Thoughts
Let’s throw it back to how we usually end our recaps. These are thoughts I have that aren’t entirely fleshed out but still worth noting.
The Tops not only kickoff CUSA play in Week 3 but do so against Middle Tennessee. I was expecting that game to stay in its somewhat normal mid-October slot. Nope, it’s been moved to September 14.
Weeks 2 and 3 are an interesting stretch, with back-to-back rivals in different stages of the rivalry. Prior to heading to Murfreesboro, the Tops will welcome in EKU.
Speaking of stretches, the home stretch to end the regular season could be what ultimately makes or breaks WKU’s year: at NM State, vs. La Tech, at Liberty, vs. Jacksonville State, in the Gamecocks first trip to BG as conference mates. Even if Tech isn’t improved, those were maybe the three best teams in the conference last year all to finish off WKU’s schedule. The race for the title game, assuming WKU is in the mix, won’t be easy.
I can’t help but think playing Boston College in Week 5 is the perfect time for us to know what type of team we’re going to have and know if upsetting the Eagles will be feasible or a pipe dream. At this stage of the offseason, I’m thinking it’s more than feasible.
Did the NCAA eliminate Week 0 or something, because I’m almost positive every team in the country has two bye weeks. For the Tops, they fall on Week 6 (10/3) and Week 9 (10/22).