The Mid-American Conference announced their regular season football schedule this morning, including the schedule for NIU and their conference rivals.

NIU’s conference schedule includes five home games, two of which will be played on Saturdays in October.

The Huskies will open conference play Oct. 5 at Huskie Stadium when they play the Ball State Cardinals in the Bronze Stalk rivalry game.

NIU will then play a pair of road conference games against the Ohio Bobcats Oct. 12 and the Miami of Ohio RedHawks Oct. 19.

The Huskies return to DeKalb the following week against the Akron Zips Oct. 26, then play their final Saturday game Nov. 2 against the Central Michigan Chippewas on the road.

Following a bye week, NIU has its first mid-week contest on the road against the Toledo Rockets Wednesday, Nov. 13.

The Huskies round up their season with a pair of Tuesday home games, the first coming Nov. 19 against the Eastern Michigan Eagles and the season finale Nov. 26 versus the Western Michigan Broncos.

The conference commissioner, Jon Steinbrecher, also announced that the championship game will be played Saturday, Dec. 7 at Ford Field in Detroit.

Kickoff times and broadcast commitments will be made public closer to June, according to the conference. NIU will start its season with a non-conference game at home against the Illinois State Redbirds Aug. 31.