Bucknell Football Unveils 12-Game 2024 Schedule
3/28/2024 12:09:00 PM | Football
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Head coach Dave Cecchini and the Bucknell football program unveiled the team's 2024 slate of games on Friday. The Bison are scheduled to play 12 regular-season games for just the third time in program history and for the first time since 2003.
Bucknell opens the season with an early FBS test at Navy on Aug. 31 and plays its first two games on the road. The home opener on Sept. 14 features Merrimack and is the first of six games that will be played within the confines of Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, as Bucknell celebrates the facility's 100th birthday. Bucknell's first Patriot League opponent will be cross-state rival Lehigh on the road in Bethlehem, Pa. on Sept. 28 before the bye week at the start of October. The regular season comes to a close Nov. 23 against Colgate at home.
Along with Merrimack and Colgate, Bucknell will play host to Marist on Sept. 21, Cornell on Oct. 19, Lafayette on Nov. 2, and Fordham on Nov. 9. The Bison last played six games at home during the 2017 campaign. The other non-league road games include VMI on Sept. 7 and Penn on Oct. 12. 10 of Bucknell's 12 opponents in 2024 were on the schedule last season.
When Bucknell and Navy kick off the season in August it will be the first meeting between the two programs in a century. They met 13 times between 1898 and 1925, with the Bison winning four of those matchups and tying the Midshipmen in another. It's the second year in a row and third time under Cecchini that the Bison will see an FBS opponent week one after visiting James Madison for the 2023 season opener and Temple in 2019.
Bucknell sees VMI in week two for a third consecutive year. The Bison defeated the Keydets at home last season and look to repeat that performance in Lexington, Va. this year. Bucknell and Merrimack meet for the first time to open the home schedule. The Warriors went 5-6 in 2023 in what was their fifth season at the Division I level. The team then hosts Marist during Bucknell's Family Weekend.
With games against the Quakers and Cornell, Bucknell will have had at least one Ivy League team on the schedule in 45 of the last 46 seasons. The Oct. 19 Homecoming game against Cornell falls exactly 100 years and one day after the first-ever game was played in Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, which at the time was known simply as "Memorial Stadium" in honor of Bucknellians who served the United States during the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I. Since that Oct. 18 game in 1924 against Lafayette, Bucknell has posted a 256-191-10 record at the stadium.
Bucknell travels to Georgetown on Oct. 26 before playing three of its final four games of the regular season at home. Bucknell hosts Lafayette on Nov. 2 and Fordham on Nov. 9, then travels to Holy Cross on Nov. 16 for its last road game. The regular-season finale features Colgate at home on Nov. 23, as the Bison wrap up the schedule against a Patriot League opponent for the first time in three years.
2024 season tickets will go on sale later this spring.
The Bison are entering their sixth season under Cecchini and are coming off a record-setting 2023 campaign in which the offense set new program highs in single-season passing yards, passing touchdowns, completions and average yards per game. Bucknell returns a host of key contributors from last year and welcomes 26 freshmen to the roster for the 2024 season.
2024 Bucknell Football ScheduleAug. 31 at Navy
Sept. 7 at VMI
Sept. 14 vs. Merrimack
Sept. 21 vs. Marist (Family Weekend)
Sept. 28 at Lehigh*
Oct. 12 at Penn
Oct. 19 vs. Cornell (Homecoming)
Oct. 26 at Georgetown*
Nov. 2 vs. Lafayette*
Nov. 9 vs. Fordham*
Nov. 16 at Holy Cross*
Nov. 23 vs. Colgate*
Home Games in Bold
*Patriot League Game
