East Carolina, Northwestern agree to 2027 football game

by | Jul 29, 2025

East Carolina has announced an away non-conference football game will be played between the Pirates and Northwestern in 2027.

The game will be played on Sept. 18, 2027, at Ryan Field in Chicago. More details are below from ECU Sports Information.

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Photo credit: (ECU Sports Information photo illustration)

By ECU Sports Information

East Carolina and Northwestern have agreed to play a non-conference football game on Sept. 18, 2027, at Ryan Field according to a joint announcement by both institutions Tuesday.

The meeting will mark ECU’s initial visit to Northwestern and the Pirates’ 10th-ever contest against a current member of the Big Ten Conference with the last against Michigan in 2023. The announcement is the third non-conference game for ECU in 2027 as the Pirates are schedule to host Wake Forest (Sept. 11) and Georgia State (Sept. 25) inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

“We are excited to add a school of Northwestern’s caliber to our 2027 schedule,” East Carolina Director of Athletics Jon Gilbert said. “East Carolina has always been committed to facing high quality non-conference opponents as we continue to showcase our brand across the country.”

The contest against Northwestern will maintain the continuity of Power Conference opponents on East Carolina’s future schedules that includes games against Wake Forest (2027/home, 2028/away), NC State (2028/home), Clemson (2029/away) and South Carolina (2030/away). This season, ECU will play a pair of P4 members in NC State (Aug. 28 away) and BYU (Sept. 20 home).

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