Eastern will open up its 2007 season in an unusual way.

The Panthers have changed their schedule and will host Ohio Valley Conference foe Tennessee Tech on Aug. 30.

“I guess we’ll just have to start dominating early,” said Eastern junior linebacker Donald Thomas, last season’s OVC defensive player of the year.

The change in the schedule was made to allow TTU to play a game against Auburn on Nov. 3, the date the Golden Eagles were previously set to play Eastern.

“There is a standing agreement in the league that we all have to play the I-A money games,” said John Smith, Eastern’s associate athletic director for development, who is in charge of scheduling games.

TTU sports information director Rob Schabert confirmed the change but could not comment on it officially because Tennessee Tech has not released a formal 2007 schedule.

I-AA programs like Eastern and TTU often play at least one major I-A program per year to receive a sizable portion of ticket sales proceeds. Eastern was paid more than $200,000 to play Illinois last season and Hawaii paid for all the team’s expenses for a Sept. 30 game in Honolulu.

Eastern will now play head coach Bob Spoo’s alma mater, Purdue, on Sept. 8, the second week of the season.

That game was originally scheduled to be Eastern’s season opener.

Thomas said practice intensity would be the same regardless of who the Panthers are scheduled to play first.

The Panthers will have the nation’s first conference game next season, and with a Thursday night kickoff, television coverage is a possibility, Smith said.

Spoo said the schedule change will not affect his team’s spring practices or summer camp but he said starting the season with a conference game is unusual.

“I can’t recall that ever happening before,” Spoo said.

The game will be the first for Tech under new head coach Watson Brown. Brown, the head coach at Alabama-Birmingham the last 12 seasons, returns to his hometown of Cookeville, Tenn., to take over a program that finished sixth in the OVC with a 4-7 record overall.

TTU will return quarterback Lee Sweeney who led the OVC with 2,229 yards passing in his freshman season.

Eastern defeated the Golden Eagles 38-14 last year at TTU behind quarterback Cole Stinson’s three touchdown passes.