MARYVILLE, Mo. — A nationally televised game to open the season gives Northwest Missouri State football fans cause for excitement, but the thrills at Bearcat Stadium could be scarce in 2010 because of scheduling quirks.

The Bearcats open 2009 at Abilene Christian in a game to be televised by CBS College Sports, but that game represents the second and final contest in a two-year contract between the two schools.

The same holds true for the second game against Southwest Baptist, leaving coach Mel Tjeerdsma in a scheduling quandary.

Lincoln returns to the MIAA, but it won’t begin its conference football schedule until 2011. Combined with the two expiring contracts, that leaves a huge hole in the schedule that coach Mel Tjeerdsma is scrambling to fill.

“That means I’ve got the first two dates open,” Tjeerdsma said. “We’re scrambling right now.”

The open dates couldn’t come at a worse time. In the MIAA’s year-to-year scheduling of alternating home-and-away matchups, only Missouri Western, Emporia State and Fort Hays State are scheduled to play at Bearcat Stadium at this point.

“Our fourth home game is at Arrowhead,” Tjeerdsma explained, “so I really need both of those (open dates) to be home games.”

That’s not easy to do, given that few teams want to travel to Maryville, Mo., just to get roughed up by a program that has gone to the national championship game the past four seasons.

“That’s a challenge, no question about it,” athletic director Dr. Bob Boerigter said. “It’s been a challenge for a number of years, finding people willing to play us. But we’ve also been able to attract some good games through that.”

One example is West Chester of Pennsylvania, which came to Maryville for the season opener earlier this decade. That program was in a building process and wanted to use the game against Northwest as a measuring stick. Since then, West Chester has been in the NCAA Division II playoffs several times.

The Bearcats could identify a Bowl Championships Subdivision team to play — Tjeerdsma said he would not be opposed to that — but that almost certainly would have to be a road game. The other possibility would be for the Bearcats to play an NAIA institution, but Tjeerdsma emphasized that wouldn’t benefit Northwest in the regional ranking system.

Boerigter has discussed both possibilities, however.

Tjeerdsma is not overly concerned about filling the schedule — yet.

“People right now are not too interested in talking about 2010,” the veteran coach said. “As the summer goes on, we’ll make some progress.”

Of the two contracts that are expiring, Southwest Baptist already has indicated it wishes to find other opponents in its third year out of the MIAA.

“Abilene Christian might be interested in renewing, but we haven’t had that conversation,” Boerigter said.

If nothing else, the MIAA scheduling draw for 2010 was beneficial to the Bearcats’ needs in finding an additional opponent. Their bye in the MIAA schedule is on Sept. 4, before many teams get heavily involved in conference play.

“That’s an easier date to fill than if you had a bye on Nov. 9,” Boerigter said.

Sports reporter Rick Dunaway can be reached at rickd@npgco.com