COLUMBUS, OHIO - Arch Manning of the Texas Longhorns throws a fourth quarter pass at Ohio Stadium on August 30, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
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The 2026 college football season will be the 49th since Division I split into I-A and I-AA. The subdivisions were given some semblance of branding in 2006 when they became known, respectively, as the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision.
Only one FBS team beginning with the 1978 season has yet to play against an FCS program. Not that USC’s exclusivity was entirely by design. After all, in 2019 it was announced that Clay Helton’s Trojans were scheduled to open the 2021 season at the Coliseum against Dan Hawkins’ UC-Davis Aggies. The USC faithful was not too thrilled by that announcement and made it known. The result was a cancellation 18 months before kickoff and at a cost of $725,000.
The Trojans ultimately scheduled San Jose State as their 2021 season-opening opponent (30-7 win) and UC-Davis was able to schedule another FBS team. A trip to Tulsa resulted in the Aggies’ second win in three seasons against a higher-level program. It also came with a $400,000 guarantee. Combined with USC’s cancelation fee, UC-Davis pocketed $1.125 million for its scheduling troubles.
USC is one of 13 FBS teams that will not play an FCS program in 2026. In fact, the Trojans are among six Big Ten members that will not go head-to-head with a team from the lower subdivision. Here is a glimpse of each of the teams in alphabetical order.
The Bulldogs will be the first team in the revamped Pac-12 to kick off its season when they travel to L.A. to take on the Trojans for a Friday evening encounter ahead of the Labor Day weekend. Their other non-conference clashes occupy the remaining Saturdays of September: versus FBS newbie and MAC member Sacramento State, at San Jose State and versus Rice.
To say the Rainbow Warriors have their non-conference slate spread throughout their schedule is an understatement. Timmy Chang’s team travels to the mainland for a pair of meetings against Power Four teams: at Stanford for a Week 0 contest and at Arizona State in October. Sacramento State visits Honolulu on Thanksgiving weekend for the regular-season finale. The date with the Sun Devils will be Hawaii’s first visit to Tempe since 1958 and the trip to Palo Alto will be a first.
The Wolverines open the 2026 season with four straight games at the Big House. The first three comprise the non-conference slate: Western Michigan, Oklahoma and UTEP. The matchups with the non-power Broncos ($1.5 million) and Miners ($1.9 million) will result in $3.4 million in payouts. The date with the Sooners completes a home-and-home agreement that had OU winning in Norman last season, 24-13. Michigan last played an FCS program in 2010, a 42-37 win over UMass.
The Pat Fitzgerald era in East Lansing gets underway with $2.8 million in payouts. The Spartans host Toledo ($1.3 million) on the Friday evening ahead of Labor Day weekend, and Eastern Michigan ($1.5 million) comes to town the following week. Michigan State then travels to South Bend to meet Notre Dame in a primetime matchup. The teams will meet for the 80th time and first since 2017 in East Lansing when Mark Dantonio was on the Michigan State sideline and Brian Kelly was at Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish lead the series, 49-29-1.
The Fighting Irish played their first and only FCS opponent in 2023 when they hosted and defeated (59-3) Eddie George’s Tennessee State Tigers, a matchup that came with a $1 million guarantee. It also gave Notre Dame a Labor Day weekend opponent following a Week 0 game against Navy in Dublin, which was rescheduled from 2020 (pandemic) and was part of early-season schedule maneuvering that led to the TSU matchup. After playing a pair of first-time opponents (Arkansas, Boise State) last season, there are no such teams on the slate in 2026. There is a meeting with SMU for the first time since 1989, which was the Mustangs’ return to the gridiron following a two-year death penalty. Notre Dame’s 59-6 pasting of Forrest Gregg’s squad was their school-record 22nd straight victory.
The Buckeyes welcome a MAC member to Columbus for the fifth time in six years. In fact, two MAC members visit Ohio Stadium in 2026 with Ball State and Kent State each receiving $1.9 million guarantees. Ohio State is 39-1 against current MAC members with the only loss to Akron, which was not exactly in recent memory: 1894. A trip to Austin sandwiched between the Cardinals and Golden Flashes will be the back end of a home-and-home with Texas. Ryan Day’s squad opened the 2025 season with a 14-7 win over the visiting Longhorns, who they also defeated in a CFP semifinal, 28-14, less than eight months earlier. Ohio State has won three of five all-time meetings.
A first-ever date in Ann Arbor at the Big House completes a home-and-home agreement that had the Sooners winning on the front end last season in Norman, 24-13. That was only the second meeting between the programs with the first taking place in the 1976 Orange Bowl, which Oklahoma also won. The trip to Michigan is sandwiched around visits from Mountain West members UTEP and New Mexico. It will be the second time in five seasons the Sooners open against the Miners, who were paid $1 million on 2022 (45-13 OU win) and will receive $1.3 million this year. UNM will receive $1.6 million for its first visit to Norman in 91 years.
Matt Campbell’s tenure in Happy Valley commences with home dates against Marshall and Buffalo bookended around an in-state trip to Philly for a meeting with Temple. The matchup between the Nittany Lions and Owls will be the first since 2016 and 46th in a series the former leads 40-4-1. Penn State’s last visit to Lincoln Financial Field was in 2015, a 27-10 loss that snapped a 39-game unbeaten streak (38-0-1) versus Temple that dated to 1941.
As noted above, the Longhorns host Ohio State after losing to the Buckeyes last season. The only previous meeting in Austin was in 2006, a 24-7 OSU victory. A season-opening visit from Texas State and a home matchup with UTSA are sandwiched around the Ohio State encounter. The only previous meeting between the ‘Horns and Bobcats was 1930 while the Roadrunners visit Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium for the third time in five years. The Longhorn won in 2022 and 2024 by a combined 97-27. UT paid out $1.6 million to UTSA in 2024 and will guarantee $1.7 million this season.
The Green Wave’s schedule is void of an FCS team for a second straight year. Also, for the second straight year, two of the four non-conference opponents will be Duke (Durham) and South Alabama (Yulman Stadium), which will be Will Hall’s first two games as head coach at Tulane after he was elevated from pass game coordinator. Tulane will also make a trip to Kansas State and a get visit from Southern Miss, which Hall coached 2021-24, to close out a September of non-conference clashes.
It is odd seeing UCLA and Cal listed as a non-conference affair. What was an uninterrupted 94-game series that began in 1933 – the teams played twice per season during World War II -- was placed on hold when the Pac-12 broke apart following the 2023 season. The Bruins departed for the Big Ten and the Golden Bears left for the ACC in a divorce that resulted in the teams not playing the past two years. A four-year scheduling agreement commences Labor Day weekend when the teams kick off the season in Berkeley. It will be the UCLA coaching debut for Bob Chesney and the first game as a head coach for Cal’s Tosh Lupoi, a former Golden Bears defensive lineman. The Bruins complete their non-conference slate by hosting San Diego State and Nevada.
This season marks the first time in a non-pandemic year since 2010 that the Rebels do not have an FCS team on the schedule. The four-game non-conference slate opens with a Week 0 visit from Memphis. After kicking off its MWC schedule on Labor Day weekend in Hawaii, Dan Mullen’s squad travels to North Texas and, following a week off, Akron. The final non-league date is against visiting Cal the first Saturday in October. The Rebels and Golden Bears met in last year’s LA Bowl (24-13 UNLV) in the second meeting between the teams. The first was in Berkeley in 2022, a 20-14 Cal victory. (UNLV does not have an FCS opponent scheduled for 2027.)
As noted at the beginning of this column, USC is the only FBS program to have not played one from the FCS. San Jose State will lift the curtain at the Coliseum for the third time this decade (also 2021 and 2023) and will be followed by visits from Fresno State and Louisiana. The game against the Ragin’ Cajuns will be the first meeting between the schools.
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