The full 2026 slate for Northwestern football was released Tuesday, revealing the location of the Wildcats’ nine conference games and some notable updates for their three game non-conference slate.
Northwestern opens the season with home non-conference matchups against South Dakota State and Colorado, which the program announced previously. However, Tuesday’s release included a new date for the season-opener against the Jackrabbits, moving Northwestern’s lone contest against an FCS opponent up a week from Sept. 5 to Sept. 12.
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South Dakota State is the former school of Northwestern star receiver Griffin Wilde — and former rival of head coach David Braun, who served as North Dakota State’s defensive coordinator for three years before his arrival in Evanston. Colorado is of course headed by NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders.
The Wildcats’ additional non-conference slate is at home against Ball State, who they last played against on Sept. 26, 2015 in a 24-19 victory for the purple and white.
Big Ten play begins on Sept. 26, when Northwestern travels to Bloomington to face Curt Cignetti and his reigning national champion Indiana Hoosiers. The Wildcats will be playing at IU’s Memorial Stadium for the first time since November 2019.
NU will face its three toughest Big Ten opponents — Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon — on the road in 2025. All three schools finished in the top five of the College Football Playoff committee’s final rankings.
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Northwestern’s Big Ten home opener comes a week after its bout with the Hoosiers on Oct. 3 against Penn State. The Nittany Lions will be led by newly-hired head coach Matt Campbell, who spent the previous 10 seasons as the head coach at Iowa State. Penn State’s last head coach, James Franklin, was of course fired following Northwestern’s 22-21 upset victory over the Nittany Lions last October.
After Ball State, the ‘Cats will travel to East Lansing for a highly anticipated matchup against Michigan State, who is led by former Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Notably, Northwestern’s schedule does not include a specific home venue. the program announced earlier this week that “exciting information about Northwestern’s home venues” will be announced on Feb. 3 at noon. Construction of the new Ryan Field is expected to be finished by fall 2026. The Wildcats played their games during the 2024 and 2025 seasons at the temporary Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium.
Northwestern football’s full 2026 schedule from Tuesday’s press release is listed below:
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Saturday, September 5 – vs. South Dakota State
Saturday, September 19 – vs. Colorado
Saturday, September 26 – at Indiana (Bloomington, Ind.)*
Saturday, October 3 – vs. Penn State*
Saturday, October 10 – vs. Ball State *
Saturday, October 17 – at Michigan State (East Lansing, Mich.)*
Saturday, October 24 – vs. Rutgers*
Saturday, October 31 – at Oregon (Eugene, Ore.)*
Saturday, November 7 – vs. Iowa*
Saturday, November 14 – at Ohio State (Columbus, Ohio)
Saturday, November 21 – at Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minn.)
Saturday, November 28 – vs. Illinois*
Bold denotes home games
* denotes eligible for a Friday shift
