2026 American Football Schedule Release: Dates, Matchups, Notes, and Trivia

We are six months away from kickoff of the 2026 college football season.

With half a year to go, the American Conference released its 2026 football schedule on Thursday, Feb. 26. In an ever-evolving college football landscape, the American is at a place of stability right now. The conference is comprised of the same 14 teams for the third year in a row.

There is one notable difference, however. The American Conference Championship Game returns to Saturday (Dec. 5) after a brief 2-year run of kicking off Friday night. However, the time and network are currently unannounced.

Without further ado, here is the complete 2026 American Conference football schedule:

2026 American football schedule

Week	Saturday Date	Army	Charlotte	East Carolina	Florida Atlantic	Memphis	Navy	North Texas	Rice	South Florida	Temple	Tulane	Tulsa	UAB	UTSA
0	Aug. 29	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	at UNLV*	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE
1	Sept. 5	vs. Bryant (FCS)*	vs. The Citadel (FCS)*	at Alabama*	at Florida*	vs. Arkansas State*	vs. Towson (FCS)*	at Indiana*	vs. Houston Christian (FCS)*	vs. FIU*	vs. Rhode Island (FCS)*	at Duke*	vs. Oklahoma State*	at Illinois*	vs. UTRGV (FCS)*
2	Sept. 12	vs. South Florida	at Ole Miss*	vs. App State*	vs. Navy	at Boise State*	at Florida Atlantic	vs. UNLV	at Notre Dame*	at Army	vs. Penn State*	vs. South Alabama*	at Sam Houston*	vs. ULM*	at Texas State*
3	Sept. 19	BYE	at App State*	at Old Dominion*	vs. FIU*	vs. UT Martin (FCS)*	BYE	at Texas State*	vs. Western Michigan*	vs. Delaware State (FCS)*	at Toledo*	at Kansas State*	vs. East Texas A&M (FCS)*	at Louisiana*	at Texas*
4	Sept. 26	at Temple	vs. Louisiana*	vs. NC Central (FCS)*	at ULM*	BYE	at UAB [Fri]	vs. Houston Christian (FCS)*	at Fresno State*	at Bowling Green*	vs. Army	vs. Southern Miss*	at Arkansas*	vs. Navy [Fri]	vs. Colorado State*
5	Oct. 3	at Louisiana Tech*	vs. Memphis	BYE	vs. Texas Southern (FCS)*	at Charlotte	at Air Force*	at Tulsa [Thu]	vs. UTSA	vs. Temple	at South Florida	BYE	vs. North Texas [Thu]	vs. Samford (FCS)*	at Rice
6	Oct. 10	vs. Tulane	at North Texas	vs. Rice	BYE	vs. UAB	vs. Tulsa	vs. Charlotte	at East Carolina	at UTSA [Thu]	vs. UConn*	at Army	at Navy	at Memphis	vs. South Florida [Thu]
7	Oct. 17	vs. Florida Atlantic	at Temple	at UAB [Thu]	at Army	at Tulane [Fri]	at UTSA	BYE	vs. Tulsa	vs. Kent State*	vs. Charlotte	vs. Memphis [Fri]	at Rice	vs. East Carolina [Thu]	vs. Navy
8	Oct. 24	at Tulsa [Fri]	BYE	at Memphis [Thu]	vs. Rice	vs. East Carolina [Thu]	vs. North Texas	at Navy	at Florida Atlantic	BYE	BYE	vs. UTSA	vs. Army [Fri]	BYE	at Tulane
9	Oct. 31	at Memphis	vs. Tulane [Fri]	vs. Temple	at North Texas [Thu]	vs. Army	vs. Notre Dame* [neutral]	vs. Florida Atlantic [Thu]	BYE	vs. UAB	at East Carolina	at Charlotte [Fri]	BYE	at South Florida	BYE
10	Nov. 7	vs. Air Force*	at UAB	vs. South Florida [Fri]	vs. UTSA [Thu]	BYE	vs. Temple	vs. Rice	at North Texas	at East Carolina [Fri]	at Navy	vs. Tulsa	at Tulane	vs. Charlotte	at Florida Atlantic [Thu]
11	Nov. 14	BYE	vs. East Carolina	at Charlotte	at Tulsa	at South Florida [Thu]	BYE	at UTSA	vs. Tulane	vs. Memphis [Thu]	vs. UAB	at Rice	vs. Florida Atlantic	at Temple	vs. North Texas
12	Nov. 21	vs. East Carolina	at Tulsa	at Army	vs. South Florida	at Navy	vs. Memphis	at Tulane	at Temple [Thu]	at Florida Atlantic	vs. Rice [Thu]	vs. North Texas	vs. Charlotte	vs. UTSA	at UAB
13	Nov. 28	at Rice	vs. Navy	vs. Florida Atlantic [Fri or Sat]	at East Carolina [Fri or Sat]	vs. Temple [Fri or Sat]	at Charlotte	vs. UAB	vs. Army	vs. Tulane [Fri or Sat]	at Memphis [Fri or Sat]	at South Florida [Fri or Sat]	at UTSA [Fri or Sat]	at North Texas	vs. Tulsa [Fri or Sat]
14	Dec. 5	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship	American Championship
15	Dec. 12	vs. Navy* [neutral]	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	vs. Army* [neutral]	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE	BYE

* denotes non-conference game

Confirmed weeknight games

There are 13 confirmed weeknight games, and all of them are conference matchups. Eight of these weeknight games transpire on Thursday night, while the other five are Friday night spectacles.

Friday, Sept. 25: Navy at UAB
Thursday, Oct. 1: North Texas at Tulsa
Thursday, Oct. 8: South Florida at UTSA
Thursday, Oct. 15: East Carolina at UAB
Friday, Oct. 16: Memphis at Tulane
Thursday, Oct. 22: East Carolina at Memphis
Friday, Oct. 23: Army at Tulsa
Thursday, Oct. 29: Florida Atlantic at North Texas
Friday, Oct. 30: Tulane at Charlotte
Thursday, Nov. 5: UTSA at Florida Atlantic
Friday, Nov. 6: South Florida at East Carolina
Thursday, Nov. 12: Memphis at South Florida
Thursday, Nov. 19: Rice at Temple

These games are typically broadcast on ESPN, sometimes ESPN2, so it’s no surprise to see last year’s contenders frequently appear on Thursday and Friday nights. Here’s a breakdown of confirmed weeknight games by team:

Thanksgiving weekend

After SEC on ABC moved the Egg Bowl from its traditional Thanksgiving Night slot to Black Friday, that opened the door for the American Conference to swoop in and put its stake in the ground for college football’s standalone Turkey Day game. In 2024, Tulane and Memphis battled in a primetime ESPN showdown on the holiday. In 2025, Memphis and Navy took center stage on ESPN as college football’s lone Thanksgiving spectacle. However, after a 2-year run, the American has discontinued the tradition.

In fact, there are currently zero college games scheduled on Thanksgiving Day 2026 as of Feb. 26, with Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt as the only leagues yet to reveal their schedules. Unless one of those leagues schedules a game for Thursday, Nov. 26, this will be the first Thanksgiving without FBS college football since 1997.

Also, there are four American matchups on Thanksgiving weekend assigned floating dates. These games can be played on either Friday or Saturday, and these games will be set in stone at a later date.

Friday, Nov. 27 or Saturday, Nov. 28: Florida Atlantic at East Carolina
Friday, Nov. 27 or Saturday, Nov. 28: Temple at Memphis
Friday, Nov. 27 or Saturday, Nov. 28: Tulane at South Florida
Friday, Nov. 27 or Saturday, Nov. 28: Tulsa at UTSA

Neutral-site games

There are two neutral-site games involving American teams for the 2026 season, and both involve Navy. Both will be played at NFL venues — one at the home of the New England Patriots and another at the home of the New York Giants/New York Jets:

Saturday, Oct. 31: Navy vs. Notre Dame — Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA
Saturday, Dec. 12: Army vs. Navy — MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

The Army-Navy Game remains in its usual slot on the second Saturday of December. Although Army and Navy are American Conference opponents, this historic rivalry — which transpires after conference championship weekend — is considered a non-conference matchup. The 127th Army-Navy Game on Dec. 12, 2026 will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford for the first time since 2021.

2026 American Championship

The 2026 American Conference Championship Game returns to Saturday and will kick off on Saturday, Dec. 5.

From 2015-25, the American title game always was showcased on ABC, but the time and network have yet to be announced. The ACC Championship Game will move earlier in the day to the 12 p.m. ET ABC timeslot this coming December, while the SEC Championship Game owns the 4 p.m. ET afternoon ABC timeslot for the third-straight year. If the American Championship remains on ABC, it will likely compete against the Big Ten Championship (on FOX) in primetime.

As usual, the host site is the campus stadium of the team with the best conference record. If two teams share identical records and did not play head-to-head in the regular season, then the College Football Playoff rankings determine the host site. This tiebreaker was used to set last year’s conference championship at Tulane instead of North Texas.

Other schedule trivia

Memphis opens shop on Aug. 29 for a Week 0 matchup at UNLV. This is only the third time the American Conference has ever been featured in Week 0. In 2023, Navy traveled to Ireland to face Notre Dame. In 2017, South Florida flew to the West Coast to battle San Jose State. Also, this makes the American the only conference to play all 16 weeks of the regular season, from this Week 0 showdown through the Week 15 Army-Navy Game.
The rematch of the 2025 American Championship Game between Tulane and North Texas is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 21. The two did not battle in the regular season last year, but Tulane won 34-21 in New Orleans to seal a College Football Playoff bid. This late-season rematch also transpires in New Orleans at Yulman Stadium.
American teams play three 2025 College Football Playoff qualifiers in the non-conference slate. North Texas opens at defending national champion Indiana in Week 1, East Carolina pays a visit to Alabama in Week 1, and Charlotte travels to Ole Miss in Week 2.
For the second-straight season, Tulane is the only American team to avoid playing an FCS opponent. In 2026, the Green Wave host South Alabama and Southern Miss while traveling to road games at Duke and Kansas State. Tulane played all four of these opponents in non-conference at one point from 2023-25.
UTSA waits the longest of any team before leaving its state borders. With two home games and road games at Texas State, Texas, and Rice in the first five weeks, the Roadrunners do not have to leave the Lone Star State until a Thursday, Oct. 8 matchup at South Florida.
Navy goes the longest without playing a road game. The Midshipmen do not have a true road contest from their Oct. 17 matchup at UTSA until their Nov. 28 trip to Charlotte. There are three conference home games, a neutral-site matchup in New Jersey vs. Notre Dame, and a bye week in between that month-plus stretch.
This is the fourth-straight year Memphis vs. Tulane has been on a Thursday or Friday night. The 2023 matchup in Memphis was a Friday night game. The 2024 Thanksgiving meeting in New Orleans transpired on Thursday night. Last year’s battle in Memphis occurred on a Friday night. Now this year’s Oct. 16 showcase in New Orleans is slated for a Friday night.

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