OUR 2025 SCHEDULE KICKED OFF AUGUST 23 AND FINISHED JANUARY 19
Like every season, we will now start firing up our “Tentative” 2026 schedule targeted for completion by late Spring. Of course, it’s subject to change for better opportunities or unavoidable personal issues even after the seasons start. Retirement from the 40+hour work weeks has really paid off to focus more on this great adventure. With a designated “bucket list” (published in the final pages of our book) to focus on seeing more games to be played beyond the 102 FBS stadiums we’ve already attended. Our plans still entail searching for great matchups. 2026 could be a banner season to achieve many more goals on our bucket list.
With what we learned about the College Football Playoffs (CFP) in 2024, we’ve already decided to make efforts to see as many playoff games as possible at every level of NCAA play annually. Competition remains the name of great college football in our “book.” In Week 15 of 2025, designated as a championship weekend for FBS conferences and playoffs in the other divisions, we put together a double-header weekend. That Friday night, we headed to Jacksonville, Alabama to see Jacksonville State host Kennesaw State for the Conference USA championship. The KSU Owls prevailed in a good one, 19-14. The next day, we drove about 90 minutes from there to see two D-III schools battle in the quarterfinals. The Berry Vikings in Mount Berry, GA defeated the Trinity U. (TX) Tigers to move on, 31-23. Both turned out to be good, competitive, entertaining games.
Assured competitiveness at the end of the season
Also, we got back into the fold with attendance for our 20th traditional, Army-Navy regular season finale game after a one-season misfire! Couldn’t beat a 17-16 Navy victory for college football competition at its finest. Last year and in 2026, the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) title game just fell into our backyard in nearby Nashville. Down to the wire – Montana State 35 Illinois State 34 for the national championship!
Multiple goals for different reasons
We started our 2025 schedule on Week “0” and made a concerted effort to make it all the way to January 19 for the CFP final at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Lakes, Florida. Attended 27 games in all. We saw some blow-outs early when most programs “pad” their schedules for bowl eligibility. We don’t deny, however, that these games give us opportunities to go to multiple games at convenient locations to attend at reasonable costs for the first time. As an example, we went two games in the state of Oregon within one day to see the Ducks and Beavers both play at home for the first time. Seems crazy, but that’s a goal for collegefootballfan.com. And who knows how long we can continue to do this? Not getting any younger!
Get on board here to join our 2026 collegefootballfan.com schedule!
Following a very successful 31-game schedule in 2024, Collegefootballfan.com develops plans for more new venues to be visited within economic, travel strategies to allow us to see as many games as possible. This upcoming season, 2026, will be our 48th season of full fall schedules. We hope to attend games in five or six new venues, and in the process, attend games in three of four new states for the first time. It’s our way of seeing the country. We plan to attend games in all 49 States and D.C. eventually. Only eight more states to go.
Last season, our travels brought us up to 203 stadiums and 42 states in all since our adventure began (this includes games in Washington, D.C. since Alaska claims zero college football teams). We now plan a few games closer to our Tennessee headquarters to alleviate some early travel costs to begin this season. Especially since we prefer to go see some significant games in the future during post-season play.
Finding fun and competition at all levels of college football
Last fall, we attended games at D-III Sewanee and at FCS Tennessee Tech. And surprisingly, since our relocation to Middle Tennessee, suddenly Vanderbilt hosts games worth going to! Every season, it makes sense for us to look for local opportunities. Middle Tennessee State, Western Kentucky, Austin Peay and UT Chattanooga offer viable contests on their schedules. Games played by these fulfill our desires to attend games weekly and allow us to economically afford the best of the best battle at the year’s end.
We balance several goals among our priorities
Taking precedence over venturing to new states each season, another goal we target focuses on our desire to add new FBS teams and other teams of interest from among the other three divisions. This past season, collegefootballfan.com attended games played by the three newest FBS members – Sam Houston State, Delaware and Missouri State. Though we’d seen Delaware in action 21 times at home and on the road before, the Fighting Blue Hens competed as an FCS program. Eventually, we plan to attend a game in Delaware Stadium to add as an FBS venue.
Similar situation lies ahead now for North Dakota State. We’ve seen them on the road in FCS contests. However, intending to add them now as our FBS team #137 becomes a priority. With that, we may as well venture up to Fargo to add a new stadium and a new state. Hopefully, a Thursday night game could come into play. That way, we can possibly travel to see a game in South Dakota the following Saturday. Haven’t been there yet and would enjoy a tour. Always thinking here and being challenged on how to piece things together to optimize our annual schedules to meet all our goals eventually. Of course, annual trips to Penn State, Navy, Wake Forest and Auburn remain as traditional must-visit tailgates. To some extent, we basically work around these to set our priorities.
“Competition” remains the primary goal of our schedule every year
This season, we don’t specifically plan to see the preseason Top Four, whoever they may be, as we did during 2022. However, with our ability to add three CFP games the last two seasons, we superseded the top four preseason teams and saw the final seven top teams in the country by waiting for the post-season! Our regular season 2024 plans called for us to attend regular season games featuring Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State and Georgia all in action. The two Peach Bowl bids invited us to the exciting CFP game won in OT by Texas over Arizona State to capture the No. 4 and No. 7 ranked teams in the Final Poll. It doesn’t get better than that, of course.
Always looking forward to surprises!
We’ve perused well-known preseason publications annually over our many years of following our favorite pastime. Usually, predictions accurately focused on the main programs known to have dominated over the many years. However, look just beyond the top five or so, but after that, the predictions are not as accurate. With the changes taking place over the last few years, and not that we like many but wish to see better controls in place to give college teams more stability and equity, even the so-called “blue-bloods” (more a college basketball designation to us) become more challenged now.
Indiana? Nobody could have imagine in 2023. And don’t overlook James Madison. Even after Curt Cignetti left JMU and brought key players from there to Indiana, the Dukes made the CFP. What if Cignetti and his transfers had stayed at JMU? Would that program have gone further than the first round of the CFP? Tulane? They got to the CFP under HC Jon Sumrall in only his second year coaching the Green Wave. Wait till you see what he does with Florida. He’s 43-12 and won conference championships these last four years in his three years as HC at Troy and at Tulane. Sumrall knows what he’d doing. Had he stayed for a third year at Tulane, they could have an even better shot in the CFP in 2026.
Move over Nick Saban.
Not that we think any one coach will dominate as long as he did at Alabama, and that’s a good thing for college football. Watch for coaches such as Sumrall, Bob Chesney at UCLA, and Matt Campbell at Penn State start shifting some leverage around college football. As NIL investments in the near future mix with good coaching/recruiting changes in the next few years, look for some more surprises next season.
FINAL 2025 COLLEGEFOOTBALLFAN.COM SCHEDULE
August-September 2025
AUG 23 WESTERN KENTUCKY 41 SAM HOUSTON STATE* 24 BOWLING GREEN, KY
AUG 30 OREGON 59 MONTANA STATE 13, EUGENE, OR**; CALIFORNIA 34 OREGON STATE 15, CORVALIS OR**
SEPT 6 NORTH DAKOTA STATE 59 TENNESSEE STATE 3 NASHVILLE, TN
SEPT 13 BREVARD* 26 SEWANEE* 10 SEWANEE, TN**
SEPT 20 INDIANA 63 ILLINOIS 10 BLOOMINGTON, IN**
SEPT 27 OREGON 30 PENN STATE 24 (2 OTs), STATE COLLEGE, PA
OCTOBER 2025 SCHEDULE
OCT 4 NAVY 34 AIR FORCE 31 ANNAPOLIS, MD
OCT 8 MISSOURI STATE* 22 MIDDLE TENNESSEE 20, MURFREESBORO, TN
OCT 11 CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT* 69 CASTLETON STATE* 7 CASTLETON, VT**
OCT 11 ST ANSELM* 21, FRANKLIN PIERCE* 0, MANCHESTER NH**
OCT 14 ARKANSAS STATE 15 SOUTH ALABAMA 14. MOBILE, AL
OCT 15 JACKSONVILLE STATE 38 DELAWARE * 25 JACKSONILLE, AL
OCT 18 VANDERBILT 31 LSU 24 NASHVILLE, TN
OCT 25 TENNESSEE TECH* 42 SE MISSOURI STATE* 23, COOKEVILLE, TN**
NOVEMBER 2025 SCHEDULE
NOV 1 MISSISSIPPI STATE 38 ARKANSAS 35 FAYETTEVILLE, AR**
NOV NOTRE DAME 49 NAVY10 SOUTH BEND, IN
NOV 15 WAKE FOREST 28 NORTH CAROLINA 12, WINSTON-SALEM, NC
NOV 22 VANDERBILT 45 KENTUCKY 17, NASHVILLE, TN
NOV 29 FLORDA 40 FLORIDA STATE 21, GAINSVILLE, FL
DECEMBER 2025 SCHEDULE
DEC 5 CONFERENCE USA CHAMPIONSHIP, KENNESAW STATE 19 JACKSONVILLE STATE 15, JACKSONVILLE, AL
DEC 6 D3 PLAYOFF GAME: BERRY COLLEGE* 31 TRINITY (TX)* 23 MOUNT BERRY, GEORGIA**
DEC 13 NAVY 17 ARMY 16, BALTIMORE, MD
DEC 20 BYE WEEK
DEC 30 LIBERTY MUTUAL MUSIC CITYBOWL, ILLINOIS 30 TENNESSEE 28, NASHVILLE, TN
January – Championship and Bowl Season
JAN 1 CAPITAL ONE CFP QUARTERFINAL ORANGE BOWL – OREGON 23 TEXAS TECH 0, MIAMI LAKES, FL
JAN 5 FCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, NO. 2 MONTANA STATE (13-2) 35 NO. 17 ILLINOIS STATE (12-5) 34 NASHVILLE, TN
JAN 9 CHICK-FIL-A SEMI-FINAL PEACH BOWL, INDIANA 56 OREGON 22, ATLANTA, GA
JAN 19 CFP CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, INDIANA 27 MIAMI 21, MIAMI LAKES, FL
* INDICATES A NEW TEAM ON OUR SCHEDULE SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME
**INDICATES A NEW VENUE ON OUR SCHEDULE VISITED FOR THE FIRST TIME
