Seen 'em all – 136 FBS teams in action! In 2025, we finished with the CFP Championship game, Indiana 27 Miami 21. Now, we're up to 740 games since 1979. Capture our unique, fun, life-long adventure in my book on Amazon.com: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly. Our journey continues into the 2026 season! Click on our 2026 Schedule below to follow us to exciting, competitive clashes we'll attend this season!
Lebanon, TN – As we approach our 47th season that starts three weeks from this Saturday, we follow up as promised with our 2026 Cheerleader Edition 2. On July 29, we published our 2026 Cheerleader Edition 1. Hopefully, we can all agree it’s something that fans attending games in-person all enjoy as an essential part of the game. Cheerleaders carry on the traditions of college football. They also remind us that the college game exists for the young at heart!
Fans watching from home can change channels to watch other games. Or, they watch the same insurance commercials they wanted to avoid on the previous network break. They can run to the Fridge or hit the head. Though we tolerate way too many breaks-in-the-action as ticket-buying fans, we absolutely enjoy observing sideline entertainment to fill the voids. As the late, great ABC broadcaster Chris Schenkle espoused back in the 60s and 70s: “College football! What better way to enjoy a Saturday afternoon?”
Our 2026 Cheerleader Edition 2 and I prepare us for a Fun Fall of College Football
We have photographed plenty of action over many past seasons in 43 states. We look forward to seeing more spirited activities along the sidelines everywhere to be recorded for our future game reviews and for future Collegefootballfan.com College Cheerleader editions! More sideline highlights will be captured among 30 games we plan to attend. Since we’ve already seen 136 FBS schools and many among the FCS as well, we finally figured the best order to present our Collegefootballfan.com 2026 Cheerleader Edition 2 and I. It makes sense to present our cheerleader photos alphabetically by school.
We’ve chosen the best of the best we’ve photographed for most of the schools seen the past 47 years. Some schools we’ve seen play many times. Some we witnessed only one or two times. We reminisce about our many game memories and throw in some thoughts for future plans in our captions. Most likely, you’ll just enjoy perusing our historic sideline, pictorial, collection of many fantastic Cheerleaders entertaining for their fans’ enjoyment! Let the games begin!
Teams 29 through 33: Two National Champs!
We start 2026 Cheerleader Edition 2 with the Red Steppers from 2025 National Champion Indiana. We would see the Hoosiers win three times during this season including the CFP title win over Miami. No. 19 IU demonstrated their direction with a dominant win over No. 9 Illinois, 63-10 in Week Five. The Red Steppers led us to Atlanta and Miami for Indiana’s unexpected CFP run!In 2022, the Iowa Cheerleaders entertained much better than the two offenses playing in the Music City Bowl. Their Hawkeye defense scored with two pick sixes to defeat Kentucky, 21-0.In 2022, James Madsion cheerleaders appear happy to travel with their Dukes on the road against Louisville in their first FBS season. JMU fell to the Cardinals, 24-10, for their third loss in an 8-3 season. Of course, in 2025, they won the Sun Belt and earned a CFP bid.For our 2026 Cheerleader Edition 2, the Kentucky Wildcat cheering squad came out in their traditional “Blues” this evening in 2022. Afterward, they would be singing the “Blues.” U of K fell in an SEC clash against the South Carolina Gamecocks, 24-18, at home in Lexington.LSU Cheerleaders showed up in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome with a lot of exuberance on December 28, 2019. It paid off! QB Joe Burrow led their Tigers to a smashing 63-28 CFP semifinal victory over Oklahoma. And the score wasn’t really that close!The Tigers (15-0) defeated Clemson in the CFP title game, 42-25.
Squads 34 – 40: Seven M’s: MMMM-MMM GOOD – despite the weather!
Long Sleeve sweatshirts in August 2018? Can only be FCS Maine Cheerleaders in an evening opener against New Hampshire. Their Black Bears won big at home in Orono, 35-7, on their way to a 9-4 record. Their hockey team opened a few weeks later. We wonder how they’d dress in Maine at an indoor skating rink that time of year.In contrast to Maine in August, this is how Maryland Terrapin Cheerleaders dressed for the Music City Bowl in Nashville on December 30, 2023! They stayed warm as their team moved out to a quick, hot start to defeat Auburn in this one, 31-13.UMASS Cheerleaders look comfy here in the sun in a game hosted in Amherst on November 3, 2018. During three OTs and in the dark, the temperatures dropped into the 30’s. UMASS defeated Liberty to tie our highest scoring game total ever by the same score of 62-59!The Memphis Tiger Cheerleaders entertained vs. Navy in 2021 as they were walking in Memphis, but higher than 10-feet off of Beale. They beat Navy, 35-17. We’ll see the Tigers and Midshipmen again in another key AAC battle on November 21 in Annapolis.Our 2026 Cheerleader Edition shows that weekday night MACtion contests require cold weather gear like this in Oxford, Ohio. In 2023, their Red Hawks weathered the cold against the Buffalo Bulls this evening, 23-10.Sorry Michigan Maize and Blue, but this is the best I can do! When one business friend at BASF, Mike Meyer, a CMU graduate, asked me if our associate, Dave Imrick, ever told me he was a Michigan cheerleader, I couldn’t resist this! With Daveick, left, we put together some Friday meetings in Southfield so we could attend Michigan vs. Penn State at the Big House back in 2009! Great day. We tailgated with of his Cheerleader friends. PSU prevailed, 35-10!Middle Tennessee Cheerleaders and the Marching Band always keep up their great spirit despite paltry crowds in recent years. We hope the football program brings back some new excitement! The Blue Raiders host the Kennesaw State Owls on October 28.
2026 Cheerleader Edition 2: Squads 41-45 offer some Close Encounters
In 2013, we visited Ole Miss for the first time and had a great time at “The Grove!” It’s taken us too long to get back. We chanted “Hotty Toddy” and toasted with many Rebel fans. These Ole Miss Cheerleaders cheered their team to an exciting 27-24 win over LSU. We’ll see Mississippi take on Louisville on September 6, but we got to start thinking about getting back to “The Grove.”We always enjoy our traditional visits to The Naval Academy in Annapolis. Last season, we watched with these USNA Cheerleaders as the Mids defeated Air Force in their first of two wins for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, 34-31. We’ll return to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial twice this season. We will also see Navy at UAB and vs. Army for the big one in The Meadowlands.Ten years ago, we traveled to the Music City Bowl in Nashville to see Nebraska the last time we saw them in action. Tennessee defeated the Huskers, 38-24. For the first time, we travel to Lincoln from Nashville to see the Huskers host a game at Memorial Stadium at home in Lincoln for the first time on October 3rd. They host Maryland in a Big Ten meeting.Our 2026 Cheerleader Edition 2 features the 2024 New Mexico Lobo cheerleaders. Our first visit ever to Albuquerque. UNM lost to FCS power Montana State, 35-31. Their 5-7 record spurred Utah State to hire away HC Bronco Mendenhall. In 2025, UNM followed up with a 9-4 record under former Idaho HC Jason Eck. The Lobos also defeated Bronco and USU.Why the Notre Dame Dance Team let us in their picture before the 2016 game against Stanford, I’ll never figure. The Irish lost, 17-10, to the No. 12 Cardinal, and RB Christian McCaffery didn’t play due to injury. ND finished 4-8. They must have felt sorry for us visiting that weekend!
2026 Cheerleader Edition 2 from Sea to Shining Sea
Old Dominion Monarch cheerleaders fired up their fans when we ventured to Norfolk to see them host Marshall during their first FBS season in 2015. The result wasn’t so pretty though as The No. 23 Thundering Herd crushed ODU, 56-14.Oregon Duck Cheerleaders prepare to greet their team into Autzen Stadium for their 2025 season opener at home against FCS power Montana State. Unlike New Mexico in our 2025 season opener, Oregon crushed the eventual FCS champions, 59-13.A few hours after the Oregon game, we took a short drive to Corvallis where the Oregon State Beavers hosted the Cal Bears. In the second game we ever attended in Oregon, the Cal Bears showed no mercy in their 34-15 victory. OSU finished a disheartening 2-12 for their fans.Speaking of Oregon, Penn State Cheerleaders got the Beaver Stadium fans up for a traditional “White-out” last season. Oregon foiled the evening with a 30-24 win in two OTs. It marked the beginning of the end of HC James Franklin’s career in Happy Valley.Pitt Cheerleaders visited “The House that Ruth Built” in 2016 to encourage their Panthers against Northwestern in The Pinstripe Bowl. However, the Wildcats out clawed the Panthers in this one, 31-24.
Read more fun history of many games attended our first 42 Seasons!
If you haven’t already, please click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Uglyon Amazon.com. Among 740 college games attended to date now, we’ve seen all 136 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams play in person at least once. In 2026, in case you aren’t aware, North Dakota State and Sacramento State join the FBS this season. “Fifty Years” tells our story of how we got to attend our first 652 games!
Read the reviews on the book page and order your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023. Hopefully, you’ll understand how much we love this sport and what we propose for it to survive successfully. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales.
Please buy your copy today and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe some will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did. And to us this isn’t a job. It’s our lifelong adventure!
Our next preview analyzes the many coaching changes we will witness over the course of 2026. Among the 28 FBS games that we will attend, at least 12 teams will be performing with new head coaches. Teams we saw last season fired the old and hired new coaches. Several on our slate enter 2026 on the Hot seat! We will share our expectations among those we will see or have seen since the changes made last season.
