Lebanon, TN – Four months from now on August 29, we start to celebrate our 47th season of another full slate of college games including our 750th! In so many ways, this season gives us much to celebrate and be thankful for. Our 47th kicks off on a very special date personally. On August 29, that will be my 70th birthday. Still going strong to pursue this lifetime adventure. Thanks!
In October, we will celebrate our 750th game over two football weekends! 2026 starts with New Mexico State at Florida State in Week 0 without the threat of any hurricanes (not the Miami U type, of course). Lots of questions about the Seminoles entering this season once again. HC Mike Norvell is already on the hot seat after the last two seasons with no bowl games and a 7-17 record. The Aggie’s mirror the same record, but not against Power Five competitors.
Primary goals: Competitive games and new game destinations
Reviewing our 47th season of college football, right now only four teams scheduled rank in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25. Two play one another, but that doesn’t concern us. Between August 29 and January 27 at the CFP championship in Las Vegas, those rankings will be totally dismantled. They already are. In our scheduling strategy every year, we plan to attend a competitive game every weekend as best we can. Luckily, that works out more often than not.
With ulterior goals to reach within our life-long adventure, we align finding competitive games at all FBS venues, especially where we have not yet attended. We also seek games in states we have yet to see a game at any level of college football (last year we attended a D-3 game in Vermont, the highest level of college football played there).
Moving targets
Now that North Dakota State joined the FBS, of 137 such stadiums now, we’ve attended games in 102. Plans for our 47th season include six new FBS stadiums and two new in the FCS. Of all fifty states (we insert Washington, D.C. in place of Alaska with 0 football), we’ve attended games in 43 so far. We add three more this year if all goes as planned – Nebraska (vs. Maryland), Idaho (games at Boise and at Idaho U.), and the state of Washington (Washington State vs. Colorado State).
Conference clashes highlight 2026
Always seeking competitive edges, starting with three weeks of non-conference games, we try to avoid intended mismatches where Power Four teams find lesser programs to pay for an anticipated, automatic win. I’d say we have chosen three pretty good ones those first three weeks to at least see some interesting games. After those, we’ve scheduled mostly conference conflicts hoping to see results in close-fought, meaningful battles.
Among these, we’ll see two Big Ten games (one: USC at Penn State), two SEC games (2nd one: Kentucky at Tennessee), two brand new Pac-12 games (Texas State at Boise and at CSU at WAZU), two weeknight MACtion games, five American Athletics among key contenders, and one ACC contest featuring Miami on the road. The two MACtion games conveniently come back-to-back evenings by visiting Akron (vs. Ohio U.) and Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti (vs. Central Michigan). Link here to view our entire 47th season slate or read further on for more details before you do.
We love catching FCS games
Even at the FCS level, in Week 1 following Week 0 (trying not to confuse anyone) at Florida State, we see a new conference opener – Tennessee Tech at UT Chattanooga. Tech (11-2 last year) joined the Southern Conference this year and last year’s 41-17 win over UTC should supposedly give the Moccasins (5-7) more incentive. After a Friday night meeting with Miami at Wake Forest on September 18, we will head to East Tennessee State to see Buccaneers at home for the first time. They will host a United Athletic foe, the West Georgia Wolves, first time FCS team for us. They finished with an 8-3 record a year ago. Played in Johnson City, the game breaks up our drive on the way back home to add another notch to our history.
In November, if timing is right, we see Big Sky foes UC Davis at Idaho in the Kibbie Dome. Moscow, Idaho lies a short distance from Pullman, Washington were the Washington State Cougars meet the Colorado State Rams in a new Pac-12 bout. Waiting for kick-off times to be announced to make this work. Finger crossed.
Other regular season games of note in our 47th season
In Week 3, Vanderbilt will be adapting to life without QB Diego Pavia the last two years. Visiting foe Delaware, a favorite FCS team of ours for many seasons, comes to Nashville in its second season as an FBS competitor. We will see Navy play four times this season. First, the Midshipmen play on the road Friday, September 25 at Alabama-Birmingham for our first of five American Athletic games. The next day, we travel to New Orleans to see Tulane at home in Yulman Stadium for the first time.
The Green Wave will host the Eagles of Southern Mississippi. On October 24, we will see the Navy host North Texas State for their Homecoming. And we’ll return there to see them in a traditionally key A.A. match on November 21 against Memphis. Of course, once again, we will see Navy meet Army for our 21st time in the greatest college football rivalry of all at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ on December 12 to cap our 47th season in Week 15.
Our 750th game plan celebration covers two weeks
Officially, our 750th game comes on October 17th when Georgia hosts Auburn in Athens. Aside from Army-Navy in 1972, Georgia at Auburn introduced me to big-time, modern day, D-1 college football in 1978. My good friend, Charlie Murren, from the local YMCA where we worked out together in New Jersey, invited me and another friend, Al Di Vite, to join him for that game in late November. Conveniently, my school, Juniata College, was on trimester break that week. Had a great time: rolled Toomer’s Crossing, toured the Auburn locker room, attended the War Eagle Supper Club where the Bellamy Brothers played that night, partied with Charlie’s Auburn friends.
Shockingly, Al and I were greeted kindly by a total “knock-out” the day after the game after breakfast. Never happened back in Jersey – great memories overall you can read about in my book, Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly. Still friends to this day, Charlie, now a very successful industrial contractor, is hosting us and a bunch of his Auburn classmates for a good time that weekend.
Navy football – 46-45 entering our 47th Season
A week later, I return to Annapolis with about 18 friends who have traditionally joined together to attend games there for about the past 12 years. We’re extending the 750th celebration to the 751st game. There, we’ll tailgate with a bunch of friends I attended the Academy with prior to transferring on to Juniata College. At USNA, I found there was no hope for me to understand calculus. Good thing! In my lifetime, I had no reason to learn it to be successful in my business career or any place else.
Beyond regular season
In week 14 of this great 47th season, we will find a conference title game to attend at some convenient location. The past two years, Jacksonville, Alabama worked out well with the ConferenceUSA championship game played on Friday nights. The Sun Belt and the American Athletic also play theirs that weekend. We’ll plan to go somewhere. Army Navy, as mentioned previously, reigns the following weekend on December 12. A playoff game at some NCAA level will be attended on December 19. Hopefully somewhere conveniently within driving distance (last year D-3: Trinity of Texas at Berry College in Georgia).
Christmas always presents a bye week for us. After that, looks like the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl CFP quarterfinal on New Years Day. The Music City Bowl date has yet to be announced in Nashville, but the FCS championship comes back to First Bank Stadium on Vanderbilt’s campus on January 9. On January 14, on to Miami for the CFP Capital One CFP Orange Bowl semi-final at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. CFP Championship game in Vegas? Not sure yet, but we will explore the possibility.
Link here to follow our fantastic 2026 season celebration schedule!!! All 26 games with dates and venues announced. Follow us and look for season previews and other features ahead.
Read our great history of games attended during our first 42 Years!
Click on the title about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Ugly on 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. This tells our story of how we got up to the first 652!
Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today. If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. You’ll see we know what we’re talking about. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Get it, enjoy it, and read about the many great memories captured. Maybe these will bring back some of the same memories you encountered when we did!
Edited and written by Stephen J. Koreivo, member of Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and Author of “Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly.”
