The Sacramento State Hornets have added the Youngstown State Penguins to their 2026 football schedule, according to a report from NECBlitz.
Per the report, Sacramento State will host Youngstown State at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026, which will mark the first-ever meeting between the two schools in football. The Hornets will pay the Penguins a $350,000 guarantee for the contest.
Sacramento State will host Youngstown State football on 9/19/2026, https://t.co/bZFiyHlu0E has learned. This would replace a previously known game for the Hornets. @FBSchedules
— NECBlitz (@NecBlitz) October 14, 2025
Sacramento State is currently a member of the Big Sky Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Hornets applied to the NCAA to move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as an Independent next season, but their petition was denied.
According to its most recent game notes, Sacramento State will compete as an FCS Independent next season:
The 2025 season will be the team’s final in the Big Sky Conference. Sacramento State will move the majority of its sports to The Big West in the fall of 2026. At this time, football will compete as an FCS independent next season.
Sacramento State was previously scheduled to host the Lamar Cardinals on Sept. 19, 2026, but will now square off with Youngstown State instead. The status of the Sac State-Lamar contest is currently unknown.
In addition to hosting Youngstown State and possibly Lamar next season, Sacramento State will also travel to face the Fresno State Bulldogs on Sept. 12. As an FCS Independent, the Hornets can schedule nine more games for a total of 12 contests.
Youngstown State now has three opponents for its 2026 non-conference schedule. The Penguins are scheduled to open the season on Sept. 5 on the road against the Kentucky Wildcats before hosting the Duquesne Dukes on Sept. 12.
FOOTBALL SCHEDULES
Sacramento State should really pursue football only membership in the UAC until getting an FBS invite.
One does not get invited to FBS, one applies for FBS. A school must undergo a multi-year process involving significant financial investment and meet several specific NCAA requirements.
Actually Spencer,schools do get invited to join the FBS leagues. The fact that no league FBS league wants Sac State is the reason they didn’t get to make the jump. It used to cost 5k to make the jump and so many schools were doing that to join Div 1 basketball that the NCAA changed it to 5 million dollars to now join D1 sports.
That said, Sacramento State should be doing home and away deals. Not sure if YSU is going to justify that payout attendance wise……
@Jinzo 4200, The NCAA changed the price from 5k to 5 million because who wants to move up nowadays? surely we want an expanded college football playoff and more teams with a shot at it, right?
@Z-Man you’re lucky if the UAC even sees 2030, what makes you think FBS targeting schools want to go to a conference that’s likely to collpase?
The UAC and ASUN are entering into a strategic alliance. As part of it, the five ASUN schools with scholarship football are entering the old WAC, which assumes the UAC name, and thus the football-only version of the UAC will technically disband.
Little Rock (coming from the OVC) and UT Arlington are set to be non-football members of the UAC, but I think they should go to the ASUN. For Little Rock, it would be a return to the conference, as UALR, they were members from 1979-91, when the conference was called the TAAC.
As well, three current ASUN members without scholarship football should go to new leagues – Bellarmine and Lipscomb to the MVC to offset the loss of Missouri State and the proposed departure of Valparaiso for a new Midwestern conference whose core would be the Midwestern schools currently playing in the Big East Conference, and Queens should go to the Big South to replace Winthrop who would join the Atlantic 10, which would lose a combined 6 members to the Big East and the new Midwest conference.
Meanwhile, I’ve proposed two UAC schools move up to FBS in 2027 – Tarleton to CUSA, a year after they should lose New Mexico State to the MW, with current Southland member Stephen F. Austin and the SoCon’s Western Carolina move up to CUSA with Tarleton. Meanwhile, Eastern Kentucky would join the Sun Belt.
The UAC would replenish by taking in the four remaining Gulf South Conference schools with football programs – Delta State, Valdosta State, West Alabama, and West Florida, in turn renewing a number of rivalries that were lost when Central Arkansas, North Alabama, and West Georgia all moved up. As well, it would invite Tennessee Tech to join, in turn TTU would reverse its acceptance into the SoCon.
Meanwhile, the ASUN would add Alabama-Huntsville and Auburn-Montgomery from the GSC, and Florida Southern and Tampa from the Sunshine State Conference.
This would give both the ASUN and UAC 10 full members – the ASUN without any that has scholarship football, and the UAC having all members sponsor football.
Since the WAC wanted to return to FBS one day and the new UAC will be a rebranded WAC, there would be the possibility of the UAC going to FBS as a whole, turning the Group of Six into the Group of Seven in the process.
The invite would have to come from an FBS *conference* to be precise.
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Shortsighted of the Mountain West not to do so. Because the writing’s on the wall for the new PAC to end up with a couple more MW teams in time, namely UNLV (which by state demand would require taking Nevada along with.)
What’s the point of Sac State becoming an FCS independent? This isn’t the 80s, no one wants to craft their schedules piece by piece with paying 12 schools to play them anymore.
Sac State is waiting for the Pac 12 to invite them—they probably should. Sacramento is a big enough market and the Pac 12 needs them. But, they’re not a brand, so is anybody going to watch them at the FBS level.
Not easy
Of course Sac State can’t get 20K to a game without a post game concert. Don’t let that keep anyone from advancing them though, what’s wrong with a little postgame brawl.
That team, school, president, don’t deserve the consideration of moving anywhere but FCS independent, right where they are headed.