The Arizona State Sun Devils have added the Morgan State Bears to their 2026 football schedule, FBSchedules.com has learned. A copy of the football game contract with Arizona State University was obtained from Morgan State University via a state public information request.
Arizona State will host Morgan State at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. The Sun Devils will pay the Bears a $600,000 guarantee for playing the game, according to the copy of the contract.
The 2026 Arizona State-Morgan State contest will mark the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the gridiron.
Morgan State University is a public historically black research university located in Baltimore, Md. The Bears are a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
The addition of Morgan State tentatively completes Arizona State’s non-conference football schedule for the 2026 season. The Sun Devils are also scheduled to travel to face the Texas A&M Aggies at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas, on Sept. 12 before hosting the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in Tempe on Sept. 19.
In Big 12 play next season, Arizona State is scheduled to host Colorado, Baylor, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State and visit Arizona, BYU, Kansas, Texas Tech, and UCF.
Arizona State is the second scheduled non-conference opponent for Morgan State for the 2026 season. Two weeks after visiting Arizona State, the Bears are slated to visit the Towson Tigers on Sept. 19.
Football Schedules
Why is it so hard to schedule regional FCS teams?
There’s not that many Western US FCS teams.
Plus, an HBCU like Morgan State likely needs the payout $$$ more than a school like NAU or Weber St
I get that but its a lot more interesting for the fans to play a regional FCS team than one on the East Coast they´ve never heard of. I, for example, was a lot more excited to play Southern Utah two years ago than Southern Illinois last year even though the scores of the games were very similar and Southern Illinois was at night and Southern Utah was during the day.
Is this what they cancelled Bowling Green for?
That’s like scheduling Tulane, cancelling it, then playing Bethune-Cookman