The Chicago State Cougars have announced their 2026 football schedule, which marks their first-ever season of football.
Chicago State will compete as an Independent in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in 2026, before fully transition to the Northeast Conference (NEC) beginning with the 2027 season.
Leading the Cougars in their inaugural gridiron season is Bobby Rome III, who previously led Florida Memorial from 2022 through 2024. Rome recorded a 15-15-1 record in three seasons at Florida Memorial and holds a 19-36-1 mark in seven seasons as a head coach.
Chicago State opens the 2026 season with a home contest against Roosevelt University at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Ill., on Saturday, Aug. 29. The following week on September 5, the Cougars will travel for their first road contest against UT Martin in Martin, Tenn.
The Cougars return home on September 12 to face Kentucky Christian before traveling to Indianapolis on September 19 for a matchup with Butler. Chicago State closes the month on September 26 with a notable home contest against Norfolk State and head coach Michael Vick, marking one of the program’s most high‑profile opponents of the season.
October begins with a challenging road trip to Tarleton State on October 3, followed by the team’s first open date on October 10. Coming out of the bye, the Cougars travel to North Carolina A&T on October 17, then continue their road swing with a visit to Lindenwood on October 24. Chicago State returns home on October 31 to host Fort Lauderdale (UFTL) for Homecoming, giving the Cougars a Halloween weekend matchup in Chicago.
The schedule features back‑to‑back open dates on November 7 and November 14, providing a rare two‑week stretch for recovery and preparation ahead of the season finale. Chicago State closes the regular season at home on November 21, hosting Virginia‑Lynchburg.
Below is Chicago State’s complete schedule for the 2026 season, plus a link to their schedule page which will be updated with kickoff times and TV as they are announced:
2026 Chicago State Football Schedule
08/29 – Roosevelt
09/05 – at UT Martin
09/12 – Kentucky Christian
09/19 – at Butler
09/26 – Norfolk State
10/03 – at Tarleton State
10/10 – OFF
10/17 – at North Carolina A&T
10/24 – at Lindenwood
10/31 – UFTL
11/07 – OFF
11/14 – OFF
11/21 – Virginia-Lynchburg
Holy crow………Well we had a feeling this year’s schedule was going to be a car crash and its not going to disappoint. 8 games that mean anything and just one FCS school is playing in Chicago. I think the schedule reflects the lack of confidence in the program by other schools. I would advise all the schools playing at CSU get their paychecks in advance……
While I am not in favor of all the new programs and weak teams moving up to FCS, I think it’s a bit early to start knocking the schedule set up by Chicago State.
Look, for whatever reason, they are starting as an Independent where New Haven was actually a part of the NEC last year. The NEC doesn’t seem to help new members that much with scheduling, and any NEC team that played New Haven didn’t have that count as a conference game. New Haven only played 10 games in 2025 and three of those were against lower division opponents. They had games against three NEC teams where Chicago State has none despite the fact that there is room on several of the NEC schedules to fit them in.
Likewise, Mercyhurst had 4 lower division teams on their 2024 schedule and played 11 of 12 possible dates.
Even UTRGV had three lower division games on their schedule as a full member of the Southland.
The criticism here should fall on the NEC, they are the habitual offender of bringing these teams up to the FCS and they don’t support them in making the transition like they should, but there is nothing wrong with Chicago State’s first year schedule.
CSU is starting as an Independent because they’ve never played football before. New Haven at least had an existing program.
More my point though Kevin, really New Haven and Mercyhurst were as much independent in their first years since the games they played inside the NEC didn’t count in the conference standings anyway. I would imagine that their first year actual year in the NEC their conference games won’t count either, which is crazy when by the FCS rules, Chicago State is actually eligible to receive a playoff bid right away.
I’m not putting the cart ahead of the horse here, but again, UTRGV was a brand new program last year and they didn’t have to go through an independent year.
Per your UTRGV example, I believe they are a member of the Southland in all other sports, so it was an easier transition for them to play Southland football.
I do agree with your NEC criticism. Not a very good conference partner, IMO
Nicely done. Pulled together a ten-game schedule fairly quickly. Good job. Excited for CSU.
With North Dakota State moving to the Mountain West, wonder if any Missouri Valley Conference teams might use Chicago State to plug any holes in their schedules.
It is clearly obvious that won’t be the case. The MVFC schedule had 8 conference games with 10 members, so now with 9 members, they can play a true round robin schedule and whatever team was left off the conference schedule will be added in to fill out that side. Most of what the MVFC had aside from that for openings is week 0 and Chicago State already has a game set there.
Most of these games seem reasonable under the circumstances.
However, the game at Tarleton State (an FBS ready program) might get ugly.
It will be interesting to watch the Cougars on this adventure.
Who is UFTL? Sorry, that is not like UNLV or USC or UCLA.
University of Fort Lauderdale
University of Fort Lauderdale. They just started there program a few years ago.
Chicago St had tried previously to join the MEAC. Nice to see they got 3 HBCUs on their first year schedule. MEAC always needs games since they only have 6 teams and there are lots of HBCU alums in Chicago, so that could be a good route for non-conference games in the future
After the season, most of the temporary Northwestern lakefront stadium will be taken down; maybe Chicago St could acquire the unused sections and move them to CSU’s campus
Sounds like a waste of money they don’t have. They are playing in seat geek stadium, not on campus.
The article does not say they are playing on campus.
Seatgeek Stadium is a 40 minute drive from campus
And Northwestern won’t be using those leftover sections so they could probably get them relatively cheaply. They only need 2000-4000 seats to fit with the other schools in NEC.
That’s not a bad idea. Maybe your should send an e-mail with that suggestion to Chicago State’s AD? It could give them an early and not-so-expensive start if they have any inclination to build a small stadium on campus in the future.