The Cornell Big Red have released their 2026 football schedule via their official athletics website. Cornell opens the 2026 season with a non-conference game on the road against the Colgate Raiders on Saturday, Sept. 19.
The Big Red will also visit the Georgetown Hoyas on Saturday, Oct. 3 and will host the Lehigh Mountain Hawks on Saturday, Oct. 17 at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, N.Y., which will round out non-conference action. Both of those contests were previously unannounced.
The Big Red kick off Ivy League play in 2026 at home in Ithaca on Saturday, Sept. 26 against the Yale Bulldogs. Other Ivy League opponents slated to visit Schoellkopf Field next season include the Harvard Crimson on Oct. 10, Penn Quakers on Nov. 7, and Dartmouth Big Green on Nov. 14.
Cornell will travel to face the Brown Bears on Oct. 24, Princeton Tigers on Oct. 31, and Columbia Lions on Nov. 21.
Below is Cornell’s 2026 football schedule, which is tentative and subject to change:
2026 Cornell Football Schedule
09/19 – at Colgate
09/26 – Yale*
10/03 – at Georgetown
10/10 – Harvard*
10/17 – Lehigh
10/24 – at Brown*
10/31 – at Princeton*
11/07 – Penn*
11/14 – Dartmouth*
11/21 – at Columbia*
* Ivy League contest.
Cornell concluded the 2025 season 4-6 overall and 3-4 in Ivy League action. It was the second season for the Big Red under head coach Dan Swanstrom, who now holds a 8-12 overall record at the school (6-8 Ivy League).
Ivy schedules are paint by numbers. Non conference Week 1, Week 2 or 3 (conference games the other week) and Week 4 or 5 (conference games the other week). The order of the conference never changes either.
Did you know that Cornell University is #1 space grant school in state of New York.