The Davidson Wildcats have added a home contest against the Dickinson Red Devils, which completes their football schedule for the 2026 season.
The Wildcats begin the campaign on August 27 with a Thursday home matchup against Concord, marking the program’s earliest season start since 2021. Davidson remains at Richardson Stadium on September 5 to host Elon before closing non‑conference play on September 12 against Dickinson.
The Wildcats continue their homestand on September 19 when they host VMI in their final non‑league matchup of the season. Pioneer Football League play begins on September 26 with a home contest against Drake, giving Davidson five straight games in North Carolina to open the year.
The team makes its first road trip on October 3 with a PFL matchup at San Diego, followed by another conference road game on October 10 at Presbyterian. Davidson returns home on October 17 to host Morehead State before entering its open date on October 24.
League play resumes on October 31 with a road contest at St. Thomas, beginning a stretch that sends the Wildcats on the road for two of their final four PFL games. Davidson returns to Richardson Stadium on November 7 to host Stetson before traveling to Dayton on November 14. The regular season concludes on November 21 with a home matchup against Marist.
Below is Davidson’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 Davidson Football Schedule
08/27 – Concord (Thu.)
09/05 – Elon
09/12 – Dickinson
09/19 – VMI
09/26 – Drake*
10/03 – at San Diego*
10/10 – at Presbyterian*
10/17 – Morehead State*
10/24 – OFF
10/31 – at St. Thomas*
11/07 – Stetson*
11/14 – at Dayton*
11/21 – Marist*
* PFL contest.
Davidson finished the 2025 season 2-10 overall and 1-7 in PFL action. The 2026 season will be the 2nd for the Wildcats under head coach Saj Thakkar.
Disappointing when you consider they might have been able to play West Florida on the same date at home, but would rather play a D-III team instead. Mercer still has an opening on October 24th as well.
I would love to see the NCAA put into effect a rule that if any of these teams loses a game to a D-III, NAIA, NCCAA or other lower-level team they lose their D-I status.
According to what the committee put out for the basis of playoff seeding, a loss to an FBS team, even a blowout loss to a P4 will be looked at more favorably than a D-II win, which even makes the scheduling of a D-III even more puzzling. Unless they are expecting another 2-10 finish to 2026.
PFL teams typically schedule D3 teams, since they’re both non-scholarship.
JM, I agree. This is extremely sad to see a Division I-AA school scheduling two Division III schools or whatever the hell Concord is. I agree there has to a be penalty for losing to a lower division school. But I don’t think the penalty should be as severe as you stated. I think the penalty should be this and it would apply to any Division I-A, Division I-AA, or Division II school. If you lose to a lower classified school then you are ineligible for any post-season play that year. So, way back when Michigan lost to Appalachian St., Michigan should have automatically been ineligible to play in a bowl game that year. I think if there was that type of penalty in place then a lot of these inter-divisional games would disappear.
@Hawaii Dave
I don’t believe your penalty solves the issue for FCS teams. Usually if a team loses to a lower division opponent, they don’t receive and at-large bid. Likewise, I don’t feel that FBS teams reach bowl eligibility in seasons they lose to FCS opponents.
I am not opposed to FBS v. FCS matchups and I understand that sometimes the FCS teams need to book a D-II to fill out their schedules, but some of this has gotten way out of hand.
If I am not mistaken, it looks as if the Lincoln (CA) team has suspended their football operations. This is the proving point on why these games don’t need to be scheduled as there are a lot of young men putting themselves on the line to be injured in games where they are not athletically capable enough to play. They lost to Idaho State 90-0 and then missed the next two games because they didn’t have enough players to field a team because of injuries.
@Evan
It is not justified to play a game just because the two teams are nonscholarship. IF the Pioneer and other nonscholarship teams want to play these games, they should move down and play whomever they wish.
No they don’t Evan. They schedule NAIA and Division 2 schools, but it is rare to schedule D3.
I’m okay with Division 2 and NAIA because those schools give scholarships, but scheduling D3 makes little sense.
How about 8 home games!??
Why not—the have 8 conference games, that means 4 road games. What you do with the rest of the schedule is up to you. Good for season ticket holders!