The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors have made an adjustment to their 2026 football schedule, canceling their regular-season finale and replacing it with a new FBS program.
Hawaii was scheduled to begin a home-and-home series with the UMass Minutemen on November 28, 2026 at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in Honolulu, Hawaii. The series was set to conclude the following season on August 28, 2027 at McGuirk Alumni Stadium in Amherst, Mass.
According to an official announcement from both schools, Hawaii and UMass have mutually agreed to cancel the two-game series.
As a replacement for UMass, Hawaii has announced that it will now host the Sacramento State Hornets on Nov. 28, 2026. Earlier this month, Sacramento State announced that it is moving up from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and will join the Mid-American Conference (MAC) as a football-only member beginning this fall.
Hawaii is scheduled to open the 2026 season in Week Zero on Saturday, August 29 on the road against Stanford. In other non-conference action, the Rainbow Warriors will host New Mexico State on September 12 and travel to Arizona State on October 10.
The 2026 Mountain West football schedule is expected to be announced next week. Hawaii is set to host New Mexico, North Dakota State, San Jose State, and UNLV, while traveling to Nevada, Northern Illinois, UTEP, and Wyoming.
Football Schedules
Is that NDSU and Sacramento State doubleheader still a possibility?
Five games that Sac State needs to wipe off their schedule now.
I would imagine the two they are keeping comes down to Mississippi Valley State, Youngstown State, Tarleton State and Southern Utah. You wouldn’t think they would play at UTRGV, North Alabama or Maine. I would also bet on them dropping Tarleton State as a potential loss. Then it comes down to who gets conflicted out with their conference schedule, which probably leave them with Youngstown State.
This is more money paid out for breaking the contracts on the cancellations. But it’s all worth it and they don’t have to travel to Montana anymore! After all, it is so much easier to get into places like Akron, OH, Muncie, IN, Bowling Green, KY, Buffalo, NY, Mount Pleasant, MI, Ypsilanti, MI, Kent, OH, Oxford, OH, Athens, OH, Toledo, OH and Kalamazoo, MI from Sacramento than Missoula and Bozeman.
The lemons are very sweet in Sacramento.
Maybe they think they have a better chance of winning games in the MAC than the Big Sky
That’s the same math that says $26 million to buy into the MAC train wreck for football only was a great move for a team that spent 34 years in the FCS and had 4 playoff appearances with a record of 2-4. Yet, somehow, they are going to magically transform into a powerhouse. The only upside to this that I see is that UMass is no longer the doormat of the MAC.
According to the CSUS AD, the games they scheduled for this year were done with the understanding of both parties that CSUS would have to drop some games if they received a conference invite. While the dropped school may not be happy to search for an opponent in March/April, the buyouts will be minimal and/or $0.
JM, uh, you don’t know your MACtion. Bowling Green is in Ohio near Toledo.
*Bowling Green, OH
Sac State still has an opening to schedule a money game against a Big Ten or SEC team, but I think all of those teams have full schedules already.
Where do you see an opening in their schedule?
The currently have 9 games on their schedule, but they have an 8 game MAC schedule to work out, so that is 17 teams they have for 2026 in a 13 week space. They need to cancel a bunch of games, and there is no room for a “money game” since there are no other FBS teams that have openings on their schedules.
Sac State has a bunch of *FCS* games that were previously scheduled, and it’s likely that all but one of them will be canceled. Anyone with common sense can see that if a Big Ten or SEC team offers Sac State $1 million for a money game, they will make room for that.
The SEC & Big 10 announced their schedule months ago.
Maybe Sac St can schedule a non conference game with UMass? UMass currently has 2 fcs teams scheduled.
Sac State and UMass are both in the MAC now. Ha.
FBS teams are allowed to schedule more than one FCS games but only one can count toward bowl eligibility. The way UMass has been playing they need two FCS games.
That’s why I emphasized non conference game. It’s not unheard of to do that now. Kansas State did it last year.
Kansas State only did it because the game was previously contracted prior to realignment.
Hawai’i vs. Sac State DOES make more sense than vs. UMass, geographically speaking. Also, they have similar color schemes, not entirely but still similar, so this should be fun matchup. Green-and-black vs. Green-and-gold.
Sucks. I was planning on heading to Hawaii to see my pathetic Minutemen hopefully have a chance to cover a big road spread. Plus, would have been a nice excuse to see the Island. Oh well.