The Indiana Hoosiers have added the Kennesaw State Owls to their 2027 football schedule, according to a report by Kai Millette of the The Sentinel.
Per a copy of the contract obtained by Millette via an open records request, Indiana will host Kennesaw State at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind., on Sept. 4, 2027. The Hoosiers will pay the Owls a $1.3 million guarantee for the game.
Indiana is also set to host Kennesaw State this season on Sept. 6, which we reported last March. The Hoosiers will pay the Owls the same guarantee as in 2027 — $1.3 million.
In addition to this years trip,
Kennesaw State football is scheduled to travel to Bloomington again on Sept. 4 2027 to face the Indiana Hoosiers @FBSchedules pic.twitter.com/IBFD8nhbgm
— Kai Millette (@KaiMillette) June 11, 2025
Indiana was previously scheduled to visit the Virginia Cavaliers in the first game of a home-and-home series on Sept. 4, 2027, but are now hosting Kennesaw State instead. So the Virginia game has either been rescheduled or could be canceled along with the return game in Bloomington in 2028. We have requested information from both schools and will report any new findings.
Indiana and Virginia announced their home-and-home series back in December 2021. According to the copy of the contract obtained in a prior records request, the series carries a $500,000 cancellation fee for each game.
After opening the 2027 season against Kennesaw State, Indiana is scheduled to play two more non-conference games in Bloomington. The Hoosiers are slated to host the Indiana State Sycamores on Sept. 11 and the UMass Minutemen on Sept 18.
In Big Ten action in 2027, Indiana will square off with Iowa, Michigan, Penn State, and Rutgers at home and Illinois, Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue, and USC on the road.
Indiana is the second non-conference opponent for Kennesaw State in 2027, joining a Sept. 25 trip to Lafayette, La., to face the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns.
Football Schedules
Future Indiana Football Schedules
Virginia’s going to be complaining in a few months on why they cancelled the Indiana game.
Even with Big Ten-SEC match up I would like Big Ten continue to play cupcake games whether it be Northwestern-North Dakota, Illinois-Utah State or Michigan-Eastern Michigan.
Dan,
One cupcake is fine but why does Indiana continue to play three?
They do not want to be outnumbered by visiting fans in Bloomington & why they have zero interest in playing P4 team.
Indiana continues to hold onto the Bill Snyder trophy for worst OOC schedule year after year.
I am not buying your comment pardon me Gerry.
You are constantly wishy washy. You advocate for Michigan-Alabama and Ohio State-Georgia, but defend Indiana’s atrocious scheduling going back to the Bill Mallory era.
Remember Gerry I think positive always & I have zero issues with Indiana schedule & Kentucky would make a perfect SEC opponent for Hoosiers
Have a safe & happy day
@Gerry I have some SEC nominees, some, but not all that I feel top Indiana.
Arkansas – Alabama A&M, Arkansas State and at Memphis
Auburn – Ball State, South Alabama and Mercer
Georgia – Marshall, Austin Peay and Charlotte
Kentucky – Toledo, Eastern Michigan and Tennessee Tech
LSU – Louisiana Tech, Southeastern Louisiana and Western Kentucky
Mississippi – Georgia State, Tulane and The Citadel
Mississippi State – at Southern Mississippi, Alcorn State and Northern Illinois
Missouri – Central Arkansas, Louisiana-Lafayette and Massachusetts
Oklahoma – Illinois State, at Temple and Kent State
Tennessee – East Tennessee State, Alabama-Birmingham and New Mexico
Texas – San Jose State, Texas-El Paso and Sam Houston State
Texas A&M – Texas-San Antonio, Utah State and Tarleton State
Vanderbilt – Charleston Southern, Georgia State and Utah State
Not that I don’t agree with you on Indiana, but they aren’t the only one out there playing these kinds of games in every conference. Scheduling is not always easy, and the coaches have no say in it largely, but it has a lot to do with teams wanting to reach that 6 win mark to become bowl eligible.
@JM, Thanks for digging those schedules up.
In short, they’re bad. If we want to have a true 16 team playoff, then there can be no more FCS teams on the schedules
To me all Power 4 teams should play all power 4 schools in non conference. I could allow one G6.
Georgia could play Marshall, but the other three have to be P4 schools.
Ohio State hosting Grambling is a joke for everyone including the season ticket holders
@John, growing up in Montana, I spent many Saturday afternoons cutting firewood and out hunting with my father with Grizzly football on the radio. I can’t detail to you the feeling in 2021 when Montana beat #20 Washington and the only way I could follow was to pick up the radio broadcast over the internet. What was not likely when the matchup was announced became reality in, what I feel, is the third greatest victory in school history, outside the 1995 and 2001 I-AA championships.
While I do not care for these FBS/FCS matchups so much (and more frustrated D-II Central Washington is on the schedule this year), particularly ones like you point out where I hope no one gets hurt, the FCS matchups with FBS will not go away so long as the NCAA allows one FCS win to count toward FBS bowl eligibility.
Outside that, I think you are wavering on your fair play revelation you made on the Ivy League post when you suggest here that only P4 should be in the playoffs.
Notre Dame’s schedule in 2024 is not as ridiculous as any of those mentioned here, their games outside of P4 are Navy and Boise State, but you would have them eliminated as not part of the elite group. They can’t be forced into a conference and if they are playing a legitimate schedule, they should be in the playoffs.
I don’t feel that you can eliminate all of the other teams either and if you do that, as you suggest here, you are taking up the opposite position you have taken in previous discussion with me regarding the FCS and fair play on the field.
There are plenty of teams at FBS that don’t belong here, just like the FCS teams. I would even go so far as to say what I said with a former Big South Conference member now in the FBS, I don’t think they belong in division I still.
If I am misinterpreting what you said before, let me know because the vibe I got was you want equal play there, but what you are saying here is anything but.
John College Football scheduling looks easy for people like you & me however scheduling can be difficult.
If I have one past rivalry, I like to see make a comeback is Bedlam Oklahoma State-Oklahoma & I am confident that can fit in with SEC proposed nine game schedule. Keep in mind Iowa-Iowa State Cy Hawk battle still meet with Big Ten & Big 12 with nine game conference schedule & same thing I want to see with Oklahoma State-Oklahoma with Big 12 nine game conference & speaking of nine game conference that is going to happen with SEC.
If FBS ceased playing FCS teams altogether, many FCS teams would be forced to drop their programs. They pretty much all operate in the red as it is, but that deficit balloons without the guaranteed payday from playing an FBS opponent. FCS teams cannot drop to D2 or D3 without taking the rest of their sports programs with them.
@Gerry, the money the FCS programs get for playing FBS games goes to the entire athletic department. Back when Montana was paying for Pat Kennedy to live in a hotel and got left with a big bill the supposed big name hoops coach ran up, Iowa came in needing to fill in an open game at the last minute and paid all that off.
I don’t buy the James Madison story that they were losing money at FCS.
All I said is I am not a big fan of these games, but I do recognize they are needed to pay for bowling, golf and other nonrevenue sports that don’t pull their weight to keep the athletic programs going.
@JM—There is a part that isn’t making sense. Who could forget App State beating Michigan.
That said, if you want to have a true playoff, then many of these FCS/FBS matchups have to go. You don’t like the Central Washington game, but that should be more competitive than Ohio State-Grambling.
They will never listen to me, but seeing SEC and Big Ten teams scheduling FCS teams just doesn’t make sense to me. Thankfully, with 110 games each week at the D1 level, you can pay np attention to them.
The Ivy League winner gets a playoff berth; if they want to play 10 games, that’s fine, but they’ll get hurt when it comes to seeding. I can’t see a 10-0 Ivy champ getting a top 8 seed when Villanova is 10-2, having played two more games. I guess we’ll see. They’re getting in and we’ll see how good they do. Can Yale beat Montana in the FCS playoffs? I don’t think so, but they’ll likely be more competitive than the Pioneer League champ would be.
I also think at some point there will be a split at the FBS level. The Power 4 will go off on their own—sure they might invite some schools from the American or the new Pac 12 or even the MWC, but not all. The rest will merge with FCS and have their own playoffs.
CFA: Power 4 and any other schools that the P4 deems fit (College Football Association).
NCAA: The remaining G6 schools and the FCS
Division II: Any FCS schools that don’t want to play in the NCAA
Like you stated, perhaps the NEC won’t cut it in the NCAA, so they can play at Division II.
There will be massive changes; it’s just a matter of time.