The Indiana State Sycamores have added a new opponent to their 2026 football schedule, which replaces one that was previously scheduled, FBSchedules.com has learned.
Indiana State was previously scheduled to host the UT Martin Skyhawks at Memorial Stadium in Terre Haute, Ind., on Sept. 5, 2026, which was announced back in October 2020. That game has been rescheduled and will now be played four seasons later on Sept. 21, 2030, according to a copy of the contract obtained from Indiana State University via a state public records request.
With the date change, the home-and-home series between Indiana State and UT Martin will now kickoff on Sept. 4, 2027 at Graham Stadium in Martin, Tenn.
To replace the UT Martin game in 2026, Indiana State has added a home contest against the Valparaiso Beacons of the Pioneer Football League (PFL). The Sycamores will host the Beacons in Terre Haute on Sept. 19, 2026, and the guarantee payment will be $175,000, according to the copy of the contract obtained from Indiana State University.
Indiana State and Valparaiso have met 33 times on the gridiron in a series that dates back to 1928. The Sycamores have won five consecutive games in the series, most recently in 1968, but the Beacons still hold the overall advantage, 20-12-1.
Indiana State was previously scheduled to visit the Purdue Boilermakers on Sept. 19, 2026, so that game will likely be moving to a new date that season. With Indiana State rescheduling its previous season-opening opponent, UT Martin, and Purdue needing a Week 1 opponent, it’s likely that the matchup will be rescheduled for Sept. 5.
More future football scheduling changes are likely forthcoming due to conference realignment and the expansion of Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) schedules to a maximum of 12 games each season.
Football Schedules
The title of this made it sound like another Indiana schools’ practice of late (hint: I and you know who). Deferring the date is a far different thing, but I do wonder when teams will start to fill in their 12th games for ’26.
Beacons is a terrible mascot. Bring back the Crusaders!
Valpo chose something of significance to their campus. It’s unique.
I do not care what Valpo nickname is whether its Crusaders, Beacons or Vipers.
Go Valpo!!!
They seemed pretty prideful and enthusiastic about the name change. Maybe you can get them to adopt Hank Williams’ ‘I saw the light’ as the fight song and embrace the change, but it’s been a few years now.
JM,
The Valpo community absolutely was not enthusiastic about the name change. It was highly polarizing and some alums left entirely. Both fan attendance and donor enthusiasm have been at all-time lows the last few years.
Since you can’t stick to one name, I question the validity of any comments you make on here.
@ “The Region”
Apparently, you are part of the racist group that was using the name and prompted the change in the first place. This is an excerpt from a story ESPN did on the name change…
The university’s president, José D. Padilla, said the private Lutheran school’s new nickname “directly connects to the University’s motto, ‘In Thy Light We See Light,’ and represents the Valparaiso University community in many ways.”
“We are beacons of knowledge for our students’ academic, social and spiritual growth. Above all, we are beacons of God’s light around the world. We light the way for our students, so that once they graduate, they shine their light for others,” Padilla said in a news release.
School officials announced in February that they had retired the Crusaders name following input from students, faculty and alumni.
There’s nothing racist about being Crusaders. What a joke!
@JM
The excerpt you provided is not useful. Yes, the president was excited about the new name he picked – that’s obvious to anyone!
But the point of my comment is to correct your earlier claim that the Valpo community was “prideful and enthusiastic about the name change”. That’s simply wrong to anyone with familiarity with the Valpo community. Some people liked it, some didn’t – but what is not up for refutation is that the name change was highly polarizing among alums and on social media platforms when it happened. And attendance, donor contributions, and fan enthusiasm are at all-time lows in recent years. The name change didn’t cause that, but your statement that the Valpo community was “pretty prideful and enthusiastic about the name change” was untrue.
If you like the name change, great! Just don’t make a false claim on another community’s behalf when you’re not familiar with that community. I think that’s common ground everyone can agree on.
There is a lot more to that story supporting exactly the opposite view you have, and what I included states, there was “input from students, faculty and alumni.” My comments were based on this story from ESPN and I don’t think you can deny that directly connecting the University’s motto to the new name is displaying pride in the school’s core values. I’m not making it up I looked into the matter and researched the history based on what the school provided. The Pioneers nickname was tied to the KKK and other hate groups and all of that is in the complete story.
You can’t blame the name change on poor performance on the field as a reason for lack of success and any drop in attendance. With that in mind, here is some more quick research I have to back this up.
Since the name Beacons was adopted in 2021, Valpo has gone 16-29 overall and 12-19 in the Pioneer League.
In the four non-covid years prior, they were 13-32 overall, going 11-21 in the Pioneer League. These numbers show their record is just slightly better since the name change, inconclusive, with the teams’ best year coming in 2017 when they were 6-5, 5-3. If you are such a fan, you know that 2017 result was the outlier if you go back further, however, which only further supports that the team is doing no worse than before with an all-time record of 116-219 since joining the FCS/I-AA, going 58-142 in conference games. Winning is the greatest promotion you can put on, and Valpo just doesn’t win.
Call it what you want, but that doesn’t indicate the name has to do with what the team is doing and if the attendance is sliding either. While attendance per game in 2016 averaged 2,034 per home date, that number only dropped to 1,840 in 2024. By the way, the 2017 average was just 2,377. You show nothing but your feelings it is the fans and alumni sentiments affecting attendance, donor contributions and enthusiasm, but I don’t see that as a big issue when attendance falls by 200 per game in two 4-7 results nine seasons apart.
@JM
While football attendance has slightly declined, football is actually not what I’m referring to when I mention an attendance decline and loss of enthusiasm. Football is a background sport at VU. Our school identity in athletics forever has always been men’s basketball – and our attendance and fan enthusiasm have fallen off a cliff in recent years. I in no way blame that on the name change, but just to point out that the VU community is not in a place of “prideful and enthusiastic” right now.
The story about the name change is very long. There were faculty itching to get rid of the Crusaders for awhile. (A couple years before the name change, the ARC had a popular 20-ft Crusader on the baseline that mysteriously vanished and its disappearance was questioned by a lot of fans.) Once we had an interim president, those faculty made their move and the interim president in conjunction with the student president orchestrated the name change.
Yes, they claimed publicly the nickname change happened after input from faculty, students, and alumni. But the reality is the vast majority of alumni and donors had no idea about it until it was announced. If you check the old Valpo forum, there was a long thread dozens of pages long with alums extensively complaining not only about the nickname change, but also about the lack of transparency by the interim president. Same thing if you were part of the Valpo alumni groups on Facebook or monitored social media platforms like Twitter at the time.
Paul Oren – who actually was in support of the nickname change – held a 90-minute podcast about the change because of the uproar and lack of transparency in the process.
I’m not claiming the majority hated the nickname change. As I said: some liked it, some didn’t. Some left. But the claim the Valpo community was “pretty prideful and enthusiastic” is entirely false if you actually knew the community. There’s mountains of evidence you can look at showing otherwise: the extensively long thread on the Valpo board at the time, the Valpo alum Facebook groups, the social media uproar, and Paul Oren’s (who supported the change) hour+ podcast on the controversy and lack of transparency.
I liked Crusaders and I like Beacons. But I want an accurate, factual portrayal of what happened. Not someone from the outside who doesn’t know our community making a false claim.
There is no discussion with someone who denies facts and then continues to change references to repeatedly develop a slightly different scenario to meet their intentions. Don’t presume because I researched the facts of a subject that is years old to verify details that I know nothing about Valparaiso, IN or its university. You posted on a football website, yet now you weren’t talking about football?
@JM
You didn’t provide research though. You just linked an ESPN article which cites a generic statement by the university. Of course universities are going to portray unison in public statements – that’s public relations 101.
I’ve provided a handful of references to show the community was divided with some liking it, some disliking it, and some apathetic:
1) The old Valpo forum with a very long thread where posters were split
2) VU historian/beat writer Paul Oren’s (who supported the change name change) hour+ podcast episode
3) VU alumni/donor facebook groups
4) Valpo twitter at the time the announcement was made
If you don’t believe me, you can ask people directly involved in our community. Here’s a link to our new Valpo board.
https://www.valpofanzone.com/
You can start a thread asking the following:
“Setting aside your personal opinion about the name change, was the Valpo community pretty prideful and enthusiastic about the name change or was the VU community split?”
I guarantee you people are going to answer that the VU community was split and not united.
If you can’t start a thread on the Valpo board and ask our community directly, that tells me it’s because you know VU alums are going to give you the answer that disproves your claim that the community was “pretty prideful and enthusiastic”.