The Sacramento State Hornets unveiled their 2026 non-conference football schedule, according to an official announcement Monday.
Sacramento State begins playing its first season in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) this fall. The Hornets will play an eight-game MAC schedule with four non-conference opponents per season.
The 2026 season opens on Saturday, September 5 when Sacramento State welcomes FCS Mississippi Valley State to Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif. The game will mark the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the gridiron.
Sacramento State makes its first road trip of the season the following week on Sept. 12, visiting Fresno State at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, Calif.
Fresno State has dominated its all-time football series with Sacramento State, winning all nine meetings since the teams first played in 1972. The Bulldogs have taken every matchup—most of them in Fresno—and have often done so by comfortable margins, including a 31–3 win in 2016 and a 46–30 victory in the most recent contest in 2024.
Sacramento State then returns to Hornet Stadium to host North Dakota State on Sept. 19. NDSU is also moving up to the FBS this season and will compete in the Mountain West Conference. Sacramento State will return the game and play at the Fargodome in Fargo, N.D., on Sept. 11, 2027.
The final non-conference game of the season will see the Hornets travel to Honolulu to take on Hawaii on November 28, which will be the regular-season finale for both schools.
Due to its move up to the FBS, all of Sacramento State’s previously scheduled non-league games against FCS opponents have been canceled. Those contests include home tilts against Youngstown State, Tarleton State, and Southern Utah, and road trips to UTRGV, North Alabama, and Maine.
Below is a look at Sacramento State’s non-conference schedule for the 2026 season. The Hornets’ complete football schedule for the 2026 season will be released soon.
09/05 – Mississippi Valley State
09/12 – at Fresno State
09/19 – North Dakota State
11/28 – at Hawaii
1-11
I make it over/under at 2 wins, if UMass comes to Sac.
Why not take advantage of the Hawaii extra game?
Most schools don’t want to play a 13th game.
Congratulations, UMass, you are no longer the bottom feeder of the MAC
Some of the FCS schools that Sacramento State dropped could reschedule against each other instead, based upon open dates listed on this website, and previously planned home/away status for the canceled games.
09-26: Tarleton State at UTRGV
11-10: Southern Utah at North Alabama
It doesn’t look like there is a mutual open date available for Youngstown State to visit Maine, but if the dates work, maybe they can do something with some of the schools that have been dropped by North Dakota State?
If Chicago State wants to add another game, they can visit Maine when CSUS was supposed to visit (currently a bye week for CSU). However, I’m not sure a first-year program would want to add another road game late in the season.