Thanksgiving football games in 2025 are set! The schedule includes TV and/or streaming for all FBS and FCS college football games plus NFL contests this holiday week.
The football schedule this week kicks off on Tuesday, Nov. 25 with two games in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). Bowling Green travels to take on UMass at 4:30pm ET on ESPNU, and then Eastern Michigan hosts Western Michigan at 7:30pm ET on ESPN2.
Football games on Thanksgiving Day begin at 1:00pm ET on FOX with a Thanksgiving Classic contest in the NFL, which features the Green Bay Packers traveling to take on the Detroit Lions at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich.
A Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) matchup is next, which features Tuskegee, a Division II program, making a short trip to Montgomery, Ala., to take on Alabama State in the 101st Annual Turkey Day Classic. Kickoff for that contest is slated for 3:00pm ET and it will stream via SWAC TV.
Three more games follow on Thanksgiving Day, which includes two NFL games and a primetime college football game in the American Conference. First, it’s the Dallas Cowboys hosting the Kansas City Chiefs at 4:30pm ET on CBS and Paramount+. Next up is the Memphis Tigers hosting the Navy Midshipmen at 7:30pm ET on ESPN, and then Turkey Day concludes when the Baltimore Ravens play host to the Cincinnati Bengals at 8:20pm ET on NBC and Peacock.
Football on Black Friday begins at noon ET with five college matchups. Eight additional college football games are scheduled for Black Friday, culminating with Arizona at Arizona State at 9:00pm ET on FOX.
Black Friday also includes an NFL contest, which features the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Chicago Bears and it will be streamed exclusively by Amazon’s Prime Video at 3:00pm ET.
Saturday features a full slate of college football action, while Sunday includes 11 NFL games. The Thanksgiving Week football Schedule concludes with a Monday Night Football matchup featuring the New York Giants visiting the New England Patriots.
Thanksgiving week is also Rivalry Week in college football. Some of the matchups include Ole Miss at Mississippi State, Iowa at Nebraska, Georgia at Georgia Tech, Ohio State at Michigan, Kentucky at Louisville, Clemson at South Carolina, Florida State at Florida, Alabama at Auburn, Texas A&M at Texas, and Arizona at Arizona State.
The College Football Bowl Schedule is slated to begin on Saturday, Dec. 13 this season. The 12-team College Football Playoff enters its second season, with the teams and bracket set to be revealed on Sunday, Dec. 7.
2025 Thanksgiving Football Schedule (PDF)
| Bowling Green at UMass | 4:30pm | ESPNU |
| Western Michigan at Eastern Michigan | 7:30pm | ESPN2 |
| NFL: Green Bay at Detroit | 1:00pm | FOX |
| FCS: Tuskegee at Alabama State | 3:00pm | SWAC TV |
| NFL: Kansas City at Dallas | 4:30pm | CBS |
| Navy at Memphis | 7:30pm | ESPN |
| NFL: Cincinnati at Baltimore | 8:20pm | NBC |
| Iowa at Nebraska | 12:00pm | CBS |
| Kent State at Northern Illinois | 12:00pm | CBSSN |
| Ohio at Buffalo | 12:00pm | ESPNU |
| (7) Ole Miss at Mississippi State | 12:00pm | ABC |
| (13) Utah at Kansas | 12:00pm | ESPN |
| Air Force at Colorado State | 3:00pm | FS1 |
| NFL: Chicago at Philadelphia | 3:00pm | Prime Video |
| (4) Georgia at (23) Georgia Tech | 3:30pm | ABC |
| San Diego State at New Mexico | 3:30pm | CBSSN |
| Temple at North Texas | 3:30pm | ESPN |
| Boise State at Utah State | 4:00pm | CBS |
| (2) Indiana at Purdue | 7:30pm | NBC |
| (3) Texas A&M at (16) Texas | 7:30pm | ABC |
| (25) Arizona at (20) Arizona State | 9:00pm | FOX |
| Ball State at Miami OH | 12:00pm | CBSSN |
| Clemson at South Carolina | 12:00pm | SECN |
| Colorado at Kansas State | 12:00pm | FS1 |
| East Carolina at Florida Atlantic | 12:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Houston at Baylor | 12:00pm | TNT |
| Iowa State at Oklahoma State | 12:00pm | ESPNU |
| Kentucky at Louisville | 12:00pm | ACCN |
| (12) Miami FL at (22) Pitt | 12:00pm | ABC |
| (1) Ohio State at (15) Michigan | 12:00pm | FOX |
| (5) Texas Tech at West Virginia | 12:00pm | ESPN |
| Toledo at Central Michigan | 12:00pm | ESPN+ |
| FCS: CCSU at (9) Rhode Island | 12:00pm | ESPN+ |
| FCS: Harvard at (12) Villanova | 12:00pm | ESPN+ |
| FCS: Yale at (15) Youngstown State | 12:00pm | ESPN+ |
| FIU at Sam Houston | 1:00pm | ESPN+ |
| UCF at (11) BYU | 1:00pm | ESPN2 |
| UTEP at Delaware | 1:00pm | ESPN+ |
| FCS: Drake at (11) South Dakota | 1:00pm | ESPN+ |
| FCS: Illinois St at (16) Southeastern La. | 1:00pm | ESPN+ |
| FCS: Lamar at (10) ACU | 1:00pm | ESPN+ |
| FCS: New Hampshire at (14) South Dakota State | 1:00pm | ESPN+ |
| FCS: North Dakota at (13) Tennessee Tech | 1:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Georgia Southern at Marshall | 1:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Georgia State at Old Dominion | 2:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Louisiana Tech at Missouri State | 2:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Southern vs. Grambling | 2:00pm | NBC |
| WKU at Jacksonville State | 2:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Arkansas State at App State | 2:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Boston College at Syracuse | 3:00pm | The CW |
| FCS: Florida A&M at MVSU | 3:00pm | SWAC TV |
| Middle Tennessee at New Mexico State | 3:00pm | ESPN+ |
| South Alabama at Texas State | 3:00pm | ESPN+ |
| UAB at Tulsa | 3:00pm | ESPN+ |
| ULM at Louisiana | 3:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Army at UTSA | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| Cincinnati at TCU | 3:30pm | FOX |
| Kennesaw State at Liberty | 3:30pm | CBSSN |
| LSU at (8) Oklahoma | 3:30pm | ESPN |
| Missouri at Arkansas | 3:30pm | SECN |
| (6) Oregon at Washington | 3:30pm | CBS |
| Penn State at Rutgers | 3:30pm | BTN |
| Troy at Southern Miss | 3:30pm | ESPN+ |
| (14) Vanderbilt at (19) Tennessee | 3:30pm | ABC |
| Wake Forest at Duke | 3:30pm | ACCN |
| Wisconsin at Minnesota | 3:30pm | FS1 |
| James Madison at Coastal Carolina | 3:45pm | ESPNU |
| Florida State at Florida | 4:30pm | ESPN2 |
| Oregon State at Washington State | 6:30pm | The CW |
| Maryland at Michigan State | 7:00pm | FS1 |
| Rice at USF | 7:00pm | ESPN+ |
| Virginia Tech at (18) Virginia | 7:00pm | ESPN |
| (10) Alabama at Auburn | 7:30pm | ABC |
| Charlotte at (24) Tulane | 7:30pm | ESPNU |
| North Carolina at NC State | 7:30pm | ACCN |
| Northwestern at Illinois | 7:30pm | FOX |
| UCLA at (17) USC | 7:30pm | NBC |
| (21) SMU at California | 8:00pm | ESPN2 |
| UNLV at Nevada | 9:00pm | CBSSN |
| Fresno State at San Jose State | 10:30pm | FS1 |
| (9) Notre Dame at Stanford | 10:30pm | ESPN |
| Wyoming at Hawaii | 11:00pm | Spectrum/Scripps |
| NFL: LA Rams at Carolina | 1:00pm | FOX |
| NFL: San Francisco at Cleveland | 1:00pm | CBS |
| NFL: Houston at Indianapolis | 1:00pm | CBS |
| NFL: New Orleans at Miami | 1:00pm | FOX |
| NFL: Atlanta at NY Jets | 1:00pm | FOX |
| NFL: Arizona at Tampa Bay | 1:00pm | FOX |
| NFL: Jacksonville at Tennessee | 1:00pm | CBS |
| NFL: Minnesota at Seattle | 4:05pm | FOX |
| NFL: Las Vegas at LA Chargers | 4:25pm | CBS |
| NFL: Buffalo at Pittsburgh | 4:25pm | CBS |
| NFL: Denver at Washington | 8:20pm | NBC |
| NFL: NY Giants at New England | 8:15pm | ESPN |
Football Schedules
Starting next year, the NFL should determine the Thanksgiving games by the following formula:
Detroit and Dallas would host the home opponents on their schedules with the longest active Thanksgiving droughts, which in 2025 would have been Cleveland and Kansas City respectively (they did get the latter one right though).
The night game would have the team not playing at Detroit or Dallas with the longest active Thanksgiving drought playing the team on their schedule with the longest active Thanksgiving drought, which would have made the night game LA Rams at Jacksonville, but it was made one of the international games instead.
I’ve been wanting this for years, and I don’t want to be beating a dead horse about this anymore. Please commissioner Goodell, do the right thing.
Sorry Z-Man this Chicago Bears & Philadelphia Eagles Supporter continues to have very high interest in both Detroit & Dallas hosting Thanksgiving Day games.
Next year 2026 I want Browns-Steelers to play on Black Friday & this is only a suggestion.
Howard Katz is in charge of NFL schedule & Roger Goodell have other issues to take care of.
Well, Daniel, if you could read, you’d see Z-Man is saying Dallas and Detroit would still host Thanksgiving Day games.
He’s just saying they’d play the teams on their existing schedules that haven’t played on Thanksgiving the longest.
Which is a good idea, I guess, but it’s also nothing I care about. I’m not sure who plays on Thanksgiving Day is an issue for anyone that matters.
There are currently three teams who haven’t played on Thanksgiving in my lifetime:
LA Rams – 1975
Cleveland – 1989 (which was the year before I was born)
Jacksonville – never (franchise began in 1995)
I’m hoping to see these teams on Thanksgiving at least once before I die so that every NFL team has played on the holiday at least once since 1990.
Doing this formula would mean that even popular teams like the Packers, who will be making their third straight Thanksgiving appearance, would have to potentially wait decades in between Thanksgiving appearances.
Popular teams have plenty of opportunities to be in featured TV slots every year. Thanksgiving should be the one slot where the teams outside Detroit and Dallas more or less rotate every year.
I want NFL to do what’s best on Thanksgiving Day & Black Friday too & I favor NFL change schedules to have more interesting games if utterly needed.
Everything is all excellent with me.
Good News Z-Man I enjoy watching all NFL teams during regular season from Super Bowl champions to first overall pick in draft.
Also, Z-Man you should be proud of your Cheeseheads playing their third straight Thanksgiving buddy.
Hope you do not mind me doing top three
Here are three Football games with high interest on Black Friday.
1. Bears at Eagles
2. Iowa at Nebraska
3. Wilmington vs Maroa-Forsyth (Illinois High School Association 2A State Championship game)
God bless & have a safe & happy Thanksgiving enjoy Football games everybody.
To craft the ideal FBS Thanksgiving weekend schedule, here’s what needs to happen:
ACC: Stay at 8 conference games, adopt a schedule format with 4 protected opponents and 4 rotating opponents on a 6-year schedule, as follows:
Boston College: Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia
California: Clemson, Louisville, SMU, Stanford
Clemson: California, Florida State, Georgia Tech, NC State
Duke: NC State, North Carolina, Syracuse, Wake Forest
Florida State: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia
Georgia Tech: Clemson, Florida State, Stanford, Virginia Tech
Louisville: California, SMU, Stanford, Virginia Tech
Miami: Boston College, Florida State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse
NC State: Clemson, Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest
North Carolina: Duke, NC State, Virginia, Wake Forest
Pittsburgh: Boston College, Miami, SMU, Syracuse
SMU: California, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Stanford
Stanford: California, Georgia Tech, Louisville, SMU
Syracuse: Boston College, Duke, Miami, Pittsburgh
Virginia: Boston College, Florida State, North Carolina, Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: Georgia Tech, Louisville, Virginia, Wake Forest
Wake Forest: Duke, NC State, North Carolina, Virginia Tech
Big Ten: Drop to 8 conference games, adopt a schedule format with 5 protected opponents and 3 rotating opponents on an 8-year schedule, as follows:
Illinois: Indiana, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
Indiana: Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue
Iowa: Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin
Maryland: Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, USC
Michigan: Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin
Michigan State: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue
Minnesota: Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, Wisconsin
Nebraska: Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin
Northwestern: Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, UCLA, USC
Ohio State: Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Rutgers
Oregon: Iowa, Nebraska, UCLA, USC, Washington
Penn State: Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Rutgers
Purdue: Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Rutgers
Rutgers: Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA
UCLA: Northwestern, Oregon, Rutgers, USC, Washington
USC: Maryland, Northwestern, Oregon, UCLA, Washington
Washington: Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon, UCLA, USC
Wisconsin: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska
Big 12: Drop to 7 conference games, with its 16 football teams organized into 4 pods which would stage round-robin schedules each year, while 2 pairs get to play each other in inter-pod play over a 6-year schedule, as follows:
Central: Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State
East: Cincinnati, Iowa State, UCF, West Virginia
Texas: Baylor, Houston, TCU, Texas Tech
West: Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Utah
SEC: Drop to 7 conference games, with 3 protected opponents and 4 rotating opponents on a 6-year schedule, I’ll accept the protected opponents that were chosen
American: Adopt a version of the 3-5-5 format for conference games that the ACC planned to use, with the following protected opponents:
Army: Charlotte, East Carolina, Temple
Charlotte: Army, East Carolina, Temple
East Carolina: Army, Charlotte, Navy
Florida Atlantic: Memphis, South Florida, UAB
Memphis: Florida Atlantic, Tulsa, UAB
Navy: East Carolina, Temple, Tulane
North Texas: Rice, Tulsa, UTSA
Rice: North Texas, Tulane, UTSA
South Florida: Florida Atlantic, Tulane, UAB
Temple: Army, Charlotte, Navy
Tulane: Navy, Rice, South Florida
Tulsa: Memphis, North Texas, UTSA
UAB: Florida Atlantic, Memphis, South Florida
UTSA: North Texas, Rice, Tulsa
MW: Add New Mexico State as a full member to even out at 10 football members, adopt a 9-game round-robin conference schedule
MAC: Add Illinois State and Youngstown State as full members including football, Richmond and UConn as football-only members and organize the teams into pods as follows:
Akron, Illinois State, Kent State, Youngstown State
Ball State, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan
Bowling Green, Miami (Ohio), Ohio, Toledo
Buffalo, Richmond, UConn, UMass
They can do either a 7-game conference schedule with the same format I proposed for the Big 12, or a 9-game conference schedule where inter-pod play consists of each school playing a pair of schools from each other pod that would play on Thanksgiving weekend.
C-USA: Add Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton and Western Carolina and divide into divisions as follows:
East: Delaware, FIU, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, Liberty, Western Carolina
West: Middle Tennessee, Missouri State, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton, Western Kentucky
Sun Belt: Add Eastern Kentucky to East Division and McNeese to West Division, increasing conference games to 9 (7 division, 2 cross-division)
These would be the 61 games played on Thanksgiving weekend every year after all this is done:
Air Force-Wyoming
Akron-Kent State
Alabama-Auburn
Appalachian State-Coastal Carolina
Arizona-Arizona State
Arkansas State-Southern Miss
Arkansas-LSU
Army-Temple
Ball State-Western Michigan
Boise State-Utah State
Bowling Green-Toledo
Buffalo-Richmond
BYU-Utah
Central Michigan-Eastern Michigan
Charlotte-East Carolina
Cincinnati-Iowa State
Clemson-South Carolina-
Colorado State-Texas State
Colorado-Oklahoma State
Delaware-Liberty
Eastern Kentucky-Marshall
FIU-Jacksonville State
Florida Atlantic-South Florida
Florida-Florida State
Fresno State-San Diego State
Georgia Southern-Georgia State
Georgia-Georgia Tech
Hawaii-San Jose State
Illinois State-Youngstown State
Illinois-Northwestern
Indiana-Purdue
Iowa-Nebraska
James Madison-Old Dominion
Kansas-Kansas State
Kennesaw State-Western Carolina
Kentucky-Louisville
Louisiana Tech-ULM
Louisiana-McNeese
Maryland-Rutgers
Memphis-UAB
Miami (OH)-Ohio
Michigan State-Penn State
Michigan-Ohio State
Middle Tennessee-Western Kentucky
Minnesota-Wisconsin
Mississippi State-Ole Miss
Missouri State-Tarleton
Missouri-Oklahoma
Navy-Tulane
Nevada-UNLV
North Texas-Tulsa
Oregon State-Washington State
Oregon-Washington
Rice-UTSA
Sam Houston-Stephen F. Austin
South Alabama-Troy
Tennessee-Vanderbilt
Texas-Texas A&M
UCF-West Virginia
UConn-UMass
Virginia-Virginia Tech
The following games would be on Thanksgiving weekend only every other year, 5 out of these 10 would be on that week in a given year:
Boston College-Miami (FL) (can either be Group A or B)
Boston College-Syracuse (can either be Group A or B)
California-SMU (Group A)
California-UCLA (Group B)
Miami (FL)-Pittsburgh (can either be Group A or B)
Notre Dame-Stanford (Group A)
Notre Dame-USC (Group B)
Pittsburgh-Syracuse (can either be Group A or B)
SMU-Stanford (Group B)
UCLA-USC (Group A)
Then the following groups of 4 teams would take turns playing each other on Thanksgiving weekend:
Baylor, Houston, TCU, Texas Tech
Duke, NC State, North Carolina, Wake Forest
New Mexico, New Mexico State, Northern Illinois, UTEP
For most of the games that would be on Thanksgiving weekend only every other year, they would be at the following locations when on Thanksgiving weekend:
Boston College at Miami (FL)
Boston College at Syracuse
California at SMU (odd years)
Notre Dame at Stanford (odd years)
Notre Dame at USC (even years)
Pittsburgh at Miami (FL)
Pittsburgh at Syracuse
Stanford at SMU (even years)
UCLA at California (even years)
With regards to UCLA-USC, which would be played on Thanksgiving weekend in odd years, for years 5-8 of the unprotected opponent rotation in the Big Ten, the location rotation for the protected opponents would be the opposite of the first four years. Thus in years 1-4, UCLA-USC is at USC in odd years, while in years 5-8, the game is played at UCLA in odd years.
All of these games are played earlier in the season at the opposite location, in the case of UCLA-USC, it would be the week before Thanksgiving.
Furthermore, Army and Navy would not be allowed to meet in American Conference play in order to preserve the game’s place on the second Saturday in December. In years where they would otherwise be scheduled to meet in conference play, Army and Navy would instead be allowed to count their games against Air Force as conference games for purposes of determining the teams that meet in the conference championship game, otherwise Army and Navy would only have seven games that count as conference opponents compared to the other schools which would have eight. Conversely, Army and Navy would not count as Mountain West opponents for Air Force.
This is my educated guess for Big Ten Football games on Thanksgiving weekend 2026
Friday 11/27
Illinois at Northwestern Noon, CBS
Penn State at Maryland 7:30PM, NBC
Saturday 11/28
Michigan at Ohio State Noon, FOX
Here are the games that will be played at 3:30PM & 7:30PM all To Be Determined.
Nebraska at Iowa
Purdue at Indiana
Michigan State at Rutgers
Minnesota at Wisconsin
Oregon at Washington
Notre Dame vs USC
(Neutral site TBD)
San Diego State at UCLA
Z-Man favor or opposed nine game conference schedules are must, must in CFB however you will have plenty of P4 vs P4 in CFP definitely zero Mason-Dixon format & anyways CFP needs fair & equal format.
As many times before here are four CFB games that I have very high interest on Thanksgiving weekend.
Michigan-Ohio State
Illinois-Northwestern
Georgia-Georgia Tech
Arizona State-Arizona
I am in huge favor of Missouri-Oklahoma playing on Thanksgiving weekend every year.
I am fully flexible with both Oklahoma State & Syracuse in which opponents they play on Thanksgiving weekend.
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving buddy.
Correction: Washington at Oregon in 2026.
Here is my educated guess for NFL on Thanksgiving next year in 2026
New England at Detroit 1:00PM, CBS
Philadelphia at Dallas 4:30PM, FOX
Buffalo at Denver 8:20PM, NBC
Black Friday
Pittsburgh at Cleveland 3:00PM, Amazon
Hope you do not mind me using dream in this post.
My dream for NFL Thanksgiving 2026.
Chicago at Detroit 1:00PM, CBS
Philadelphia at Dallas 4:30PM, FOX
Denver at New England 8:20PM, NBC
Black Friday
Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay 3:00PM, Amazon
If I had a dollar for all of your dreams and Z-Man’s schedule plans…
I do it to be creative & have fun with it.
Just think of it like I am doing a mock NFL Draft.
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving Kevin.