The Cal Football Schedule for 2026, Game by Game
All twelve games, kickoff times and networks where they're set, plus where this season is actually won or lost.
Cal opens the 2026 season at home against UCLA on Saturday 5 September at 7:30pm on ESPN, and finishes at home against Pittsburgh on 28 November. The Big Game against Stanford is at Memorial Stadium on 21 November. Here's the whole thing, with kickoff times and networks where they've been set.
| Date | Opponent | Site | Time (PT) and TV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 5 Sep | UCLA | Berkeley | 7:30pm, ESPN |
| Sat 12 Sep | at Syracuse | JMA Wireless Dome | 12:30pm, ACC Network |
| Sat 19 Sep | Wagner | Berkeley | 12:30pm, ACC Network |
| Fri 25 Sep | Clemson | Berkeley | 7:30pm, ESPN |
| Sat 3 Oct | at UNLV | Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas | 12:30pm, CBS Sports Network |
| Sat 10 Oct | Virginia Tech | Berkeley | Time to be announced |
| Sat 17 Oct | Wake Forest | Berkeley | Time to be announced |
| Sat 24 Oct | at SMU | Gerald J. Ford Stadium, Dallas | Time to be announced |
| Sat 31 Oct | at NC State | Carter-Finley Stadium, Raleigh | Time to be announced |
| Sat 7 Nov | Open date | ||
| Sat 14 Nov | at Virginia | Scott Stadium, Charlottesville | Time to be announced |
| Sat 21 Nov | Stanford, the Big Game | Berkeley | Time to be announced |
| Sat 28 Nov | Pittsburgh | Berkeley | Time to be announced |
| Seven home games | Four road games, one neutral | Bye on 7 November |
September
UCLA on the 5th matters more than its billing. A home win over a Los Angeles school in Tosh Lupoi's first game as head coach sets a tone that the whole building can feel, and this program has spent a decade badly needing a September that starts well. Syracuse on the road a week later is the kind of trip that used to be unimaginable for a Berkeley team and is now just part of life in the ACC. Wagner is a breather. Clemson on Friday night the 25th is the measuring stick, in prime time, at home, on ESPN, and nobody outside Strawberry Canyon expects Cal to win it, which is exactly why a close one would be worth something.
October
This is the month. UNLV in Las Vegas on the 3rd is a real road game in a real stadium against a program that has been better than Cal recently, and there's no polite way to say that. Then Virginia Tech and Wake Forest at home on consecutive Saturdays, which are the two most winnable ACC games on the schedule and therefore the two that decide everything. Take both and this team is alive in November. Split them and it's another year of almost.
The back half of the month is a two week trip, SMU in Dallas on the 24th and NC State in Raleigh on the 31st. Come out of it 1-1 with the bye week waiting and the season is still in front of this team. Come out 0-2 and the Big Game becomes the only thing left to play for, which isn't nothing around here, but it isn't what this roster was built for.
November
An open date on the 7th, Virginia on the road on the 14th, then Stanford at home on the 21st and Pitt on the 28th to close. A bye before a three game finish is a gift to a first year staff. Finishing the Big Game at Memorial Stadium is a bigger one.
One warning about that sequence, because it's genuinely strange. Ending with Stanford and then Pitt means the emotional peak of the season arrives with one game still left to play. Teams have been known to win the Big Game and then no show the following Saturday. If Cal is chasing a bowl bid in late November, that Pittsburgh game is going to matter far more than anybody wants it to.
Who is not on this schedule
Miami, Louisville and Florida State. Three of the names that actually decide the ACC, and Cal doesn't play any of them. In a conference this lopsided that's worth more than any preseason ranking anybody hands out, and combined with Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele choosing to come back it gives this program the most favourable set up it has been handed in years. The full case is in the season preview.
The trap game
Wagner on 19 September, and not for the reason you think. Nobody loses that game. The risk is where it sits, between a road trip to Syracuse and the biggest home game of the non conference schedule against Clemson. A team with a new staff gets one week where the intensity naturally drops, immediately before the game everybody has circled. Programs still learning who they're have a habit of showing up flat the following Saturday.
The bowl maths, plainly
Six wins gets Cal to a bowl game. Look at the twelve dates and count honestly. Wagner is one. UCLA at home in the opener is a coin flip. UNLV on the road, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest at home, Syracuse away, Virginia away and Pittsburgh at home are the seven games in the middle where a bowl either happens or doesn't, and Cal needs five of those seven. Clemson and the Big Game are their own category, one a genuine long shot and one a game where the record stops mattering entirely.
That isn't an unreasonable ask. It's also not a gift, and this program has spent several seasons finding a way to lose exactly two of the games in that middle group that it had no business losing. The margin here's small enough that one bad Saturday in October is the whole difference.
How this page works
Kickoff times for the second half of the season get released in windows, usually about twelve days out, and this table gets updated as they land, along with results once the season starts. The reason a team from Berkeley is playing in Raleigh at all is covered in our realignment explainer. Stanford's schedule is here, the history of the game that closes the home season is in the Big Game history, and basketball season has its own page now at the Cal basketball schedule. Everything else is on the Cal hub.
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