Start Times Announced for Five Gophers Games

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Per the U of MN:
Start Times Announced for Five Games

The Big Ten conference and its television partners announced today the start times for five University of Minnesota football games in the upcoming 2026 season.

The games announced included Minnesota's nonconference contests against Eastern Illinois, Mississippi State and Akron. The conference also announced that Minnesota's Homecoming game against Iowa will be an afternoon or night game. Lastly, Minnesota's road game at Wisconsin has been moved to Friday, Nov. 27.

Minnesota will begin its 143rd season of football when it kicks off against Eastern Illinois at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3 on Peacock. This will be the 14th straight tear that Minnesota is starting the season at home.

The Gophers will play Mississippi State at home at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12 on CBS. The game against Mississippi State will be the first meeting between the teams and will be just the third time ever that Minnesota hosts a team in the SEC at the time of the game. Minnesota previously hosted Vanderbilt in 1959 (20-6 win) and Tulane in 1935 (20-0 win) when it was previously in the SEC.

Minnesota will wrap up its nonconference schedule with a home game against Akron at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19. That game will air on BTN.

Minnesota will welcome Iowa to Huntington Bank Stadium for Homecoming on Saturday, Oct. 24. The game will start between 2:00 and 7:00 p.m., with an exact start time and television broadcast partner announced later. This will be the 15th time that Iowa is Minnesota's Homecoming opponent.

Minnesota travels to Wisconsin for a 6:30 p.m. game on Friday, Nov. 27 on NBC.

Every Minnesota football game can also be heard on the Gopher Radio Network.

Game times for Minnesota's seven remaining games in the 2026 season will be announced in the future.

Minnesota football ticket information is available at GopherSports.com/tickets.

All times listed are Central
 


GopherLady said:
Per the U of MN:
Start Times Announced for Five Games

The Big Ten conference and its television partners announced today the start times for five University of Minnesota football games in the upcoming 2026 season.

The games announced included Minnesota's nonconference contests against Eastern Illinois, Mississippi State and Akron. The conference also announced that Minnesota's Homecoming game against Iowa will be an afternoon or night game. Lastly, Minnesota's road game at Wisconsin has been moved to Friday, Nov. 27.

Minnesota will begin its 143rd season of football when it kicks off against Eastern Illinois at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3 on Peacock. This will be the 14th straight tear that Minnesota is starting the season at home.

The Gophers will play Mississippi State at home at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12 on CBS. The game against Mississippi State will be the first meeting between the teams and will be just the third time ever that Minnesota hosts a team in the SEC at the time of the game. Minnesota previously hosted Vanderbilt in 1959 (20-6 win) and Tulane in 1935 (20-0 win) when it was previously in the SEC.

Minnesota will wrap up its nonconference schedule with a home game against Akron at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19. That game will air on BTN.

Minnesota will welcome Iowa to Huntington Bank Stadium for Homecoming on Saturday, Oct. 24. The game will start between 2:00 and 7:00 p.m., with an exact start time and television broadcast partner announced later. This will be the 15th time that Iowa is Minnesota's Homecoming opponent.

Minnesota travels to Wisconsin for a 6:30 p.m. game on Friday, Nov. 27 on NBC.

Every Minnesota football game can also be heard on the Gopher Radio Network.

Game times for Minnesota's seven remaining games in the 2026 season will be announced in the future.

Minnesota football ticket information is available at GopherSports.com/tickets.

All times listed are Central
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Cue the Peacock hate for the opener in 3...2...1...

😂

Excited we get the CBS game while hosting a SEC team.
 




The Friday night game here in Madison sucks. Have friends that usually come out but couldn't two years ago because of the Friday game and may not again. At least it's a night game though. Friday afternoon sucks.
 



pk2 said:
Is the kickoff time for Iowa really an announcement, though?

“Between 2:00 and 7:00” might need some tweaking.
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Its not a morning game. Probably 2:30 or 3 in afternoon or 6 or 6:30. Think 2 years ago it was a 6:30 nbc game?
 



GopherLady said:
Per the U of MN:
Start Times Announced for Five Games

Minnesota will begin its 143rd season of football when it kicks off against Eastern Illinois at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3 on Peacock. This will be the 14th straight tear that Minnesota is starting the season at home.
Click to expand...

Peacock sucks.
 


GophersInIowa said:
The Friday night game here in Madison sucks. Have friends that usually come out but couldn't two years ago because of the Friday game and may not again. At least it's a night game though. Friday afternoon sucks.
Click to expand...
Yep not a fan of this trend, but at least 6:30 makes it realistic to attend.

The 11 AM game was only possible in 2024 because Sun Country offered a same day flight that departed at 7 AM
 

Don’t love black friday for the axe game, but at least it’s not an 11AM kick like two years ago. Makes travel logistics from the Cities a lot more flexible that way. Not sure how TV viewership was two years ago, but maybe the friday slot will bring some more eyes to the game?
 



Zeppelin Gopher said:
Yep not a fan of this trend, but at least 6:30 makes it realistic to attend.

The 11 AM game was only possible in 2024 because Sun Country offered a same day flight that departed at 7 AM
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Yep, that was a lifesaver. I originally hadn’t been planning on attending the game before I saw the flight listing
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
Black Friday again in Madison...booooo
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GophersInIowa said:
The Friday night game here in Madison sucks. Have friends that usually come out but couldn't two years ago because of the Friday game and may not again. At least it's a night game though. Friday afternoon sucks.
Click to expand...
ergopher said:
Don’t love black friday for the axe game, but at least it’s not an 11AM kick like two years ago. Makes travel logistics from the Cities a lot more flexible that way. Not sure how TV viewership was two years ago, but maybe the friday slot will bring some more eyes to the game?
Click to expand...
Understand that it doesn't work great for everyone, but I had a blast in 2024. Left after Thanksgiving dinner and made it to Madison in time for a couple of nightcaps. Up early on Friday and by the end of the game we had the Camp pretty much to ourselves!
 

NBC being a bully to get their little sister Peacock to broadcast games that very few people have.
 

#2Gopher said:
NBC being a bully to get their little sister Peacock to broadcast games that very few people have.
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Yeah, the disjointed TV/streaming contracts are a pain in the ass. It is, however, hard to find TV slots to get all 18 teams in the conference on the air someplace every week.
 

I was going to say the same thing as pk2. They announced four start times, not five.
 


Thursday night games suck on campus, probably will be a Twins game, State Fair, and that team from US Bank stadium will be in the mix.
 

Gilthorp57 said:
Thursday night games suck on campus, probably will be a Twins game, State Fair, and that team from US Bank stadium will be in the mix.
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Agree to disagree. Love the Thursday opener. Can pencil it in every year. Get Gopher football kicked off and still have the entire Labor Day weekend for fun.
 

pharmacygopher said:
Agree to disagree. Love the Thursday opener. Can pencil it in every year. Get Gopher football kicked off and still have the entire Labor Day weekend for fun.
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I agree, I enjoy the Thursday opener. I just wish they would consistently schedule a credible opponent. The game is so much more enjoyable when the outcome is in doubt. We could beat Eastern Illinois by 120 if we wanted to.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I agree, I enjoy the Thursday opener. I just wish they would consistently schedule a credible opponent. The game is so much more enjoyable when the outcome is in doubt. We could beat Eastern Illinois by 120 if we wanted to.
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This is true... when we win. For the opener, I want a win. No matter what. A few years ago, I was at the North Carolina game where we lost on that last second field goal miss. Good game. Outcome sucked. Give me Eastern Illinois. On the other hand, I loved the game where we squeaked one out against Nebraska. My bottom line is that I I hate going through Labor Day weekend binge watching of college football if the Gophers lose on Thursday.
 

Gilthorp57 said:
Thursday night games suck on campus, probably will be a Twins game, State Fair, and that team from US Bank stadium will be in the mix.
Click to expand...
The Thursday opener is awesome. Twins do not play on Sept 3rd...they do play the next day but that is in Chicago. The Vikings don't have a preseason game after 8/28 and regular season is two weeks after that. The state fair would still be going on if it was a Saturday game which would have a bigger crowd than a Thursday night.

Its still summer time and school hasn't started yet can plan around it.

If it's a Friday October game when school is in session, work, high school football yes normally not ideal/fun. I could not make Nebraska last year but looked pretty awesome on TV. Probably helped keep some of their fans out.
 

I love the Friday night game against the Badgers.
I'm always down in Texas with my in-laws for the week of Thanksgiving and we always start our drive back on Saturday. Friday night means I get to watch it from the couch instead of hoping the cell coverage in Oklahoma is good enough to listen to KFAN on the iHeartRadio app in the car. :)
 

dpodoll68 said:
I agree, I enjoy the Thursday opener. I just wish they would consistently schedule a credible opponent. The game is so much more enjoyable when the outcome is in doubt. We could beat Eastern Illinois by 120 if we wanted to.
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Crosby said:
This is true... when we win. For the opener, I want a win. No matter what. A few years ago, I was at the North Carolina game where we lost on that last second field goal miss. Good game. Outcome sucked. Give me Eastern Illinois. On the other hand, I loved the game where we squeaked one out against Nebraska. My bottom line is that I I hate going through Labor Day weekend binge watching of college football if the Gophers lose on Thursday.
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I'd prefer the opener to be a tougher opponent like @dpodoll68 said, but it would have to be a game that gets us attention, like TCU when they were ranked high. If we aren't going to get national TV exposure, then I'll go with the guaranteed win/warm up game.
 


Gilthorp57 said:
Thursday night games suck on campus, probably will be a Twins game, State Fair, and that team from US Bank stadium will be in the mix.
Click to expand...
dpodoll68 said:
I agree, I enjoy the Thursday opener. I just wish they would consistently schedule a credible opponent. The game is so much more enjoyable when the outcome is in doubt. We could beat Eastern Illinois by 120 if we wanted to.
Click to expand...
Too much of a hassle to get and then watch us play who? If we win by 12 I will be impressed.
 

1983 said:
Too much of a hassle to get and then watch us play who? If we win by 12 I will be impressed.
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If you're giving me MN -12, I will bet any amount of money you wish on the Gophers to cover. Name your max.
 

I can roll both ways on the quality of opponent for the opener.

I like having a game to get some things worked out & see where you're at.

As weird as this sounds, if we're going to play a heavyweight, I prefer it be that first game as they're in the same boat. If the Gophers are going to beat an Ohio State, I think the chances are higher for an upset when a CJ Stroud is making his first college start. Didn't matter in the end obviously, but the big dogs have unknowns just as much as the Gophers do. Just my opinion.
 

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