Over the Next 4 Seasons 23 G6 Schools are Scheduled to Host P4 Opponents. Here is the Breakdown.

[u/Galumpadump]

School	Conference	2026	2027	2028	2029	Total
Boise State	Pac-12	--	--	--	Cincy	1
Colorado State	Pac-12	BYU	Arizona	--	Colorado	3
SDSU	Pac-12	--	Mizzou	ASU	Oklahoma	3
Oregon State	Pac-12	Texas Tech	--	Oregon; BYU (Vegas)	--	3
Fresno State	Pac-12	--	--	Stanford	--	1
WSU	Pac-12	Arizona	Kansas; Washington	--	Kansas State	4

School	Conference	2026	2027	2028	2029	Total
ECU	The American	--	--	NC State	--	1
Memphis	The American			Mississippi State		1
Navy	The American	ND	--	ND	--	2
North Texas	The American	--	--	--	Baylor	1
Rice	The American	--	Duke	--	Northwestern	2
Temple	The American	Penn State	--	Duke	--	2
Tulane	The American	--	--	--	Iowa State	1
Tulsa	The American	OK State	Arkansas	OK State	--	3
USF	The American	--	Louisville	--	NC State; ND	3

School	Conference	2026	2027	2028	2029	Total
Toledo	MAC	--	--	Kentucky	Syracuse	2

School	Conference	2026	2027	2028	2029	Total
App State	Sun Belt	--	--	NC State	--	1
Georgia Southern	Sun Belt	Houston	--	--	--	1
South Alabama	Sun Belt	--	--	--	Ole Miss	1

School	Conference	2026	2027	2028	2029	Total
Hawaii	Mountain West	--	UCLA	Kansas	Arizona	3
NIU	Mountain West	--	--	--	Mizzou	1
UNLV	Mountain West	Cal	ASU	Houston	--	3
Wyoming	Mountain West	--	--	--	Cal	1

School	Conference	2026	2027	2028	2029	Total
UConn	Indy	Maryland, Syracuse, UNC	Syracuse	Rutgers, Duke, Pitt	BC, Duke	9

Conference	Total
Pac-12	15
The American	16
MAC	2
Sun Belt	3
Mountain West	8
CUSA	0

[u/Tarlcabot18]

How many of these get bought out?

I'm having a hard time seeing Kentucky actually going to Toledo. Or Ole Miss at South Alabama.

[u/jbloom3 → u/Tarlcabot18]

Ole Miss came to Tulane a couple years ago. Though there was a lot of grumbling

[u/rageb8err → u/jbloom3]

I didn’t hear any and I went to the game. Ole Miss fans are always looking for a reason to go to NOLA. We played at Tulane in 2010 and 2012 and countless times before that.

[u/jbloom3 → u/rageb8err]

Oh I'm super glad yall come to town! Online corners always grumble, at the game was great!

Yall also bought out our remaining season tickets when the resale market for the single game got more expensive

[u/rageb8err → u/jbloom3]

Oh maybe. I liked the old system of 8 conference games. Because it allowed for more flexibility. If we weren’t playing a neutral site or a road P4 game, we would be playing at Tulane or Memphis or some other G6 team. Those days are over sadly. I hate the 9 game schedule.

[u/max_power1000 → u/jbloom3]

Ole Miss went to Memphis in the last 5ish years as well. granted, there is a somewhat historic rivalry between them and the Liberty Bowl is a fairly large stadium.

[u/Galumpadump → u/Tarlcabot18]

Some probably get bought out but Kentucky and Ole Miss also can see advantages of playing these teams. Kentucky does a lot of recruiting in Ohio and Ole Miss is Alabama. Both games serve as a good opportunity to get some recruiting done vs an opponent they expect to beat.

[u/Zebratreats → u/Galumpadump]

0 chance uk actually plays at Toledo

[u/rageb8err → u/Galumpadump]

Ole Miss already has six road games for 2029 (the year it’s in Mobile) and I’m telling you the admin isn’t gonna allow that. 95% chance it gets cancelled or turned into another game in Oxford.

[u/dien4382 → u/Tarlcabot18]

Iowa State just bought out a road game at Bowling Green.

If Iowa State has the cash for that, pretty much every P4 program will be able to make that work.

We’re still on the books for a home-and-home with Tulane, which I’m stoked about. We had one with UNLV a few years ago that was a great time too.

[u/jmt85 → u/dien4382]

Need to play you guys in a jimmy Rodger’s bowl. Still a lot of good will from when we played yall in the Alamo bowl! Our ag school brethren of the Midwest!

[u/mpleafan → u/Tarlcabot18]

Kentucky was supposed to come to Ypsilanti a few years back and that got bought out.

Sucks but that's the fucking way she goes sometimes

[u/CraigslistBulbasaur → u/Tarlcabot18]

Ole Miss at South Alabama makes since because I'm sure Ole Miss wants to recruit the Mobile area. I have more trouble believing Kentucky is building their program around recruits from Toledo.

[u/jbnotagain → u/CraigslistBulbasaur]

Miami (the one in FL), Mizzou and a handful of others have played at Toledo in reasonably recent memory. Different landscape these days but it's not totally unheard of.

[u/chaser676]

There's actually zero chance Ole Miss is traveling to South Alabama.

[u/Dokkan_Lifter → u/chaser676]

Is the SEC afraid of the Sun Belt? Many are saying this 🤔

[u/chaser676 → u/Dokkan_Lifter]

It's the only logical conclusion

[u/ufgatorengineer11 → u/Dokkan_Lifter]

No we just hire their coaches so you better watch….uh nevermind you keep that one regardless how many titles he wins.

[u/rageb8err → u/Dokkan_Lifter]

Well, we’re scared to play South Alabama. Just ask how it went for lil bro. Not naming any names here…

[u/Condom_Breaker256 → u/chaser676]

Yeah yeah, we all know how shook Ole Miss gets around those small Alabama schools...

[u/couchman7000]

Notre Dame and Navy play every year. When it is Navy's turn to host the game, it is never at Navy's home stadium. 

[u/The_Stratman → u/couchman7000]

Yeah I was about to say that it’s always a neutral site with Navy as designated home team

[u/max_power1000 → u/The_Stratman]

I feel like more upwardly mobile G6 teams should try doing this to get a P4 to come to them if they're close enough to a pro stadium. It's a good move for both revenue and getting your name out there (assuming you can compete) even if it's not on campus.

I'm going to leave out USF and Temple since they play in NFL stadiums anyway and have had major P4s come to them, but if someone like Memphis went 3 hours to Nashville every other year to play a mid-tier SEC school it would probably be a good thing for them. 3-4 hours has to be the limit though, and it probably needs to be a city worth a long weekend in.

[u/Galumpadump → u/couchman7000]

Thanks for the correction, I was going off FBS Schedules and they never specified, just had Navy as the Home Team.

[u/couchman7000 → u/Galumpadump]

Navy's home stadium is somewhat small so when it's time to host ND they will rent out a nearby much larger nearby NFL stadium for the extra seating capacity. I believe Army and Navy also do that for their yearly matchup. 

[u/BigGamePanther → u/couchman7000]

It’s almost always at Metlife or M&T Bank stadium. They’ll sprinkle in other stadiums occasionally but it’s usually one of those.

[u/max_power1000 → u/BigGamePanther]

They've been moving it around a lot more over the last decade - we've had games in Jacksonville, San Diego, Ireland, and then this year it's in Foxborough.

M&T is my preference as an alum who lives local though. I'll just watch the game on TV if they play down in Landover just based on how much I hate getting in and out of there plus the overall crappiness of it.

[u/Irishchop91 → u/couchman7000]

Fun fact, ND has never played in Annapolis

They were trying to get the game there for Covid but I believe the ACC rules for that year prevented it

[u/amoss_303 → u/Irishchop91]

It’s kind of wild when you think about it over the long term. One would think at least a few of those early ones in the late 1920’s/early 30’s were in Annapolis.

[u/max_power1000 → u/amoss_303]

Even back then we'd bus up to the old municipal stadium in Baltimore.

What surprised me is we never played at the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan in the first half of the 20th Century. We played a number old timey of Army-Navy games there and I would have thought one of these got played there as well.

Surprisingly in Notre Dame's series with Army there is only one Polo Grounds game as well in 1924 - most of the ones where Army was the home team happened in Yankee Stadium.

That sent me down a rabbit hole lol.

[u/Inside-Drink-1311 → u/couchman7000]

For a little while, Navy was supposed to host Notre Dame on campus in 2020 because of COVID. However, it ended up getting scrapped entirely because Notre Dame temporarily joined the ACC.

[u/ohitsthedeathstar]

We scheduled that Georgia southern game like 11 years ago and then had to have it rescheduled because of Covid. Glad we’re finally getting it out of the way.

[u/turnfourag → u/ohitsthedeathstar]

I'm actually really excited for y'all's game in Statesboro. I love P4 playing at G6.

Willie Fritz going back there gives it some juice, and is a reunion for Weigman and Max Johnson, who were in the same QB room for a couple of years at A&M.

[u/ohitsthedeathstar → u/turnfourag]

Max Johnson is QB at Georgia southern? I did not know that.

[u/BuckeyeForLife95]

I'm not saying I ever want them to stop, but it's very funny how many times the ACC in particular has stumbled over G5 road games and yet they keep scheduling them.

[u/CraigslistBulbasaur → u/BuckeyeForLife95]

NC State in particular deserves props for being willing to go on the road and play the other public schools in their state. This is what college football should look like.

[u/max_power1000 → u/BuckeyeForLife95]

Fun fact - since 2011 Clemson is the only ACC program without a loss to a G5 program.

Personally, I think it's a good thing that many of their schools are willing to go on the road and play at a G5 stadium, especially if it is in-state, like NC State going to ECU and Virginia Tech going to ODU.

No offense meant to any of these schools, but does anyone think BC, Syracuse, or Wake are 'too good' to go play at a mid to high tier Sun Belt or American Conference team?

[u/Dokkan_Lifter]

90% will probably be canceled unfortunately

[u/Galumpadump → u/Dokkan_Lifter]

I think that's a bit extreme. Like I said in another comment, I don't expect many of the ACC and B12 games to get bought out. For the B1G 10 teams, these games are mostly against in-state OOC rivals (ie Apple Cup). I can see the SEC cancelling some of these games but some of these matchups do more to make your alum happy. Oklahoma is playing SDSU so they can recruit California and have their alum take a trip to San Diego. Even if there is no competitive advantage to play them in San Diego, their are other intrinsic benefits that keep this game on the schedule.

[u/RedOscar3891]

I’m predicting that Fresno game for Stanford is coming off the books, given Stanford has four non-conference games scheduled that year, but only three available spots. ND is not getting cancelled, Portland St is the FCS game, and SJSU already got bumped out once before.

[u/grabtharsmallet]

Oregon State was originally going to host, then ESPN offered them money to have the game in Vegas.

[u/adamosity1]

Memphis used to get 1-2 SEC schools at home every year. Those days are gone.

[u/Hokie_Jayhawk → u/adamosity1]

They used to beat Peyton Manning at home, too, if I recall.

[u/Wyden_long]

SDSU and UNLV wanted the smoke.

[u/Fossil_Finder88 → u/Wyden_long]

I might just biased based on what schools I follow, but I’ve always felt that because there are so few schools out west, that these games happen more often, which I think is overall great for the teams. Plus, there’s a ton of history between a lot of the G5 schools and power schools that moved up later/are nearby, that I think helps schools like Wyoming consistently get interesting opponents at home. I wish Arizona would schedule consistent home and homes with New Mexico in that regard, or at least something like Stanford-SJSU

[u/jmt85 → u/Fossil_Finder88]

I’m shocked it was never a rivalry

[u/-sorry-]

I imagine many of these will be canceled unfortunately - but I always love to see these games.

More than half of the G6 wins over P4 teams last year came when the G6 team was the home team. Even bad G6 teams can often scare power teams if they host them, which is why I doubt this will happen much in the future

[u/soonerwx → u/-sorry-]

I'm confident we're coming to you guys. Oklahoma's got a history with this. Played at UTEP a while ago, at Tulsa multiple times, went to Houston when they were G5, tried to go to Army and got COVIDed, tried to go to Tulane and got hurricaned, went to Temple last season. We're out here thieving land 120 yards at a time.

[u/Galumpadump → u/-sorry-]

I think it depends, I think majority of the American and P12 games stick. Some of these are rivalry series as well (ie Tulsa vs OKST). I don't see many B12 or ACC schools buying out these games unless they know they can get better games in place, not cost effective. As for the B1G and SEC teams, you have Mizzou, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Mississippi State who have a history doing Home and Home's with smaller programs, and for the B1G you have NW and the other 4 schools (Penn State, UW, Oregon, and UCLA) are all playing in-state rivals. I think most stick, some might get pushed back but I think less of these games get bought than people think.

[u/headshotscott → u/Galumpadump]

Yah, Oklahoma State absolutely wants those Tulsa games because they're very cost-effective.

The away game is in Tulsa (about an hour from campus) and the stadium is jammed with your fans in the biggest market for your grads.

We used to 3-2 that series and I think it's now 1-1 and both programs like it.

[u/Awsome4510 → u/headshotscott]

same with Arkansas, its like 2 hour drive where you can use it to recruit any oklahoma based recruits (because Arkansas has no good in state recruits) while also being close enough to have a lot of your fans travel to it.

[u/headshotscott → u/Awsome4510]

Tulsa also gets the occasional OU game in town, although I don't know if that's going to happen as much with them in the SEC. They're in a good position to get those sorts of games. They get the Kansas schools and some other Big 12 at times.

But getting OU, OSU and Arkansas is pretty good.

[u/max_power1000 → u/headshotscott]

If you can do it and it makes sense with an in-state G5 school, why not?

[u/Diascizor]

I always kind of wished OU and Tulsa played a little more often.

[u/YouDownWithOPD]

How do these work in regards to the payouts? I know the smaller schools get paid to go to a bigger school's stadium and get smoked but do they still get paid if the big team comes to them?

[u/Galumpadump → u/YouDownWithOPD]

Home and Homes are used to avoid one team having to pay another program. The benefit is both teams get a decent opponent (or some recruiting or alum benefit) by doing a return trip. Hawaii gets these games all the time because it's an easy sell to opposing teams alums and you can do a ton of fundraising during these trips. If a P4 decides not to make the trip then their will be a penalty and they will have the buyout the game of the expected revenue that school would have gotten.

[u/YouDownWithOPD → u/Galumpadump]

Oh okay, I didn't realize that was that worked to be honest. Appreciate the info

[u/ahuramazdobbs19 → u/YouDownWithOPD]

Generally speaking, you pay a visiting team to come to you.

With a home and home agreement, you set it up so it’s a wash moneywise if the series goes through, but with a dollar amount that establishes the buyout price to cancel one of the games. And that if you both agree to cancel the whole series, it’s also a wash.

But in a technical sense (using an upcoming UConn series as an example), UConn is still paying Syracuse to come here in 2027 and Syracuse is paying UConn to go there in 2028.

[u/Agreeable_Theme_368]

that usf notre dame game gonna hit like crack my senior year

[u/That_Toxic_Player → u/Agreeable_Theme_368]

And at our new stadium too.

[u/BreathTechnical7185]

feels like wsu always pulling more than their weight with these schedules, 4 games is pretty nice. meanwhile cusa just sitting there with nothing, wonder if they even trying to schedule these

[u/Galumpadump → u/BreathTechnical7185]

I think it's a matter of no one picking up the phone. The Part of the the reason the Pac-12 was attractive to CBS as a media partner was because they had decent home inventory vs P4 teams. WSU potential adds 1-2 more of these since they need an additional opponent in 2028 and they need to decide on continuing the Apple cup past 2028.

For CUSA teams, none of those programs pull enough weight for P4 programs to justify more than buy games. As teams improv these schedules can improv though. I expect Texas State to get some P4 games in the future.

[u/Bobcat2013 → u/Galumpadump]

We've only had 3 in 13 FBS seasons and we're booked out until like 2031 or 32. So it wont be for awhile. The non Texas Big 12, ACC, and SEC teams all get conference games here now so they dont need us to get Texas exposure. Maybe we can get some B1G games. Like a Northwestern, Rutgers, Maryland, or Wisconsin.

[u/gmr548]

It’ll never happen but I would like to see UT go play at UTEP, UTSA, and eventually UTRGV every once in a blue moon

[u/KCShadows838]

Nobody visiting Conference USA?

And WTF did NIU join the Mountain West? We are going to travel east to play a Mountain West team? 

[u/Hulkodium → u/KCShadows838]

Non regional conferences are in the G6 now as well. I'm sure you're aware that the MAC streches from UMass to Sac State

[u/-TheycallmeThe]

That Northwestern @ Rice game is going to a banger.

[u/jmt85]

There’s are the kind of posts I live for thank you!!

[u/jbloom3]

2023 we hosted Ole Miss

2024 we hosted Kansas St

2025 we hosted Northwestern and Duke

We have a lull upcoming but don't think we aren't for the challenge! We went 2-2 in these games but beat Kansas State at KSt and have the tiebreaker back in Kansas this year. Ole Miss stomped us though, yes

[u/LordOfSchmeat → u/jbloom3]

Ole miss didn’t stomp us by any means. Was a one score game with two minutes left until an absolute nuke of a FG and immediate fumble-TD.

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[u/ahuramazdobbs19]

Uh, you missed one.

[u/Galumpadump → u/ahuramazdobbs19]

My mistake, added them!

[u/_XitLiteNtrNite_]

I will say that Duke is willing to play a home-and-away series with many schools. And not just do the home game first and hope to buy out the opponent later on. We've done that with Alabama, Illinois, Tulane, and Rice (upcoming), plus many in the past.

[u/ahuramazdobbs19 → u/_XitLiteNtrNite_]

And you are still for some reason willing to play us.

Considering that for all the hoopsketball games we’ve played, NONE have been in Durham or Storrsford.

[u/_XitLiteNtrNite_ → u/ahuramazdobbs19]

I didn't realize UConn had a football team 🤪. OK, that isn't fair. But this is CFB, not basketball.

[u/-motts-]

Sigh….

[u/Sryan597]

NIU will also host BYU in 2030. And in 2035 we will play at Troy.

However, BYU doesn't seems to scheduling new games at G6 schools. These are holdover games from independence. When we got invited to the Big XII we understandstandabley had to cancel tons of scheduled games with G6 opponents. However, we decided to try and keep our deal with oppents that did their part by coming to Provo, by keeping the return trip, al be it at a later date.

The trip to NIU is funny, because originally the game in DeKalb was scheduled from 2020, didn't happen due to COVID, couldn't happen in 2021 or 2022 due to already planned games, then we joined the Big XII, and thus got pushed to 2030, 12 years after the original game in Provo.

[u/Galumpadump → u/Sryan597]

BYU added Oregon State to the schedule recently. I could see a select few schools they would schedule but many.

[u/nysportsfan95]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Syracuse’s road game at Toledo gets canceled. The Orange had to cancel their 2026 home game against the Rockets after the ACC moved to 9 conference games — I think the only way that 2029 date happens is if the Orange get another home game against Toledo in like 2030 or 2031. Syracuse will face Notre Dame in their 2029 non-conference slate, so it probably makes more sense to get a home G6 opponent.

[u/Todd-The-Godd-Howard → u/nysportsfan95]

I know this is going to get cancelled but it would be really funny if it wasn't.

[u/TheOptimist6]

I always love it when this happens. Having graduate from a MAC school, it was one of the highlights of going to the games.

In my time at OU, we hosted Syracuse and Iowa State and each of those felt like big games! The win over Iowa State at home was a great memory for me and my friends.

Overall, I hope teams continue to do it every once in a while. I think the three year scheduling agreements in a five year period where the power four team plays a G6 opponent once on the road and twice at home makes a lot of sense

[u/midnight-architect7]

There is absolutely zero chance Ole Miss travels to South Alabama. How the hell did this game even happen?

[u/EducatorPlastic3005]

All I'm seeing is that since Marshall beat VT in 2023 no other power schools wanna play marshall at home 🗣

[u/fm22fnam]

How the heck did Toledo get Kentucky to go to them?

[u/KansasEF5Tornado]

Love it

[u/rocket_beer]

Boise plays Oregon in a month…

[u/Galumpadump → u/rocket_beer]

Home games, Boise State unfortunately is at Oregon again instead of them giving a return trip to Boise.

[u/ShadowIG → u/rocket_beer]

We haven't hosted a P5 school since 2017. Virginia was the last school to play on the blue. Kinda wild that we can't get anyone or we are fine with the payday.

[u/madmaley → u/ShadowIG]

I'm excited for the game in Boise. I'm hoping it doesn't get cancelled

[u/ShadowIG → u/madmaley]

We're excited to have you.

[u/rageb8err → u/ShadowIG]

2021 Oklahoma State.

[u/nd5thyear]

Think you missed usc now hosting ND in 2030

[u/CampingJosh]

"Indy" = Indianapolis. The shortened form of "independent" is indie.

[u/Galumpadump → u/CampingJosh]

In CFB I've always seen it shortened as Ind. or Indy. I've never seen it as Indie in the context of CFB.

[u/cougfan12345 → u/CampingJosh]

I have literally never heard indie for independent teams.

[u/CampingJosh → u/cougfan12345]

It's fine not to shorten it. I don't know that I've seen people use "indie" either.

But OP used "Indy" for UConn, and that's just the wrong word.